The elastic and flexible structure of the foot pad can trap most of the noise, including the sound of broken branches, on the soles of the elephants, so although the elephants are huge, they make little noise when walking. At the same time, the flexible and elastic foot pads support the elephant's huge body, which reduces the pressure on its feet and enables the elephant to walk easily and stand for a long time without feeling tired.
Elephant's feet have other interesting features.
African elephants and Asian elephants have five toes on their front and back feet, and the toes are buried in the meat of their feet. But not every toe has toenails. African elephants have four toenails on their front feet and three toenails on their back feet. The Asian elephant has five toenails on its front foot and four toenails on its back foot.
The circumference of an elephant's foot is about half the height of its shoulder, which can be used to calculate the approximate age of an elephant. Adult elephants have big feet, much bigger than adult elephants' hands.
The foot pads on the soles of elephants grow every year. In the wild, walking on rocks and soil for more than ten hours every day can keep elephants' soles healthy. If the foot pad grows excessively, it will dry, crack and infect, just like the calluses on people's feet are ignored and treated. Most captive elephants have little room to walk around, so many of them have foot problems.