Holy hanging nut sack, or in this case, not. Male elephants don’t have a scrotum. Have a look. You won’t find one. It’s as it the elephant is either not in need of testicles, or has already been castrated. But they do have testicles, they’re just not in the usual place. This is a seriously vastly different design to just about every other male mammal in this world. So why is it that elephant’s don’t have a scrotum when nearly every other male mammal does?
If you are especially naive and don’t know what a scrotum is, here we go. A scrotum is the piece of skin that holds the testicles, nuts, balls of the male. It’s normally located near the penis and contracts or extends depending on the ambient temperature around it. The hotter it is the lower, or further away from the body the nuts are. The colder it is, the closer they are to the body. The reason that it does this is because the testicles need to be kept just a little cooler than the rest of the body for the sperm to survive. Too cold, they die. Too hot, they die. Odd setup isn’t it? I mean, here is basically the most important piece of anatomy of a male for reproductive purposes, and it is sitting there all exposed because the sperm needs to be kept cooler, which raises another question. Why did evolution need sperm to be kept just that little bit cooler to survive. It’s as if we were designed not to breed. So what about elephants?
Even though elephants don’t have a scrotum, they do have testicles. The testicles are actually located inside the male, in about the same location that the ovaries would be found in the female. Furthermore, there is no indication that elephants have ever had a scrotum. Even whales show signs of having had an external scrotum at some stage in the evolutionary process.
Female elephants also have a very different reproductive system compared to mot other mammals. Their vagina isn’t located at the rear of the animal near the anus like the rest are. It can be found down low actually physically between the legs, where the udders and nipples are normally found. It’s believed that this is to prevent a large fall during birth. The udders can be found in pretty much the same location that they are on a human female. Up front between the front legs.
When you think about it, elephants really are amazing creatures.