A biologist never forgets what's inside an elephant

April 26, 2012 2:54 PM

What's inside an elephant (Not safe for the squeamish)? A pictorial retrospective from Inside Nature's Giants.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (31 comments total)

Imagine the sausage
posted by TwelveTwo at 3:12 PM on April 26, 2012 [6 favorites]

THE FUCK???
posted by chara at 3:19 PM on April 26, 2012

But it's still too dark to read in there.
posted by Danf at 3:20 PM on April 26, 2012 [10 favorites]

I've learned a ridiculous amount of stuff about animals (and humans, actually) from that show... really, Inside Nature's Giants is what I always wished shows on networks like Discovery, The Learning Channel et al. would be like. Instead, we get crap like Ghosthunters.
posted by Huck500 at 3:21 PM on April 26, 2012 [9 favorites]

Damn, those guts are pretty huge. But I'm just a layman, you'd better get a second opinion from Doom guy.
posted by neckro23 at 3:22 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Imagine them getting a hold of a blue whale!
posted by ZaneJ. at 3:37 PM on April 26, 2012

The intestines look comfy, like a giant bean bag filled with an unholy amount of poop.
posted by Turkey Glue at 3:55 PM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of one of my favorite jokes.

No, really.

What do you do if you're swallowed by an elephant?
Run and run and run and run until you're all pooped out.
posted by plinth at 4:09 PM on April 26, 2012 [6 favorites]

Previously.
posted by howfar at 4:11 PM on April 26, 2012

The videos have been marked private in that link.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:12 PM on April 26, 2012

I saw the episode of this where they necropsied a lion and tiger. They hooked up compressed air to the lion's larynx and moved its purr box thingy up and down (its connected to long bands of muscle) to make it roar, at which point I looked at my kitties with awe and then promptly expired from the awesome.
posted by mostlymartha at 4:18 PM on April 26, 2012 [5 favorites]

The videos have been marked private in that link.

The PBS link looks like it should still offer three to those in the US though. Does 4OD work outside the UK, out of interest?
posted by howfar at 4:29 PM on April 26, 2012

What's inside an elephant?

Why, it's elephant guts!

(What were they expecting?)
posted by Scientist at 4:45 PM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is awesome. I love dissections and postmortems. The scan of the tiger's head was just amazing. I really want a copy of that data to play with.
posted by strixus at 4:52 PM on April 26, 2012

Inside of an elephant, it's not only dark, but apparently there's so much guts, there's not even room to read. (with apologies to Groucho Marx and/or Jim Brewer)
posted by anothermug at 5:08 PM on April 26, 2012

I thought they smelled bad... on the outside!
posted by XhaustedProphet at 5:15 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

(What were they expecting?)

Candy?
posted by TwelveTwo at 5:42 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Maybe it's cupcakes. Except, vegan cupcakes.
posted by entropone at 5:53 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

The intestines look comfy, like a giant bean bag filled with an unholy amount of poop.

If that is your idea of comfy, I am afraid you can't come to my house, and I really can't accept an invitation to yours.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:55 PM on April 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

I remember the late Sen. Ted Stevens telling me that an elephant is a series of tubes.
posted by shivohum at 5:55 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ha! You really think that's the answer? Actually, an Elephant is a giant mech operated by 500 mice. 450 of the mice are on a huge treadmill to provide power. The other fifty sit at various operating consoles and control the mech.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:55 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Okay, but how does it taste?
posted by briank at 7:05 PM on April 26, 2012

I just saw that. Yep. That's a thing I'll never again not have seen. This is what my mind is capable of right now.
posted by sonika at 7:11 PM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I guessed "a ton o' guts", and by god...
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:21 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Africa Witnesses Worst Poaching in DR Congo: 22 Elephants Massacred in Helicopter Attack
posted by homunculus at 7:27 PM on April 26, 2012

an Elephant is a giant mech operated by 500 mice

Then why on earth are they afraid of other mice?
posted by grog at 7:41 PM on April 26, 2012

SPOILER ALERT:











guts.
posted by Scientist at 9:36 PM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Then why on earth are they afraid of other mice?

Intermicine struggles and tiny rocket launchers is my guess.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:54 AM on April 27, 2012 [4 favorites]

Scientist, you seem to feel strongly on the guts issue. However, Inside Nature's Giants really isn't a "wow guts!" gorefest, it's a fascinating and fascinated examination of how creatures like elephants manage to work and come to be. The dissection and discussion of the role of the elephant's digestive system in its morphology, life and evolution was both intellectually fascinating and almost spiritually illuminating. "Guts" really doesn't sum it up.
posted by howfar at 6:34 AM on April 27, 2012

The camel one was good. Except I feel bad for the dead animals. Those elephant guts were as big as they were because of gloating.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 8:49 AM on April 27, 2012

The camel one was good. Except I feel bad for the dead animals. Those elephant guts were as big as they were because of gloating.

Katjusa Roquette, why would a dead elephant gloat? (I mean, besids because he's no longer troubled by the myriad troubling pains of this material world, having transcended to a higher, and presumably better, world.)
posted by IAmBroom at 12:35 PM on April 27, 2012