Erik Verrynne, 15 May 2025 I have been challenged by students regarding the significance of the lack of pleura (? space) in elephants and the relationship of lying on its chest. How does a lack of pleura (? space) contribute to difficult breathing if an elephant is lying on its chest? Which plays a bigger role? The weight of the intestines on the diaphragm, or the lack of pleura.? Has anyone rolling an elephant onto its side seen lung bleeding as result? Jacques Odell, 15 May 2025 Hi Erik I have been taught most of what I know on elephants by Mike. Kock. He warned me early on that elephants on their sternum don’t do well and may die after a while and that it is best to push them over into lateral as soon as possible. I don’t know a specific reason, but I think four factors may play a role: 1) their odd body shape - Being sternal would create lots of pressure on the abdomen and thus on the lungs 2) lack of pleural space - I think where in ‘normal’ animals the entire pulmonary system would be pushed forward and still function to some degree, in elephants the lungs cannot move cranially, and are thus squashed onto ribs and can thus not function as they should. When lateral at least the top lung should be fully functional. 3) less chess movement - They seem to have less of an ability to move their chest when sternal, whether this is a postural thing or linked to the increased abdominal pressure? 4) increased blood pressure - I have not measured enough BPs in sternal vs lateral elephants, but from what I have seen in rhinos during my PhD work, I suspect that sternal elephants may have an enormously high BP and this may add to the respiratory compromise and result in death. I have never lost an elephant during immobilisation (whether sternal or lateral). The one mortality I had was several hours post reversal - she had a severe peritonitis and was lateral during immobilisation. The vast majority of animals I had in sternal was forest elephants - they go down sternally between trees, dongas etc. But we worked quick to get the collar on and wake up. I’m sure there will be a reason for the stories. Would be interesting to hear from others that have lost elephants during capture - which posture were they in? As with all large animals - posture is critical, not only in terms of ventilation and respiration, but also the position of the legs. I know you know this Erik, but I am including it for completeness…😉 I tell the students to take a few minutes before starting the procedure to make sure the animal is stable and make sure it is in a good posture. A slight incline is always ideal, swing it when the animal is lying downhill, get the legs in normal positions (very important with sternal animals). The back legs of elephants in sternal position are almost always compromised and back legs of rhinos, esp. large bulls, in the ‘Jack Russel Terrier posture’, are not good (and this leads to those high BPs). Erik Verrynne, [15 May 2025 at 14:02:24]: Thanks Jacques I have lost a cow in 2006 that got her tusk in between a fork of a tree. She was lying sternal and being the matriarch, the others refused to move despite the helicopter. I could not get to her in time.
