The frozen elephant trunk, combining together surgical and endovascular techniques, has been developed to treat patients with extensive disease of the thoracic aorta. In this article, we report three cases in which the frozen elephant trunk could facilitate surgical arch repair and patients' management.

The elephant is the only mammal whose pleural space is obliterated by connective tissue. This has been known for 300 years but never explained. The elephant is also the only animal that can snorkel at depth. The resulting pressure differences require changes in the pleural membranes and pleural space.

Human conflict generally has substantial negative impacts on wildlife and conservation. The recent civil war (1995-2006) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) resulted in a significant loss of wildlife, including elephants, due to institutional collapse, lawlessness and unbridled exploitation of natural resources such as minerals, wood, ivory and bushmeat. We used data from distance samplin...

In southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), fasting- and foraging-related fluctuations in body composition are reflected by buoyancy changes. Such buoyancy changes can be monitored by measuring changes in the rate at which a seal drifts passively through the water column, i.e. when all active swimming motion ceases. Here, we present an improved knowledge-based method for detecting buoyancy c...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are main causes for Asian elephant population declines. We mapped wildlands – large, unfragmented and undeveloped areas – asking: (1) Where are the largest wildlands that constitute elephant habitats? (2) What proportion of these wildlands is protected? (3) What is their potential for elephant conservation? Our study demonstrates that wildlands constitute only 51%...

Human-elephant conflict is a major challenge to support the survivors and survival of elephants in tropical countries. Elephant-human conflicts occur when it comes farmland chena plantations scattered over large area. In addition, we can say that elephant population has decreased significantly due human-elephant last few decades. The North Central Province Sri Lanka been designated as high-risk...

The Buddha once told a story about a king who ordered a group of blind men to be presented with an elephant. Each man touched a different part of the animal. The king then asked them what an elephant is like. The blind men who touched the elephant’s head replied, ‘‘An elephant, your majesty, is just like a water jar.’’ The blind men who touched its ear said, ‘‘An elephant, your majesty, is just...

Based on transformation optics‎, ‎we propose an illusion device that can make‎ ‎objects look much smaller and different than they actually are‎. ‎In particular‎, ‎the device has a capability to hide a large object (like an elephant) into a‎ ‎small one (like a matchbox)‎. ‎Compared to previous proposals for illusion‎ ‎devices‎, ‎there is no requirement for negative refractive index or for spee...

A literature search revealed that for over 100 years there has been a consensus that the ligament of the head of the femur (LHF) is absent in the orangutan and elephant. A dissection of the hip joints of an adult orangutan and an adult Indian elephant exposed, in each joint, a robust LHF that is functionally important. These LHFs are easily overlooked during a cursory examination of the hip joi...

What are mammoths? The woolly mammoth — the symbol of the ice age — is the popular image of a mammoth: a large hairy elephant that lived in the arctic. However, there were also mammoths much smaller than modern elephants, mammoths without hair, and mammoths that lived in a Mediterranean or even African climate. All mammoths are members of the genus Mammuthus, closely related to the last two rem...