Proboskian

Proboskians are an alien species who are notable for their trunks. They originate from the world Nellian orbiting the star Vega.

Culture & Biology
The species are members of the I.C., they live on terrestrial worlds, preferring savanna and forest environments. They are raised by their grandparents who return to Nellian for burial. Their form of communication is a gestural language called "Waggletrunk", based on the shapes they make using their flexible trunks.

They are 9 feet tall, and have an average intelligence higher than that of the average human. Their long trunks are able to manipulate objects, help them feed, and are the source of their sense of smell. This species lives up to 140 Earth years.

History
300,000 years ago on Earth, a proboskian craft crash landed on its way to "rescue" a group of now extinct short trunked marsupials called Palorchestes, on the assumption that because they had trunks, they were kindred spirits. This crash created the Wolfe Creek Crater.

In 1947, 9 Proboskian gyroships were on an expedition to the Seattle Zoo to examine Earthly elephants. The species is utterly convinced that elephants are the true intelligent species on Earth.

The ships were spotted over the Cascade Mountains, an event which would later largely be known by earth-men as the Arnold Incident, a sighting which helped thrust the name "flying saucer" into popular vocabulary.