Just touching a jumbo penis – they measure more than 1.5metres when aroused – can have painful consequences as German scientist Dr Thomas Hildebrandt reveals. He said: “One guy I know got a black eye from being hit by an elephant’s penis. When you touch an elephant there it starts to flick backwards and forwards and it’s so strong it can knock you off your feet. It’s such a strong movement.”

Dr Hildebrandt, a world expert on elephant and rhino reproduction demonstrates how it should be done in BBC2’s Horizon: The Elephant’s Guide To Sex screened on March 20.

In the programme, he helps elephants Jackson and Christy – who live in US zoos 1,200 miles apart – to produce a baby.  It’s a messy business as he massages Jackson’s prostate gland to produce 300ml of semen per orgasm – the equivalent of a can of Coke – which has to be airlifted in giant condoms across America to Christy.

Artificially inseminating an elephant is just as messy – while a catheter is inserted into the cervix, the hapless scientist faces being pooed on.