Image by Nam Anh, Unsplash
Introduction of Elephant
he elephant is the largest land animal. Current days elephants are found in Africa, India and South-East Asian Countries.
Three species of elephants are living now, African Bush elephants, African Forest elephants and Asian elephants. Among these three species, bush elephants are the largest. African forest elephants and Asian elephants are almost the same in size.
Elephants are very intelligent animals. They can recognise themself in the mirror.
Elephants also have an excellent memory. They remember the exact path, food, and water hole locations during migration.
An elephant can run up to 40 km/hrs speed.
Scientific Name of Elephant
African Bush Elephant: Loxodonta africana
African Forest Elephant: Loxodonta cyclotis
Indian Elephant: Elephas maximus indicus
Physical Description of Elephant
African Bush Elephants can be 10 ft tall and up to 8500 kg in weight. The other two species are 8 to 9 ft tall and up to 6000 kg in weight.
African elephants have bigger ears, which help them control their body temperature.
Among other distinct features, their trunk is a multipurpose organ. It helps them breathe, eat, grab, drink, communicate, etc.
Elephant trunks are made of 150000 muscle elements. It is like a hand to them.
Elephants can suck up to 10 lt of water in their trunk. They can pick the smallest of the items using their versatile trunk.
In African species, both genders have tusk, but in Asian species, it's mainly male who possess it. Tusk can grow up to 6 ft in length, and it's made of ivory.
Elephant tusks are incisor teeth. Elephant uses their tusk for their offensive and defensive acts.
The high valuation of ivory is the greatest danger to elephants. Poachers kill them for their tusks.
Elephants have knees on their back legs only.
Elephants have their breast below their front legs, which is completely different compared to other similar species.
Life Cycle of Elephant
The elephant in the wild lives up to 60 years of age.
At the age of 10-12, female elephants become ready for motherhood.
Elephants are having most prolonged gestation period ranging from 18 to 22 months.
At birth, cubs are 100 kg weight and entirely depend on family for protection.
Male elephants can smell the hormone level of females in the air.
High hormone levels of male elephants are called Musth.
It has been recently observed that young bull elephants kill rhinos and buffalos during the Musth period.
During the mating period, fears battles are observed between bull elephants. It continues for days and generally ends with deep wounds or even death.
Characteristics of Elephant
Elephant society is mother-driven.
The oldest female elephant in the herd is the group's de facto leader.
The elephant head consists of blood-related females and young males.
Adult male elephants stay alone.
Elephants communicate with each other using various sounds, such as low-frequency rumbles, trumpets, and even roars.
Elephants can hear very low-frequency sounds.
Elephants can listen to other elephants even from an 8 km distance. They also observe vibration using their feet.
Diet of Elephant
Elephants are herbivores.
Elephants eat wide variety of vegetations. Grass, bark, fruits, and various other trees are in their diet list.
They can drink 200 lt of water at a single time and eat up to 100 kg of food per day.
