Since the elephant’s diet consists of play material only, where would the elephant get the missing element needed to make collagen (or any protein)?

Elephants get collagen and other proteins from the vegetables they consume.

We can arrive at this answer because:

Collagen is essential for the maintenance of the skin.However, collagen is found in large amounts in meat.Few vegetables have collagen and elephants only feed on vegetables.However, the demand for collagen in the elephants' body is met by feeding on vegetables rich in cellulose and vitamin C.

When cellulose is digested and vitamin C is used in the body, collagen production is stimulated.

More information:

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The elephant is a herbivores animal and feeds on plant material that consist of cellulose. Collagen is a type of protein  that is absent in plant material and only found in skin, tendons, bones and muscles. The elephant also requires collagen to replace or repair their skin cell in every 2 weeks.

As elephants are unable to consume meat that contains collagen, they get collagen or protein from the plant material only with the help of bacteria or enzymes present in its guts. The bacteria having enzymes that helps in the breakdown of cellulose and access the proteins, fat or sugar present in the plant cell.

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