Measuring the force of the tip of the elephants trunk

Forces that animals can exert is of great interest in biology. Regarding the elephant trunk, the maximum mass that an elephant can lift with its trunk is known, but the pinching force of the trunk tip is unknown. We here present an original system to measure this force for an organ much coveted in soft robotics for example. It consists of: • A wooden box protecting the elephants and the measuring system with no protruding parts except the sensor. This box has an opening at the back to fill it with apples and a trap door at the front to release the apples. • Two load cells protruding from the box connected to an electronic system controlled by an Arduino card that records and sends the pinch force via Wi-Fi to a laptop while releasing a reward apple. • Depending on the threshold chosen, the elephant must pinch harder than the previous time to release the next apple. The repetition of this action allows us to approach the maximum force it can achieve. The system, tested on elephants at the Beauval Zooparc (France), has demonstrated that it is effective in measuring the pinching force of the tip of the trunk.