How do you play a built-in trumpet?

When a friend asked, “Do elephants make that trumpeting sound through their nose or mouth?” that prompted us to take a deeper look at how animals make some of their unique sounds.

“Mostly the trumpeting sound is made with the trunk only,” among the African forest elephants studied at Cornell University’s Elephant Listening Project says project director Peter Wrege via email.

It’s “a bit like sounds we make by blowing air forcefully through mostly closed lips,” though sometimes they add “a bit of a ‘voice.’” (Related: What Elephant Calls Mean: A User’s Guide)

“Try it,” Wrege suggests, “but be careful where.”

Wrege thinks all of the sound, “including the components added by the vocal