Elephants are strong swimmers that use their trunks as snorkels to breathe underwater.

Elephants are naturally buoyant due to their high body fat content and the large volume of air in their lungs. This buoyancy allows them to float easily while using a dog-paddle motion to propel themselves through the water. They have been recorded swimming continuously for up to 6 hours and covering distances of nearly 30 miles (48 kilometers) without rest.The most unique adaptation is the trunk, which functions as a built-in snorkel. This allows the elephant to keep its head and body entirely submerged while maintaining a steady oxygen supply. This behavior is particularly common in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) traveling between islands in the Indian Ocean or crossing the Ganges River.Biologists from institutions like the University of Oxford have studied elephant physiology to understand how they handle the pressure of deep water. Unlike most mammals, elephants have dense connective tissue instead of a pleural cavity between their lungs and chest wall. This structural difference allows them to withstand the extreme pressure changes that occur when breathing through a snorkel at depth.Historical records from the 19th century and modern satellite tracking confirm that elephants frequently migrate across water bodies to find food. In one famous case, a herd of elephants was observed swimming across the 1.5-mile wide Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe. Their ability to swim is so efficient that some scientists believe it helped the ancestors of modern elephants colonize various islands across Southeast Asia thousands of years ago.