Elephant breeds. African savannah elephant: what it eats and how it lives
The elephant is the largest animal on Earth, if we talk about land animals. The African elephant has been known to mankind since ancient times. Despite huge size, this African giant is easily tamed and has high intelligence. African elephants have been used since ancient times to carry heavy loads and even as fighting animals during wars. They remember commands easily and are highly trainable. IN wildlife they have practically no enemies and even lions and large crocodiles do not dare to attack adults.
Description of the African elephant
largest land mammal on our planet. It is much larger than the Asian elephant and can reach 4.5-5 meters in height, and its weight is approximately 7-7.5 tons. But there are also real giants: the largest African elephant that was discovered weighed 12 tons, and the length of its body was about 7 meters.Range, habitats
Earlier African elephants were distributed throughout Africa. Now, with the advent of civilization and poaching, their habitat has decreased significantly. Most of elephants live on the territory national parks Kenya, Tanzania and Congo. During the dry season, they travel hundreds of kilometers in search of fresh water and nutrition. In addition to national parks, they are found in the wild in Namibia, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Congo.
Currently, the habitat of African elephants is rapidly decreasing due to the fact that more and more land is being given over to construction and agricultural needs. In some of their usual habitats, the African elephant can no longer be found. Because of the value Ivory, elephants have a hard life; they often become victims of poachers. The main and only enemy of elephants is man.
The most common myth about elephants is that they supposedly bury their dead relatives in certain places. Scientists spent a lot of effort and time, but never found any special places where the bodies or remains of animals were concentrated. Such places don't really exist.
Nutrition. African elephant diet
African elephants are truly insatiable creatures, adult males can eat up to 150 kilograms of plant food per day, females about 100. It takes them 16-18 hours a day to absorb food, the rest of the time they spend searching for it, and they spend 2-3 hours sleeping hours. This is one of the least sleeping animals in the world.
There is a prejudice It is believed that African elephants are very fond of peanuts and spend a lot of time searching for them, but this is not true. Of course, elephants have nothing against such a delicacy, and in captivity they willingly eat it. But still, it is not eaten in nature.
Grass and shoots of young trees are their main food; they eat fruit as a delicacy. With their gluttony, they damage agricultural lands; farmers scare them away, since killing elephants is prohibited and they are protected by law. These giants of Africa spend most of the day searching for food. The cubs completely switch to plant foods when they reach three years, and before that they feed on their mother’s milk. After about 1.5-2 years they, in addition to mother's milk gradually begin to receive adult food. They consume a lot of water, approximately 180-230 liters per day.
Second myth says that old males who have left the herd become killers of people. Of course, cases of elephant attacks on humans are possible, but this is not associated with a specific behavior pattern of these animals.
The myth that elephants are afraid of rats and mice because they chew their legs also remains a myth. Of course, elephants are not afraid of such rodents, but they still do not have much love for them.
The largest animal leading a terrestrial lifestyle is undoubtedly the elephant.
Today there are two main varieties of elephants: African and Indian.
In ancient times, incomparably more people lived on Earth major representatives this order of mammals. But due to its inability to climate change they have not survived to this day.
As for modern representatives of this order, all the differences between African and Indian elephants lie in size.
Elephants living in Africa are larger than their Indian relatives.
These inhabitants of the northern part African continent also have such a distinctive feature as strong tusks. It should be noted that both males and females have them.
In contrast to Africans who prefer steppe landscape, chose the tropical forests of India and its neighboring islands as their habitat. Compared with African relatives they are relatively small and look more peaceful due to the lack of tusks.
But as a result of centuries of development, Indian elephants acquired a special appendage at the end of their trunk, which completely replaces their upper limbs, allowing them to grab and move even small objects from place to place. However, Africans have two such processes, which, coupled with a huge physical strength would make them indispensable for use in heavy work, such as logging, transporting goods, etc. But they are not as well disposed towards humans as Indian ones, with with great difficulty They make contact and training them is difficult and sometimes dangerous.
Specific structural features of the body
Elephants are extraordinary animals, and their body structure is unique. Not a single mammal has such an amazing and almost universal organ as the trunk. As a result of evolution, the animal's nose has fused with upper lip- and combined respiratory functions, the ability to smell and reproduce sounds, and even to receive liquids. In addition, due to its flexibility and mobility, the trunk practically serves as a replacement for the elephant's upper limbs. The presence of almost a hundred muscles in this organ allows you to lift considerable weights.
The ancestors of modern elephants were even more powerful, and their tusks were truly formidable weapons. Nowadays, elephants have preserved only one pair, and in size it is significantly inferior to those tusks that can now only be seen in the paleontological museum.
Nowadays they hardly bring any tusks practical benefit, and have a decorative function, talking, for example, about the age of their owner. Man uses ivory as a material for jewelry, crafts, etc. But the price for the expensive material is often the life of an elephant. Legislation protects elephants, but poachers continue to kill them in large numbers.
Features of character and lifestyle
Elephants do not like loneliness and live in large herds, which can contain up to fifty animals. Elephants have high intelligence and a wide range of emotions.
They are capable of love and affection, friendship and caring for each other. In addition, elephants have excellent memory and great patience.
Large body mass dictates special living conditions for elephants. They need to absorb every day a large number of food, and therefore the main occupation of the elephant is searching for it, during which the herd has to travel long distances. Elephants are herbivores. They feed on plants, including roots, fruits, and even bark.
Naturally, the elephant also requires a large amount of liquid, and therefore these animals stop near water bodies. By the way, what’s surprising is that elephants are excellent swimmers, and if they want, they can even give themselves a real shower using their wonderful trunk.
The lifespan of an elephant is almost human, it can reach seventy years or more.
They do not have wool, but their thick skin is an excellent protection from both the heat and the cool of the night. Elephants are very hardy and sleep no more than four hours.
An elephant carries a baby for twenty-two months - and this is longer than all other viviparous creatures. The entire herd pays attention to the cub, since its appearance is a rare event.
Elephants do not make sounds very often, but they communicate well with gestures. For example, a clear sign aggression - splayed ears. Flapping your ears is also an expressive gesture, indicating a sense of danger. In anger or panic, an elephant is scary, and the enemy is unlikely to escape alive: the elephant can crush him with its huge mass. Tusks are also a formidable weapon.
However, sounds can also be an expression of various emotions. Elephants trumpet, snort and can even squeal, also using their trunk to produce sound.
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The largest land mammal is rightfully the elephant.
Elephant - description and characteristics
The majestic animal has practically no enemies and does not attack anyone, being a herbivore. Today they can be found in the wild, in national parks and nature reserves, in circuses and zoos, and there are also domesticated individuals. A lot is known about them: how many years elephants live, what elephants eat, how long an elephant’s pregnancy lasts. And yet secrets remain.
This animal cannot be confused with any other, since hardly any land mammal can boast of such dimensions. The height of this giant can reach up to 4.5 meters, and its weight can reach up to 7 tons. The largest is the African savannah giant. Indian counterparts are somewhat lighter: weight up to 5.5 tons for males and 4.5 tons for females. Forest elephants are considered the lightest - up to 3 tons. In nature, there are also dwarf varieties that do not reach 1 ton.
The elephant's skeleton is strong and allows it to withstand such an impressive weight. The body is massive and muscular.
The animal's head is large, with a protruding frontal area. Its decoration is its movable ears, which serve as a heat regulator and a means of communication between fellow tribesmen. When attacking a herd, the animals begin to actively move their ears, scaring off enemies.
The legs are also unique. Contrary to the popular belief that animals are noisy and clumsy, these giants walk almost silently. The feet have thick fat pads that soften the step. Distinctive feature is the ability to bend the knees, the animal has two kneecaps.
The animals have a small tail ending in a non-furry brush. Usually the cub holds on to it in order to keep up with the mother.
A distinctive feature is the elephant's trunk, the mass of which in an elephant can reach up to 200 kg. This organ is a fused nose and upper lip. Consisting of more than 100 thousand strong muscles and the elephant trunk tendon has incredible flexibility and strength. They use it to pick off vegetation and put it in their mouth. Also, the elephant's trunk is a weapon with which it defends itself and fights its opponent.
The giants also draw in water through their trunks, which they then put into their mouths or pour over. Elephants up to one year old have little control over their proboscis. For example, they cannot drink with it, but kneel down and drink with their mouth. But they hold tightly to their mother’s tail with their trunk from the first hours of their life.
Elephant vision and hearing
Relative to the size of the animal, the eyes are small, and these giants do not differ in acute vision. But they have excellent hearing and are able to recognize sounds even at very low frequencies.
It is believed that animals hear thunder at a distance of up to 100 km and can accurately find water located at long distance, by noise.
Leather
Body large mammal covered with thick gray or brown skin, mottled with many wrinkles and folds. Sparse hard bristles on it are observed only in cubs. In adults it is practically absent.
The color of the animal directly depends on its habitat, since elephants often sprinkle themselves with earth and clay to protect themselves from insects. Therefore, some representatives appear brown and even pink.
Among giants, albinos are very rare, but still found. Such animals are considered iconic in Siam. White elephants were taken specifically for royal families.
Jaws
The decoration of the giant is its tusks: the older the animal, the longer they are. But not everyone is the same size. The female Asian elephant, for example, is completely devoid of such decorations by nature, just like rare males. The tusks fit into the jaws and are considered incisors.
How many years an elephant lives can be determined by its teeth, which wear down over the years, but at the same time new ones appear, growing behind the old ones. It is known how many teeth an elephant has in its mouth. As a rule, 4 radicals.
It was the tusks of these giants that were very highly valued, which led to the brutal extermination of proboscideans. Now hunting is strictly prohibited: the animal is listed in the Red Book. And the places where the elephant lives are declared nature reserves.
Indian elephant and African elephant have external differences, we’ll talk about them in the sequel.
Types of elephants
Nowadays, there are only two species of proboscis: the African elephant and the Indian elephant (otherwise called asian elephant). African ones, in turn, are divided into savannahs living along the equator (the largest representatives are up to 4.5 m in height and 7 tons of weight) and forest ones (its dwarf and swamp subspecies), which prefer to live in tropical forests.
Despite the undeniable similarity of these animals, they still have a number of differences.
- It is very simple to answer the question of which elephant is larger in size and weight: Indian or African. The one that lives in Africa: individuals weigh 1.5-2 tons more, and are much taller.
- The female Asian elephant does not have tusks; all African elephants have tusks.
- The species differ slightly in the shape of the body: the Asian ones have a higher rear part relative to the level of the head.
- African animal is different large size ears.
- trunks African giants somewhat thinner.
- By its nature, the Indian elephant is more prone to domestication; it is almost impossible to tame its African counterpart.
It is Asian animals that are often accepted into circuses for their obedience and good disposition. Basically, these are sick and abandoned cubs rescued from poachers.
When crossing African and Indian proboscis, no offspring are obtained, which indicates differences at the genetic level.
The lifespan of an elephant depends on living conditions, availability sufficient quantity food and water. It is believed that the African elephant lives somewhat longer than its counterpart.
Ancient relatives of proboscis appeared on earth approximately 65 million years ago, during the Paleocene era. At this time, dinosaurs still walked the planet.
Scientists have found that the first representatives lived on the territory of modern Egypt and were more like a tapir. There is another theory, according to which the current giants descended from a certain animal that lived in Africa and almost all of Eurasia.
Research revealing how long the elephant has lived on our planet points to the existence of its ancestors.
- Deinotherium. They appeared approximately 58 million years ago and died out 2.5 million years ago. Outwardly they were similar to modern animals, but were noted for their smaller size and shorter trunk.
- Gomphotherium. They appeared on earth approximately 37 million years ago and died out 10 thousand years ago. Their body resembled the current long-nosed giants, but they had 4 small tusks, twisted in pairs up and down, and a flat jaw. At some stage of development, the tusks of these animals became significantly larger.
- Mamutids (mastodons). Appeared 10-12 million years ago. They had dense hair on their body, long tusks and a trunk. They became extinct 18 thousand years ago, with the advent of primitive people.
- Mammoths. The first representatives of elephants. They appeared from mastodons approximately 1.6 million years ago. They became extinct about 10 thousand years ago. They were slightly taller than modern animals, their body was covered with long and dense hair, and they had large tusks hanging down.
Mammoths belong to the same order of elephants as modern giants.
The African elephant and the Indian elephant are the only representatives of the proboscis order existing on Earth.
Where do elephants live?
African elephant lives south of the desert Sahara, on the territory of many African countries: Congo, Zambia, Kenya, Namibia, Somalia, Sudan and others. Enough hot climate The places where the elephant lives are to his liking. More often they choose savannas, where there is enough vegetation and water can be found. Animals practically do not enter deserts and impenetrable tropical forests.
IN Lately The giants' habitat has shrunk. Places where elephants live are turned into national reserves to preserve the population of these animals, protecting them from poachers.
But the Indian elephant, on the contrary, prefers forested areas of India, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Laos and Sri Lanka. He feels comfortable among dense bushes and thickets of bamboo. This Asian elephant once lived in almost all areas of southern Asia, but now populations have declined greatly.
The Indian elephant can live even in inaccessible jungles. It is in this area that the largest number of wild specimens remain. But determining how many years an elephant lives can be quite difficult.
The lifespan of an elephant in the wild is significantly shorter than that of its domesticated counterparts or those living in zoos or national reserves. This is due to the difficult conditions of the places where the elephant lives, with diseases and the brutal extermination of giants.
Scientists are still arguing about how long people live wild elephant and what is their life expectancy in captivity.
Undoubtedly, how many years an elephant lives is determined by the species to which the mammal belongs. African savannas live the longest: among them there are individuals whose age reached 80 years. African forest proboscideans are somewhat smaller - 65-70 years. An Asian elephant at home or in zoos and national parks can live 55-60 years, in natural environment Animals that have reached 50 years of age are considered to be long-lived.
How long elephants live depends on how the animal is cared for. A wounded and sick animal will not be able to live long. Sometimes even minor damage to the trunk or foot causes death. Under human supervision, many diseases of giants can be easily treated, which can significantly prolong life.
In their natural environment, animals have practically no enemies. Beasts of Prey They attack only stray cubs and sick individuals.
Being herbivores, proboscis spends more than 15 hours a day in search of food. To maintain their enormous body mass, they have to eat 40 to 400 kg of vegetation per day.
What elephants eat directly depends on their habitat: it can be grass, leaves, young shoots. The elephant's trunk picks them off and sends them into the mouth, where the food is thoroughly ground.
In captivity, the elephant eats hay (up to 20 kg per day), vegetables, especially carrots and cabbage, a variety of fruits, and grains.
How many years an elephant lives depends on what elephants eat. Zoo visitors often feed animals contraindicated food. Huge mammals are strictly prohibited from eating sweets.
Sometimes wild animals wander into the fields local residents and happily eat the harvest of corn, cane, and grains.
The animals are very social: they form herds, led by the oldest and most experienced female. She takes her relatives to food places and keeps order.
Scientists have come to interesting conclusions. All individuals are relatives. As a rule, these are females and immature males. Grown-up boys leave their families and often live alone or in the company of similar bachelors. They approach family herds only when they are ready to have offspring and at the call of the females.
Animals have very developed family instincts: everyone has their own role. The whole family is involved in raising children. In the event of an attack by predators, the elephant calves are surrounded by a tight ring and the enemies are driven away. Unfortunately, how many years an elephant lives depends on whether the family was able to preserve all of its offspring. Babies quite often die from disease, weakness and from attacks by predators (lions, cheetahs, hyenas, crocodiles).
Giants require large amounts of water to survive. They can drink up to 200 liters per day, so the animals try to stay close to bodies of water. In dry times, they know how to dig wells, which saves not only themselves, but also many other animals.
Elephant mammals are very peaceful animals. Cases of them attacking other animals are extremely rare. They can only suffer from them when the giants, frightened by something, trample those who get in their way.
Old animals go to specific place, “elephant cemetery”, where many relatives died, and there they spend their last days. The rest of the family sees them off and says a very touching goodbye.
Animals become sexually mature in different ways: males at the age of 14-15 years, females at 12-13.
Sometimes this age may vary depending on the amount of food and health status.
Several suitors come to the call of the female and her scent; they sometimes arrange fights, during which it is determined which male will remain. The elephant watches the contenders and after the end of the battle leaves with the winner. Elephants mating occurs away from the herd, after which the couple can walk together for several more days. Then the male leaves and the female returns to her family.
It’s quite interesting how long pregnant elephants walk. Elephants carry their cubs for quite a long time: 22-24 months. An elephant's gestation period is counted from the moment of mating. Pregnant females live with their herd, and males never appear nearby.
Compared to other mammals, elephant pregnancy lasts a record time: they carry their young for almost two years. The large size of females sometimes makes it difficult to see them immediately interesting situation, therefore, it is possible to calculate how long elephants have been bearing their cubs only from the moment of mating.
An elephant's pregnancy usually ends with the birth of one, or less often two, elephant calves, which weigh up to a hundredweight. Future mom leaves the herd, accompanied by an experienced female, and gives birth to a baby, which after 2-3 hours can stand on its feet and suck milk. A new mother returns to her herd with a baby elephant holding her tail.
Elephants carry their young for a very long time, so their populations, subject to severe extermination, for a long time were in danger of extinction.
How many years a male elephant lives in a herd is determined by the arrival of sexual maturity. Young males leave their families and live alone. But the females remain in the herd until the end of their days.
Among elephants, as among people, there are left-handers and right-handers. This can be understood by the tusks: the tusk will be longer on the side on which it works more often.
- These majestic animals are often found on the coats of arms of states (Congo, India). Image giant mammal It was also on the family coat of arms of the famous great-grandfather of A.S. Pushkin, Abram Hannibal.
- Elephants are so skilled with their trunks that they can easily pick up a tiny or fragile object from the ground without damaging it. With the same trunk they will convey to the right place felled tree.
- Some giants paint paintings that have a very high price.
- Trauma to the trunk most often leads to the death of the animal.
- Elephants love to swim and swim quite quickly.
- The giant's usual speed when walking is 4-5 km/h, but when running it reaches speeds of up to 50 km/h.
- The story that elephants are afraid of mice is a complete fiction. Rodents do not make any holes in the feet, and certainly cannot eat a giant from the inside. But animals won't touch food if mice are running all over it. Therefore, to say that elephants are afraid of mice is incorrect; rather, they disdain them.
In some countries these animals are considered sacred. Murder is even punishable by death.
Elephants are the biggest land mammals on our planet. The most known species The elephant families are African and Asian (Indian) elephants. They live on different continents, but lead almost the same lifestyle.
Where do elephants live?
African elephant habitats
Once upon a time African elephants inhabited almost all African continent. The habitat of elephants stretched from north to south of the entire continent. Back in the 6th century AD, the northern elephant population was completely exterminated.
In the 21st century, the African elephant population remained in the southern, western, eastern and central countries Africa, namely: Namibia, Tanzania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, South Africa, Mali, Botswana, Ethiopia, Chad, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Zambia, Uganda, Botswana, Niger, Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda , Liberia, Cameroon, Benin, Sierra Leone, Togo, Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic Congo, Sudan, Eritrea, Gabon, Swaziland, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea. Most of the livestock in these countries live in nature reserves and national parks. When elephants leave nature reserves, they often become the prey of poachers.
African elephants live in different landscapes, avoiding only deserts and tropical forests. The main priorities for choosing places for elephants to live are the following criteria: availability of food resources, water and shade.
Read about the diet of elephants in the article.
Where does the Indian elephant live?
Indian The elephant was distributed throughout South Asia. IN wild environment he lived along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers all the way to the Malay Peninsula. Some herds were even found near the Himalayas and along the Yangtze River in China. In addition to mainland Asia, elephants lived on the islands of Sumatra, Sri Lanka and Java.
Now Asiatic the elephant is found in the wild only partially in North-East and South India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia (Borneo), Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia (Sumatra), China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei and Laos.
Elephants are unique animals in their anatomy and physiology. They are so different from all other mammals that they are separated into an independent order of Proboscis, which includes only 2 species. Much is known in fossil form more types extinct proboscideans, of which the most famous is the mammoth. Currently, only African and Indian elephants have survived.
African elephants (Loxodonta africana).
The appearance of these animals is as similar as elephants are different from all other animals. The first thing that catches your eye is the size. Elephants are truly giants of the animal world, the largest of all land creatures. The Indian elephant reaches a height of 2.5 m and a weight of 3-5 tons, the African elephant is even larger - its height reaches 4 m and its weight is 5-7 tons. The body of elephants is very massive, the head is relatively large, the legs are proportionally powerful and thick. The ears also reach considerable sizes, but the eyes, on the contrary, are very small. An elephant's range of vision is not very good, but its hearing is excellent. An elephant can hear thunder at a distance of up to 100 km! This hearing is explained by the fact that elephants are able to hear (and produce) infrasounds. Herds of elephants use these sounds to communicate over long distances, because low-frequency waves travel long distances. Elephants' ears are very mobile and the animals constantly wave them. On the one hand, the extensive surface of the ears, through which blood is pumped, helps cool the body (this is especially noticeable in the African elephant); on the other hand, the ears perform a communicative function. Elephants use movements of their ears to greet their fellow tribesmen and threaten their enemies.
In the midday heat, the elephant flaps its ears to cool off.
But the most unusual organ of an elephant is, of course, the trunk. The trunk is not a nose, as many people think, but a completely unique organ formed by the fused nose and upper lip. Moreover, the trunk has its own system powerful muscles and tendons. Thanks to this structure, the trunk has both strength and flexibility. The power of the trunk is such that with its help the elephant is able to destroy trees and lift logs. At the end of the trunk there is a mobile and sensitive outgrowth, with the help of which the elephant is able to touch and manipulate the smallest objects. Elephants recognize the texture of various surfaces well; they can, for example, pick up coins or paint with a brush. The trunk plays an irreplaceable role in the life of an elephant: the animal needs it to obtain food, protect itself, and communicate.
Trunk hugs are a mandatory attribute of friendly relations.
Elephants also drink water with the help of their trunk, because a tall and short-necked elephant cannot drink with its mouth. Only baby elephants can suck their mothers with their mouths, while adult elephants suck in water with their trunks and then pour them into their mouths. Elephants, deprived of their trunks due to injury, try to graze on their knees, but eventually die.
The elephant's powerful body is covered with thick and rough skin. It is dotted with numerous deep wrinkles. Adult elephants are practically hairless, and newborn elephant calves are covered with sparse, stiff bristles. The color of elephants is uniform gray or brownish.
The elephant's skin is covered with sparse bristles.
With its size and build, the elephant gives the impression of a clumsy and noisy animal. When they want to emphasize a person’s awkwardness they say “like a bull in a china shop.” But this opinion is also wrong. The elephant moves almost silently. This effect is achieved thanks to special structure soles, it springs when pressure is applied to the foot, and then takes on its original shape. By the way, the hind legs of an elephant, unlike other quadrupeds, bend forward.
An elephant's toes have tiny hooves.
But, as it turns out, elephants have another paradox in store. The fact is that the massive elephant skull contains relatively small size. It would seem that animals with such a brain structure should not be distinguished by intelligence, but elephants are one of the smartest mammals.
Elephants live in tropical zone. The African elephant's range extends along the equator and south to the Cape region. Once these animals inhabited the northern part of the continent, but with the expansion of the Sahara Desert they were forced to retreat to the south. Indian elephants live on the Hindustan Peninsula and Indochina. African elephant populations are found in both dense tropical forests and open savannas bordering semi-deserts. Indian elephants exclusively forest dwellers. Both species of elephants lead a herd lifestyle. Elephant herds consist of females with young animals, led by an old, experienced elephant. Males always keep to themselves, joining the herd only during mating. Elephants maintain a sensitive relationship with each other. All members of the herd are related to each other family ties and old animals help young ones take care of their offspring. Elephants are also very attached to their mother and enjoy universal care. There are no fights between elephants except during the mating season, when males engage in fierce fights for the possession of a female.
African elephants during a mating fight.
In other cases, elephants show mutual assistance: they immediately respond to the alarming cry of their fellow tribesman, unanimously come to his defense and even help their wounded brothers. Elephants communicate using low uterine sounds, and in case of danger they emit a loud trumpet roar. Elephants have an exceptional memory, they remember places of watering and feeding for many miles around, they recognize their fellow tribesmen after long separation. High level social connections in elephants it manifests itself in another phenomenon - elephants are able to recognize deceased brothers. When a herd of elephants comes across the skeleton of a dead animal, they stop and become silent. Sometimes elephants touch the skeleton with their trunk and feel it; apparently, elephants are able to identify the “personality” of a dead brother.
Elephants eat plant foods- branches of trees and shrubs, leaves and fruits. An elephant eats up to 100 kg of food per day.
An African elephant breaks a tree to get to the foliage.
Elephants chew food with large molars, which change as they wear down. In search of food, they are helped by tusks - a pair of giant incisors protruding from the mouth. In African elephants, their size can reach 2-3 m; in the Indian elephant, tusks are shorter and only occur in males.
Male Indian elephant ( Elephas maximus) - owner of record tusks for its species. They had to be cut down because they stuck to the ground.
Elephants use their tusks as levers to uproot trees and also use them in battles for mates. African elephants use their tusks to strip the bark of baobab trees in search of juicy, loose wood. These animals also need to drink plenty of water and walk many kilometers to watering holes. By the way, elephants love to swim, pouring water on themselves from their trunk; they are excellent swimmers. A swimming elephant plunges headlong into the water, exposing only the tip of its trunk.
An Indian elephant swims underwater.
Although elephants prefer to move at a leisurely pace, they can run quickly, reaching speeds of up to 50 km/h.
Elephant mating is not confined to any specific season. IN mating season males secrete a dark secretion from the parotid gland, at this time they are very aggressive and dangerous to others. An elephant's pregnancy lasts 20-22 months. She gives birth to one calf weighing 90-100 kg.
The baby elephant sucks milk with its mouth, not its trunk.
Elephants' nipples are not located in the groin, as in all four-legged animals, but between the front legs, as in primates. A baby elephant needs care until it is 5 years old, but even as an adult it remains attached to its mother and other relatives (grandmother, aunts). Often, when moving, elephant calves hold onto their mother's tail with their trunk. Elephants become adults at the age of 12-15 years, and live up to 60-70 years.
It would seem that the largest animal cannot have natural enemies. Indeed, adult elephants are practically invulnerable, although they sometimes conflict with rhinoceroses for a place at a watering hole. However, little elephant calves are defenseless against attacks by lions and crocodiles. Only these predators dare to attack elephants.
An elephant wanders along the road, accompanied by his little friends - buffalo herons. These birds often accompany elephants in the hope of profiting from insects scared away by the giant.
The main enemy of elephants remains man. People hunt elephants mainly for their tusks, a source of precious ivory. But the meat, skin, and bones of elephants are also used on the farm. For example, roast trunk is considered a delicacy. Due to barbaric hunting, African elephants were on the verge of extinction in many places. Numerous reserves were created to protect them, but even after that the situation of the elephants did not improve. The multiplying elephants, limited to the territory of the reserve, began to suffer from a lack of food and had to be hunted down again. In some cases, relocating elephants from places where there are many of them to areas where there are none helps. But the protection of elephants is hampered by smugglers and political conflicts in African countries. Indian elephants are not hunted for their tusks, but their situation is even worse. Since Indian elephants live in the most densely populated region of the world, they are simply deprived of their natural habitats by people. Wild elephants are caught for the purpose of domestication, but in captivity these animals hardly reproduce. This is how the last individuals are removed from nature. Tame elephants are one of the most ancient domesticated animals. From time immemorial, they were used as draft power for plowing land, transporting people and goods, and for military purposes. Elephants can be trained to pick up and put down objects, attack on command, and simply perform various tricks. Unfortunately, the abilities of circus animals develop cruel methods. Domestic elephants are good-natured by nature and often suffer abuse from careless owners, but an elephant’s excellent memory can serve a person poorly. Remembering the grievances inflicted, elephants are prone to frustration (painful experiences and heightened emotions). Prolonged stress can lead to a nervous breakdown and then the elephant goes berserk. In this case, the animal completely goes out of control and attacks all living creatures within reach. In this case, only a bullet can stop the elephant. There are many cases of death of domestic elephants and people for this reason.
to the exemplary mutual assistance of elephants.