The African elephants’ toe nails

Abstract

Toe nails on front and hind feet of 689 culled elephants from three populations, two from Uganda and one from Kenya, were counted. Nineteen combinations were found, recorded as nails present on right front foot/left front foot/right hind foot/left hind foot. In addition, toenails from 33 foetuses are compared with their dams’ toe nail combinations. The results nullify previous use of toe nail numbers for taxonomic purposes.

Keywords: elephant physiology, taxonomy