The skin on an elephant can weigh as much as 2000 pounds, or over 900 kg.

Elephant skin lacks moisture so it must be loose, especially around the joints, to provide the necessary flexibility for motion.

The skin of the African elephant is more wrinkled than that of the Asian elephant. The wrinkles in an elephant’s skin help to retain moisture, keeping the skin in good condition.

The pink or light brown areas of skin on some Asian elephants are from a lack of pigmentation. This lack of pigmentation can be influenced by genetics, nutrition, habitat and age. The condition is not seen in African elephants.

The skin can be as thick as an inch on areas such as the back and as thin as 1/10 of an inch on the ears and around the mouth.

Despite it’s rough and dry appearance, the skin is delicate and may be soft to the touch.

The natural color is grayish black, but an elephant usually appears to be the same color as the soil where the elephant lives. This is because elephant’s take frequent mudbaths or dust with soil to protect against insects, to control body temperature, to condition and moisturize the skin, and to protect against sunburn.

One way a person regulates body temperature is by sweating – on a person, sweat glands are located throughout their skin. Elephants have very few sweat glands. The few sweat glands that an elephant has are located on the foot, near the cuticles. This results in a skin that is dry to the touch but soft and supple. If you look at an elephant on a hot day, you may see a wet area around the top of their toenails.

The only visible glands that are found on the skin of an elephant are the mammary glands and the temporal glands. Elephants have one temporal gland on each side of the head between the eye and the ear. The temporal gland is a large gland, much like a sweat gland, that sometimes produces a secretion that trickles down the side of the face. In female elephants, these glands may become active when the animal gets very excited. In male elephants, the temporal glands are active when the male is in “musth”, which is a condition very much like “rut” in a deer.