elephant

Animals

2022

We explain everything about the elephant, its reproduction, feeding, habitat and other characteristics. Also, what types of elephants exist.

Elephants are the largest land animals in existence.

What are elephants?

Elephants are a family of mammals Large quadrupeds, famous for their large ears and prehensile trunk, as well as their long white ivory tusks, as well as for being the largest land animals in the world today.

There are currently three known species different elephants, each with its respective subspecies, and there are paleontological remains of Extinct species, as were the mammoths.

The immediate ancestors of these animals arose around 50 to 60 million years ago, and were particularly successful in colonizing all the continents Y habitats, except Antarctica and Australia. Eventually, a predecessor known as palaeomastodon, which lived 40 to 25 million years ago, spawned the different species of elephants that we know today.

The human being has known elephants since antiquity and in certain geographies they were domesticated and incorporated into productive work, or used as a war mount. For example, the historical episode of the war between Ancient Rome and Carthage (known as the Punic Wars) is famous, in which Hannibal, the Phoenician general, crossed the Alps to invade Rome with an army mounted on elephants.

Elephant characteristics

Elephants are often covered with a film of mud to protect them from sunlight.

In general, elephants are characterized by the following:

  • They are bulky animals, whose bodies can measure about 4 meters high and several tons in weight (on average, about 7,500 kg). Its brain, the largest of all land animals, weighs only 5 kg, and gives the elephant a intelligence comparable to a cetacean or some primates.
  • Its trunk, the best known feature of the species, has thousands of muscles (40,000 or 100,000 depending on the different sources) and is a sensitive extension of the nose, capable of perceiving an immense range of distant smells (elephants have the best smell of all species), picking up food from the ground, sniffing and pouring water into their mouths or on their bodies to cool themselves off, or emitting sounds of various ranges, including infrasonic sounds.
  • At the same time, they have huge auricles, which allow them a high-pitched Sense of hearing. Instead they have a bad view, with their eyes on the sides of the head, which makes them particularly sensitive to sudden and sudden movements, to which they tend to respond aggressively.
  • The males of the species have two gigantic ivory tusks, an extension of their incisor teeth, which protrude from their upper jaw and that these animals use to make their way through the bush, dig in the ground, mark their territory or attack and defend themselves, in if necessary. Ivory compounds have been highly valued throughout history and are one reason why they have been so extensively hunted.
  • Their skin is thick and wrinkled, grayish or brownish in color, and they have sparse, sparse fur. To avoid dehydration, they tend to spend a lot of time in the Water, and covered with a film of mud that protects them from sunlight.
  • Traditionally they are credited with good memory, which seems to be true, and it is known that they have a rich social interaction, with abundant gestures of empathy, compassion, play, primitive use of tools and self-recognition.
  • It is also said that they fear mice (which is totally false), and that they constitute their own cemeteries. The latter may be a misinterpretation of the fact that dying elephants instinctively seek water, which is why they tend to leave their bodies in similar regions. However, elephants have been seen to recognize the remains of their species among those of others, and play with them as if paying them some kind of tribute.

Where do elephants live?

Today's elephant species live in warm areas of woods, grasslands Y bed sheets, in Africa and certain regions of Asia like India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. In fact, it is usually distinguished between the species according to their usual home of residence: African elephants and Asian elephants, since they have different physical features.

Elephants live in herds, led by the oldest females, that is, matriarchs, and herds are made up of several family groups, in which there are usually between two and eight individuals.

What do elephants eat?

Elephants are herbivores, and their diet consists mainly of herbs, seeds, barks and other plant fibers.

How do elephants reproduce?

Newborn elephants weigh more than 100 kilograms.

Like all other mammals, elephants reproduce in a sexual Y viviparous, but they have long gestation periods (in some species they can reach 22 months, and once every four or five years) at the end of which a single offspring is born, whose initial weight ranges from 118 kg.

Elephants are very jealous of their young, and in a herd there can be between 20 and 40 matriarchs with their respective young. The males, on the other hand, leave the herd early, between their 10 and 14 years of age.

How long do elephants live?

The average life expectancy of the elephant ranges between 60 and 80 years of age.

Types of elephants

As we said before, elephants are classified into three species, grouped into two different genera, which we can summarize as follows:

  • African elephants (genus Loxodonta): two distinct species, which are the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), and the African jungle elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).
  • Asian elephants (genus Elephas): a single species that is in turn classified into three current subspecies: the Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus), the Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) and the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus).

It is important to note that in some zoological classifications, a distinction is made between the Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) and two other subspecies: the Bornean elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) and the Malaysian elephant (Elephas maximus hirsutus). But there is still debate in the scientific community about it.

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