Brief information about the elephant. African savannah elephant: what it eats and how it lives
The elephant is Earth's largest land animal, although the Indian elephant is slightly smaller than its African cousin. In this collection you will admire interesting photos elephants, and also learn about a number of interesting facts associated with this animal
Elephants are amazing animals. They love water and love to "shower" themselves by watering themselves with their multi-functional trunk. An elephant needs a trunk; thanks to it, it not only takes a shower. An elephant's trunk is a long nose with various functions. Thanks to it, he breathes, smells, drinks, grabs food, and even makes sounds :) The trunk alone contains approximately 100,000 muscles. Indian elephants have a small finger-like appendage at the end of their trunk, which they can use to grasp small objects (the African elephant has two such “fingers”). Elephants also have very powerful tusks. Ivory is highly prized by humans, which is why many elephants are killed for their tusks. Now trading Ivory illegal, but still not completely eliminated.
A third of the elephant's tusks are hidden in the animal's body, and there are now practically no elephants with large tusks left, since they were all destroyed by ivory hunters. Tusks grow throughout the animal's life; the older the elephant, the larger the tusks.
According to approximate calculations According to scientists, the elephant feeds for at least 16 hours a day, absorbing about 45 - 450 kilograms of various vegetation during all this time. Depending on the weather conditions, the elephant drinks 100-300 liters of water per day
Elephants usually live in herds, where all individuals are related. They know how to greet each other, diligently take care of their offspring, and always remain faithful to the herd. If any member of the herd dies, the other elephants become very sad. Elephants are also one of those animals that can laugh.
The average lifespan of elephants is equal to that of a human, usually 70 years.
Elephants are called thick-skinned animals, as the thickness of an elephant's skin can reach 2.5 centimeters
Elephants have very good memory. They remember people who treated them well or badly, as well as the places in which certain events happened to them
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump
It is also surprising that such a clumsy-looking animal can develop quite a decent speed. An elephant can run at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour
Elephants sleep little, only a few hours a day, usually no more than 4 hours
Elephants are also very good swimmers; cases have been recorded of an elephant swimming a distance of more than 70 kilometers.
Elephants eat tree roots, grass, fruits, and bark. They eat a lot. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food per day. These giants practically do not sleep; they walk long distances to get their food. Having a baby elephant is considered a serious commitment. Elephants have the longest pregnancy of any other mammal - almost 22 months. Female elephants typically give birth to one calf once every four years. At birth, the baby elephant weighs approximately 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and is about three feet tall.
The statement that elephants have 4 knees is erroneous, although very widespread.
These animals also have very big brain- Its weight can reach 6 kilograms. No wonder elephants are on the list
The elephant is the largest land animal of the class mammals, such as chordates, of the order Proboscis, of the elephant family (lat. Elephantidae).
Elephant - description, characteristics and photos.
Elephants are giants among animals. The height of the elephant is 2 - 4 m. The weight of the elephant is from 3 to 7 tons. Elephants in Africa, especially savannah ones, often weigh up to 10 - 12 tons. The powerful body of the elephant is covered with thick (up to 2.5 cm) skin of brown or gray with deep wrinkles. Elephant calves are born with sparse bristles, while adults are practically devoid of vegetation.
The head of the animal is quite large with ears of remarkable size. Elephant ears have a fairly large surface area; they are thick at the base with thin edges; as a rule, they are a good regulator of heat exchange. Fanning the ears allows the animal to increase the cooling effect. An elephant's leg has 2 kneecaps. This structure makes an elephant the only mammal who can't jump. In the center of the foot there is a pad of fat that springs with every step, which allows these powerful animals to move almost silently.
The elephant's trunk is an amazing and unique organ formed by a fused nose and upper lip. Tendons and more than 100 thousand muscles make it strong and flexible. The trunk performs a series important functions, while simultaneously providing the animal with breathing, smell, touch and grasping food. Through their trunks, elephants protect themselves, water themselves, eat, communicate, and even raise their offspring. Another “attribute” of appearance is the elephant’s tusks. They grow throughout life: the more powerful the tusks, the older their owner.
An elephant's tail is about the same length as hind legs. The tip of the tail is framed by coarse hair, which helps repel insects. The elephant's voice is specific. The sounds that an adult animal makes are called grunts, moos, whispers and elephant roars. The lifespan of an elephant is approximately 70 years.
Elephants can swim very well and love water procedures, and their average speed of movement on land reaches 3-6 km/h. When running short distances, the elephant's speed sometimes increases to 50 km/h.
Types of elephants.
In the family of living elephants, there are three main species, belonging to two genera:
Species often interbreed and produce quite viable offspring.
- Genus Indian(Asian) elephants (lat. Elephas) includes one species - Indian elephant(lat. Elephas maximus). It is smaller than the Savannah, but has a more powerful build and short legs. Color - from brown to dark gray. Distinctive feature This type of elephant has small quadrangular-shaped ears and one appendage at the end of the trunk. The Indian or Asian elephant is common in tropical and sub-tropical tropical forests India, China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Indian elephant
Where and how do elephants live?
African elephants live almost throughout the entire territory of hot Africa: in Namibia and Senegal, in Kenya and Zimbabwe, in Guinea and the Republic of Congo, in Sudan and South Africa, elephants feel great in Zambia and Somalia. The bulk of the livestock, unfortunately, is forced to live in national reserves so as not to become the prey of barbarian poachers. The elephant lives on any landscape, but tries to avoid desert areas and too dense tropical forests, preferring the savannah zone.
Indian elephants live in the northeast and south of India, Thailand, China and the island of Sri Lanka, and live in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia. Unlike their counterparts from African continent, Indian elephants love to settle in wooded areas, preferring tropical bamboo thickets and dense bushes.
For approximately 16 hours a day, elephants are busy absorbing food, and they eat about 300 kg of vegetation with appetite. The elephant eats grass (including cattails, papyrus in Africa), rhizomes, bark and leaves of trees (for example, ficus in India), wild fruits, marula and even. The elephant's diet depends on its habitat, as they grow in Africa and India. different trees and herbs. These animals do not bypass agricultural plantations, causing significant damage to crops, sweet potatoes and other crops with their visits. Their tusks and trunk help them get food, and their molars help them chew. An elephant's teeth change as they are worn down.
At the zoo, elephants are fed hay and greens (in large quantities), and also give animals vegetables, fruits, root vegetables: cabbage, apples, beets, watermelons, boiled oats, bran, willow branches, bread, and also favorite treat elephants bananas and other crops. Per day in wildlife an elephant eats about 250-300 kg of food. In captivity, elephant food intake is as follows: about 10 kg of vegetables, 30 kg of hay and 10 kg of bread.
Adults are known “water-suckers.” An elephant drinks about 100-300 liters of water per day, so these animals are almost always located near water bodies.
Reproduction of elephants.
Elephants form family herds (9-12 individuals), including a mature leader, her sisters, daughters and immature males. The female elephant is a hierarchical link in the family; she matures by the age of 12, and at the age of 16 she is ready to bear offspring. Sexually mature males leave the herd at the age of 15-20 years (African males at 25 years old) and become loners. Every year, males fall into an aggressive state caused by an increase in testosterone, which lasts about 2 months, so quite serious clashes between clans, ending in injuries and mutilations, are not uncommon. True, this fact has its own plus: competition with experienced brothers stops young male elephants from early mating.
Elephants reproduce regardless of the season. A male elephant approaches the herd when he feels the female is ready to mate. Loyal to each other usual time, males arrange mating fights, as a result of which the winner is allowed to the female. An elephant's pregnancy lasts 20-22 months. The birth of an elephant takes place in a society created by the females of the herd, surrounding and protecting the woman in labor from random danger. Usually one baby elephant weighing about a hundredweight is born, sometimes there are twins. After just 2 hours, the newborn baby elephant stands on its feet and sucks with pleasure. mother's milk. After a few days, the cub easily travels with its relatives, grabbing its mother’s tail with its trunk. Feeding with milk lasts up to 1.5-2 years, and all lactating females participate in the process. By 6-7 months, plant foods are added to the milk.
The elephant is the largest land mammal on Earth. These giants early childhood call us positive emotions. Most people believe that elephants are smart and calm. And in many cultures, the elephant is a symbol of happiness, peace and homeliness.
Types of elephants
Today there are three species of elephants on the planet, which belong to two genera.
African elephants are divided into two types:
- savannah elephant- this animal huge size, with a dark color, well-developed tusks and two small processes located at the end of the trunk. Representatives of this species live along the equator on the territory of the African continent;
- the forest elephant is comparatively different small in stature(up to 2.5 m) and rounded shape ears. This type lives in tropical forests of Africa. These species, by the way, often interbreed and produce viable offspring.
The Indian elephant is much smaller than the African elephant, but has a more powerful build and disproportionately short legs. Color can range from dark gray to brown. These animals are distinguished by small quadrangular-shaped ears and one process at the very end of the trunk. The Indian elephant is an animal common in the subtropical and tropical forests of China and India, Laos and Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Description of the elephant
Depending on the species, the height of an elephant at the withers ranges from 2 to 4 meters. The weight of an elephant varies from 3 to 7 tons. African elephants (especially savanna elephants) sometimes weigh up to 12 tons. The powerful body of this giant is covered with thick skin (thickness up to 2.5 cm) of gray or Brown with deep wrinkles. Baby elephants are born with sparse, coarse bristles, and adult elephants have almost no vegetation.
Large with large floppy ears that are quite large inner surface. At the base they are very thick, and closer to the edges they are thin. Elephant ears are a regulator of heat exchange. By fanning itself with them, the animal provides cooling to its own body.
The elephant is an animal with a rather specific voice. The sounds the adult makes are called grunts, moos, whispers and roars. in nature - about 70 years. In captivity, this period can be increased by five to seven years.
Trunk
An elephant is an animal that has a unique organ. The trunk reaches a length of about one and a half meters and its weight is about one hundred and fifty kilograms. This organ is formed by the nose and the fused upper lip. More than 100 thousand muscles and tendons make it flexible and strong.
The ancestors of elephants, who inhabited the Earth in the distant past, lived in swamps. They had a very small trunk-process, which allowed the animal to breathe under water while collecting food. Over millions of years of evolution, elephants left swampy areas and increased significantly in size; accordingly, the elephant’s trunk adapted to new conditions.
It carries heavy loads, picks juicy bananas from palm trees and puts them in its mouth, collects water from reservoirs and gives itself a refreshing shower during the heat, makes loud trumpeting sounds, and smells.
Surprisingly, an elephant's trunk is multifunctional tool, which is quite difficult for little elephants to learn to use; often the cubs even step on their proboscis. Mother elephants very patiently, over the course of several months, teach their cubs the art of using this much-needed “appendage.”
Legs
An amazing fact, but an elephant's legs have two kneecaps. This unusual structure made this giant the only mammal that cannot jump. In the very center of the foot there is a fat pad that springs with every step. Thanks to her, it can move almost silently.
Tail
An elephant's tail is about the same length as its hind legs. At the very tip of the tail there is a tuft of coarse hair. With the help of such a brush, the elephant drives away insects.
Distribution and lifestyle
African elephants have colonized almost the entire territory of Africa: Senegal and Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya, the Republic of Congo and Guinea, South Africa and Sudan. They feel great in Somalia and Zambia. The bulk of the livestock lives in national reserves: thus the government African countries protect these animals from poachers.
The elephant can live in areas with any landscape, but it tries to avoid deserts and dense tropical forests, preferring savannah.
Indian elephants mainly live in the south and northeast of India, China, Thailand, and the island of Sri Lanka. Animals are found in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia. Unlike their African counterparts, they prefer wooded areas, choosing dense bushes and bamboo thickets.
Elephants live in herds, in which all individuals are related by family ties. These animals know how to greet each other, take very touching care of their offspring and never leave their group.
Another one amazing feature these huge animals - they know how to laugh. An elephant is an animal that, despite its size, is a good swimmer. Moreover, elephants are very fond of water treatments. On land they move with average speed(up to six kilometers per hour). When running short distances, this figure increases to fifty kilometers per hour.
Elephant nutrition in nature
Researchers estimate that elephants devote about sixteen hours a day to eating food. During this time they eat up to 300 kg of various vegetation. The elephant happily eats grass (including papyrus, cattail in Africa), bark and leaves of trees (for example, ficus in India), rhizomes, fruits of wild apples, bananas, marula and even coffee. Elephants do not bypass agricultural plantations, causing them significant damage. This applies primarily to the crops of sweet potatoes, corn and a number of other crops.
Elephants obtain food using their tusks and trunk, and chew it with their molars, which change as they wear down. In zoos, the diet of elephants is much more varied: they are fed greens and hay, and given a variety of vegetables and fruits. They especially readily eat apples and pears, cabbage, carrots and beets, and they love to feast on watermelons.
Adults drink a lot of water - up to 300 liters per day, so natural conditions they try to stay near bodies of water.
There are up to half a million in the world African elephants, Asian ones are about 10 times smaller. As you know, elephants are large and very intelligent animals, which have served humans for peaceful and military purposes since ancient times.
Giants
Elephants are the most gigantic land animals on Earth. Their average weight reaches five tons, and their body length is 6-7 meters. In 1956, an elephant weighing 11 tons was killed in Angola.
A female elephant carries a baby for 22 months, the newborn weighs 120 kilograms.
The brain of an elephant weighs 5 kilograms, the heart - 20-30 kilograms. It beats at a frequency of 30 beats per minute.
To feed such a “colossus”, the elephant has to look for food and eat most days, at least 20 hours. An elephant eats from 45 to 450 kilograms per day plant food, drinks from 100 to 300 liters of water.
Elephants live 50-70 years. But there are also reporters. War elephant (served in the Chinese army) Lin Wang from Taiwan died in 2003 at the age of 86.
Smarties
Aristotle wrote: “The elephant is an animal that surpasses all others in wit and intelligence.” Elephants really have a very good memory and developed intelligence. Elephants also turned out to be capable of learning human language.
An elephant named Kaushik, living in Asia, has learned to imitate human speech, or rather, five words: annyong (hello), anja (sit), aniya (no), nuo (lie down) and choah (good).
Kaushik not only mindlessly repeats them, but, according to observers, understands their meaning, since these are either commands that he carries out, or words of encouragement and disapproval.
Communication
Elephants usually communicate using infrasound, so for a long time the elephant's tongue remained unsolved. Research by Christian Herbst of the University of Vienna on the larynx of a dead elephant showed that elephants use their vocal cords to communicate.
The “vocabulary” of the elephant language turned out to be quite rich - Herbst recorded about 470 different stable signals that elephants use.
They can use them to communicate with each other over long distances, warn of danger, report births, and use various addresses to members of the herd, depending on their position in the hierarchy.
Trunk
An elephant's trunk is actually an extension of its upper lip. With the help of their trunk, elephants make tactile contact, say hello, can take objects, draw, drink and wash themselves. The trunk of the trunk can simultaneously hold up to eight liters of water. The trunk also has more than 40,000 receptors. Elephants have a very good sense of smell.
Tusks
Elephants, like people, can be left-handed or right-handed. Depending on which tusk the elephant works more, one of them becomes smaller.
Over the past century and a half average length Elephant tusk production in both Africa and India has halved.
This is due to the fact that the most big representatives populations become victims of poachers, and the length of the tusks is a genetically inherited trait.
The tusks of deceased elephants are extremely rare to find. Because of this, for a long time there was an opinion that elephants go to die in mysterious elephant cemeteries. Only in the last century it was discovered that porcupines eat tusks, thus compensating for mineral hunger.
Taming the Elephants
Elephants, although intelligent animals, can also be dangerous. Male elephants periodically go through a state of so-called “must.” At this time, the level of testosterone in the blood of animals is 60 times higher than normal.
In order to achieve balance and obedience in elephants, they begin to be trained from early childhood.
One of the most effective methods like this: a baby elephant’s leg is tied to a tree trunk. Gradually he gets used to the fact that it is impossible to free himself from this state. When the animal grows up, it is enough to tie it to a young tree, and the elephant will not try to free itself.
Funeral rite
Elephants not only high level intelligence, but also sensitive hearts. When someone from an elephant family dies, his relatives lift him up with their trunks, loudly turbulate him, and then roll him to a depression and cover him with branches and throw earth at him. Then the elephants sit silently next to the body for several more days.
There are also cases where elephants also try to bury people, sometimes mistaking sleeping people for dead.
ELEPHANTS
elephant (Elephantidae).
A family uniting the largest and most powerful living people terrestrial mammals. These are tall, thick-skinned animals. tropical areas Asia and Africa, which feed on young shoots of trees and shrubs. Elephants have massive heads and bodies, long trunk, large fan-shaped ears and tusks from the so-called. Ivory. The family belongs to the order Proboscidea. The boneless, muscular trunk of elephants is fused and highly elongated upper lip and nose. It ends, depending on the type of animal, with one or two protrusions, which, while simultaneously sucking air through the nostrils, can be used as fingers for grasping small objects. Elephants use their trunks to push food and water into their mouths, sprinkle themselves with dust, douse themselves, trumpet and make many other sounds. This sensitive organ, vital for them, turns in all directions, capturing the finest odors, and when there is a threat of damage, it is tightly twisted. The huge tusks of the elephant represent the second pair of upper incisors that have grown to incredible sizes, with a significant part of each tooth deeply embedded in bone tissue skulls Small milk tusks of a young animal are replaced by permanent ones, which continue to grow throughout life. The molar tooth is formed as if by a stack of transverse vertical plates, each of which is equipped with its own roots with pulp, and together they are united with cement into a large enamel-dentin block approximately 30 cm long and weighing 3.6-4.1 kg. An elephant has a total of 24 molars, but each of them this moment There is only one functioning on each side of the upper and lower jaws. Having worn out, it falls out, and another, larger one slides out from behind in its place. The last, and largest, molar takes its place when the animal is approx. 40 years, and serves another 20 years, until the death of the owner. At favorable conditions elephants live more than 60 years. The elephant is considered smart beast, but its brain, although large in absolute size, is disproportionately small in comparison with the enormous mass of the body. The short, thick, muscular neck is necessary to support the huge tusked head, but allows only limited movement. Small eyes surrounded by long ones thick eyelashes . Large fan-shaped ears, like fans, constantly move hot tropical air. The legs are like vertical columns, the toes point downwards, so that the heels are raised off the ground and the body weight rests mainly on the thick pad behind the toes. Short tail ends in a hard brush, and the skin - often 2.5 cm thick - is covered with sparse coarse hair. Between the eye and ear there is a slit-shaped temporal gland, the purpose of which is not precisely established. When it is activated, the animal's forehead swells, a dark oily liquid flows out of the gap, and the elephant becomes extremely excited (in India it is called "must"), apparently of a sexual nature. As a rule, males are more susceptible to this, but in general, “must” is characteristic of animals of both sexes. It first appears in young elephants around 21 years of age and disappears completely by age 50. Elephants feed on tall grass, fruits, tubers, tree bark, as well as thin shoots, especially fresh ones. For supporting and the animal needs to receive strength per day for approx. 250 kg of feed and 190 liters of water. In captivity, a typical daily diet for an elephant includes 90 kg of hay, more than two bags of potatoes and 3 kg of onions. Despite its massive build and amazing strength, the elephant's movements are surprisingly smooth and graceful. With a normal rhythmic step he walks at a speed of 6.4 km/h, and at a distance of approx. 50 m can accelerate to 40 km/h. However, the elephant is not capable of galloping and jumping. The ditch, too wide to cross, becomes an insurmountable obstacle for him. The elephant swims well, maintaining a speed of approximately 1.6 km/h in the water for almost 6 hours. Typically, herds of elephants consist of one to four families and unite 30-50 individuals under the leadership of one of the females, including many elephant calves. At times, males join the herds and generally gravitate toward solitary life. Young males sometimes form small and less stable bachelor herds. Some solitary males (hermit elephants) become very angry in old age. Females begin to mate only after reaching 18 years of age, and males only when they acquire mass and strength sufficient to compete for females. IN mating season the male and female spend several weeks together in the forest away from the herd. Female wild Indian elephant after a pregnancy lasting from 18 to 22 months, an elephant calf weighing 64-97 kg usually gives birth in the spring. If the mother is disturbed, she carries it with her trunk to safe place, and during the first weeks of the calf's life, several members of the herd guard it day and night from predators. Until almost the age of five, the elephant calf sucks milk with its mouth from the mother’s nipples, located between her front legs, and then begins to feed with the help of her trunk. Usually a female elephant gives birth to one baby at a time; in total, she gives birth to 5-12 babies during her life, but she is often followed by 2 baby elephants of different ages, since she can bear offspring once every three years.
Origin of elephants. Elephants are the only representatives that have survived to this day. ancient group proboscis, which once inhabited most of the land except Australia. Its oldest known representative is Moeritherium, a small animal with a nose slightly longer than that of a tapir, described from Upper Eocene and Early Oligocene finds in the Nile Valley in Egypt. IN Southern Europe and North Africa in the Pleistocene time lived Palaeoloxodon antiquus, huge elephant height at the withers is 4.3 m. Many of the primitive proboscis disappeared only 15,000 years ago, and Paleolithic man captured them on the walls of caves. Then, in the grassy tundras of the northern circumpolar regions, woolly mammoths with huge, strongly curved tusks were not uncommon; their well-preserved bodies were repeatedly found in the Siberian permafrost. In North America, the ranges of the Columbian and Imperial mammoth subspecies reached south to the north of what is now New York State. Mastodons were found in abundance in Europe and America; their teeth and bones were even discovered during the construction of the New York subway. In Italy and on the islands Mediterranean Sea There were elephants no larger than a Shetland pony, distinguished by straight tusks.
Training and use of elephants. Unlike a horse, a large cattle and the camel, the elephant as a species has never been truly domesticated, although individual animals have long been domesticated and used for a variety of purposes. The Indian elephant, judging by the surviving carved seals, served man already in 2000 BC; it is believed that at the same time attempts were made to subjugate its less flexible African relative. Probably the earliest written mention of the use of elephants in warfare dates back to 326 BC. Then the Indian king Porus sent 200 elephants with archers on their backs into battle against Alexander the Great on the banks of the Hydaspes River. At the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC. King Pyrrhus trampled the Roman infantry with elephants, inflicting the first and only defeat on their army from these animals. However, five years later he lost to the Romans decisive battle at Beneventum, and to commemorate their victory in the war they struck a coin with the image of an elephant. The story of Hannibal's march on Rome across the Alps in 218 BC is widely known: in these mountains he lost most of his 37 elephants, and all the rest but one died crossing the Apennines. After Hannibal's final defeat in the Punic War, the use of war elephants was abandoned. The first living elephant in America was a relatively small two-year-old female brought to New York from Calcutta in 1796. Perhaps she turned out to be the Learned Elephant, or Little Beth, who was killed in 1822 in Chepachet (Rhode Island) by boys who wanted to test whether elephant skin was really bulletproof. Jumbo, the world's most famous elephant, was born in equatorial Africa in the vicinity of Lake Chad, from where he was brought as a child in 1862 to Paris Botanical Garden. In 1865 it was sold to the Royal zoological garden in London, where he remained for 18 years until he was transported to the USA. For three years, Jumbo traveled all over North America By railway in a specially equipped carriage and carried more than a million children on his back. He died in 1885 as a result of a train accident in the Canadian province of Ontario. His stuffed animal is now at Tufts University in Medford (Massachusetts), and a huge skeleton (the height of the animal at the withers was 3.2 m) is exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The elephant is revered by many peoples. Buddhism puts it on a par with the dove of peace, and the Hindu god of wisdom Ganesha is an elephant-headed one. In India, all white elephants were considered the property of rajahs and were never used for work, but the greatest honor was given to such animals in Siam. Even the king was forbidden to ride white elephant. Food was served to him on huge gold or silver dishes, and his drinking water scented with jasmine. The animal, covered with precious blankets, was carried on a luxuriously decorated platform. African pygmies They believe that elephants are possessed by the souls of their dead leaders.
MODERN SPECIES OF ELEPHANTS
Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) widespread in South Asia; its range covers parts of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina and the Malacca Peninsula. There are three subspecies: the Bengal (E. m. bengalensis), the relatively small Ceylon (E. m. ceylonicus) and the Sumatran (E. m. sumatrensis), an animal of even smaller size, relatively slender and tuskless.
The Indian elephant has smaller ears and tusks than the African elephant, a convex forehead, and only one “finger” at the end of the trunk. On hind legs 4 fingers with peculiar nails, 5 on the front ones. Male tusks reach a length of 2.4 m, but are never longer than 3 m, the record weight of one tusk is 72 kg. In females, the tusks are usually invisible, rarely protruding from the mouth. On average, an adult elephant weighs 3.5 tons with a height at the withers of 2.7 m, but the mass is especially large males reaches 6 tons with a height of 3 m. The main use of the Indian elephant is skidding logs, especially teak tree trunks, from mountain slopes inaccessible to mechanical means of transport. The animal easily drags logs weighing 2 tons, and, if necessary, four tons. Usually the elephants work together, pulling huge logs down the slope without the urging of the mahout. Elephants do not reproduce well in captivity, so to use them as labor, young wild animals aged 15-20 years are captured and trained. However, if an elephant is over 18 years old, resisting trappers, it receives serious injuries, and it will never be able to achieve such obedience as from individuals that are caught in more at a young age. Wild elephants are caught different ways. Individuals are surrounded by a group of tame elephants with drivers and driven day and night until the animal allows ropes and chains to be thrown over itself. A group of elephants local residents with torches, sticks and beaters, they surround and crowd into a round enclosure made of bamboo. In Karnataka, they use “elephant pits” of precisely calculated size so that animals that fall into them do not injure themselves while trying to escape. In Nepal, Bengal and Sri Lanka, wild elephants are sometimes captured using a lasso attached to a tame animal. Each young elephant is assigned a boy trainer, and they remain together for life. The boy bathes his charge every day, polishes his tusks with sand and teaches the animal useful skills. After a day's work, the elephant goes into the forest and feeds there most of the night. In the morning, the trainer finds his sleeping pupil and carefully wakes him up, because a sharp wake-up can put the elephant in a bad mood for the whole day. Training begins at approximately 14 years of age; by the age of 19, the animal is ready for easy work, but he is attracted to severe ones only after 25 years. An elephant is unprofitable as a beast of burden, since the average load it can carry does not exceed 270 kg; however, they claim that the Japanese transported 4 tons of ammunition on each animal during World War II. The cabin, blanket and harness carried by a ceremoniously decorated elephant often weigh half a ton.
African elephant (Loxodonta africana) much larger than the Indian one. It was once widespread across much of sub-Saharan Africa, from lowland savannas to altitudes of 3000 m; it is still common in some inaccessible areas of the continent and nature reserves. By appearance this animal is easy to distinguish from asian elephant. The height at the withers of a female is on average 2.1 m, an adult male is 3-3.9 m. Huge ears 1.1 m wide, together with the head, reach a span of more than 3 m. The trunk, up to 2.4 m long, bears two outgrowths at the end. The hind legs have 3 toes with peculiar nails, the front legs have 4. Both females and males are armed with well-developed tusks. In the former they are thinner, up to 1.8 m long, while in the latter they reach three meters in length and weigh up to 103 kg each. Normal skin coloring is dark gray, but African elephants often cover themselves with dry soil, so they sometimes appear brick red. Like their Asian relatives, the animals usually roam in herds of about 50 individuals, but temporary aggregations of more than a hundred elephants have been observed.