How elephants keep their cool

The tactics used by elephants to keep their cool in extreme desert heat have been caught on camera.

A BBC crew filmed the tusked beasts spraying themselves with water that they had stored in a reservoir in their throats several hours earlier.

Cameraman Martyn Colbeck, who has spent the last two decades filming elephants, said: "Elephants normally drink every day, but the desert elephant has adapted to go up to five days without drinking.

"Just behind the tongue they have this little pouch called the pharyngeal pouch. This is an area that is used partly in communication - it allows the elephants to have all of the deep calls, but they can also store several litres of water in it.

"The desert elephants obviously regularly keep water in this pouch, but it is very rare to see them actually use it."