Fernbank Museum of Natural History has unveiled a new exhibit in Atlanta that puts elephants' trunks, tusks, and even their dung under the microscope, running through January 3, 2027. The Secret World of Elephants explores elephant evolution, behavior, social structure, and relationships with humans without a single live animal on site.
What Visitors Will Find Inside
The exhibition, organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York and now on view at Fernbank's location at 767 Clifton Road NE, according to WSB-TV, blends biology lessons with hands-on exhibits. Guests can see a full-scale woolly mammoth model, touch tooth casts, and experience a sound station built around the low-frequency vibrations elephants use to communicate, per Fernbank Museum. A life-size African elephant model shows how the animals process food and carry out a gestation period lasting nearly two years, the museum notes.
Cara Martinez, a Fernbank Museum representative, told the station that elephants are deeply social animals that communicate and meet up with other family groups. She added that learning more about elephants can improve human understanding of the species and benefit both people and elephants alike, the station reports. Martinez also pointed out that outside the United States, elephants are part of daily life in some regions, where road crossings can sometimes prevent children from reaching school even as elephants carve their own paths through forests.
Just How Much Does an Elephant Eat, Drink and... Produce?
Exact numbers on elephant appetites vary depending on who's counting. WSB-TV reported that elephants drink about 50 gallons of water a day, which the outlet calculated as the equivalent of 528 soda cans, and eat between 200 and 500 pounds of food daily. Other sources offer different figures: Science News reported that an average adult male African elephant consumes roughly 150 kilograms of food a day, while the University of Florida put the figure at about 300 pounds of food and up to 200 pounds of excreted waste daily. The International Elephant Foundation, meanwhile, says elephants can consume as much as 600 pounds of food in a single day, though 250 to 300 pounds is more typical, and puts normal water intake at 25 to 50 gallons per animal.
Whatever the precise figure, the foundation also notes that an elephant may defecate 12 to 15 times a day, adding up to 220 to 250 pounds of dung daily. Martinez said that dung provides food for insects and helps form small ecosystem microcosms, according to WSB-TV's report. Elephants also help build forests by spreading seeds and fertilizing new growth through their waste, the station notes.
Why the Dung Matters More Than You'd Think
That waste output isn't just a quirky fact for the exhibit floor — it underpins a broader ecological story. A 15-year study published in Science found that excluding elephants from East African landscapes reduced dung beetle species by 23 percent, their biomass by 51 percent, and individual beetle numbers by 67 percent. Researchers behind that study described elephants as a true keystone species, and found their absence impaired two key ecosystem services: dung decomposition and seed dispersal.
Dung beetles themselves do heavy lifting once elephants leave their mark, recycling nutrients, dispersing seeds, improving soil quality and suppressing parasites, per the University of Florida's reporting. The American Museum of Natural History notes that elephants reshape the forests and savannas they inhabit, creating environments many other species depend on. Fernbank's own educator materials describe elephants as keystone species that dig water holes, clear paths, and spread seeds through their dung, while also noting that elephants have lost more than 90 percent of their former habitat to logging, agricultural conversion, housing construction and climate change.
From Trunks to Tusks to Ancient Relatives
The exhibit leans into elephant anatomy, too, explaining that the animals rely on roughly 40,000 muscles in their trunks to lift, grasp, drink and communicate, according to Fernbank Museum. Visitors also learn about the elephant's surprising family tree: its closest living relatives include hyraxes, small mammals typically one to two feet long and weighing four to 11 pounds, along with manatees, per WSB-TV's report.
The exhibition wraps with a look at famous elephants throughout history and currency from around the world that features elephant imagery. Martinez said that in places where elephants appear on money, they often symbolize powerful leaders, royalty, warriors and strong governments, the station reports.
Planning a Visit
The Secret World of Elephants opened with an Elephant Extravaganza on October 10, a family event with hands-on activities and crafts tied to the exhibit's debut, according to Fernbank Museum. The museum has also scheduled Fernbank After Dark for November 13, an adults-oriented evening featuring hands-on science, drinks and animal-themed experiences. The exhibit remains on view at Fernbank through January 3, 2027, giving Atlanta-area families and school groups a few more months to explore it before it closes.
