From Don Koehl

Buckles, after five years since i first noticed, I still havnt been able to get a scientist to look deeper into this, so Ill share it with you, and your blog, hoping that more professionals may make their input. Maybe one day, a scientist will report it...? Im sure many trainers already noticed this, but for some reason there hasnt been alot of talking about it. This picture by Jutta Kirchner, photographer in Vienna Zoo, shows the asian elephant cow Saba in Kolmarden, Sweden. After working more than 30 years with +65 elephants I discovered during 2008 that all hairs on forehead and trunkbase only grows at black/dark skin. Not a single hair grows on the pink area. But wheres theres small black points on the trunk, theres also hair. I guess its the same with all elephants with light or pale skin on the trunk base, but I simply never noticed this fact before 2007. I guess theres some connection between the hair sacks and the melanistic pigmentation, but Id sure be interested if anyone can give a scientific explanation on this one? So far, this has, to my knowledge, not been scientifically described..