 |
Mammals: Elephant
|
|
|
|
The elephant is the largest animal on earth as well as one of the most intelligent and sensitive. There are two kinds of elephants: African and Indian (also known as Asian). The African elephant is massive, towering 13 feet and sometimes weighing an incredible 15,000 pounds. The Indian elephant is smaller at 9 feet tall and weighing 8,000 pounds. It's the smaller Indian elephant that we see in circuses. The lifespan for both is around 65 years.
Asian elephants live in parts of India and Southeast Asia. African elephants live in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rhodesia, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Zaire, and in South African national parks. They are usually found in savannas, but also can be found in rain forests and semi-deserts.
Elephants eat around 300 to 600 pounds of food daily. Herbivores, elephants will eat anything green -- leaves, shrubs, grass, fruits, and vegetables. They are also water lovers, drinking 30 to 60 gallons a day.
Extremely social animals, the females live in female groups, the males in male groups. The female group is ruled by an older matriarch and is made up of her daughters and their offspring. Groups of 20 elephants are common. As males reach puberty, they are forced out of the family (between 12 and 15 years of age) and join other males. When females need to contact males for breeding, they sing a mating call to which surrounding males answer. Much of this communication is of a low frequency, known as infrasound, that humans can't hear.
Asian elephants are not closely related to African elephants; they are actually more closely related to the extinct mammoth than to their African cousins.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Elephants are very emotional -- they cry, laugh, and remember other elephants they haven't seen in decades. They grieve over dead family members and bury them with tree branches. If a baby elephant cries out, the entire family rushes over to care for it. Like us, they are happy, sad, moody, and capable of jealousy and fits of rage. Also like us, they can be immensely gentle and compassionate with each other.
|
|
 |
|
