Elephant - Evolution, Body, Limbs, Head, Mouth And Trunk, Teeth, Ears, Group Structure - Eyes, Social behavior, Death
elephants animals dead field
Elephants are large, four-legged, herbivorous mammals. They have a tough, almost hairless hide, a long flexible trunk, and two ivory tusks growing from their upper jaw. Only two species of elephant exist today, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian or Indian elephant (Elephas maximus), both of which are threatened or endangered.
African elephants are the largest of all land animals, weighing up to 5 tons. There are two subspecies, the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) and the African forest elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis). Bush elephants inhabit grassland and savanna, while forest elephants live in tropical rainforest. Asian elephants are widely domesticated, with the few surviving wild elephants living mainly in forest and woodland. Field workers have differing opinions of the life span of elephants, some estimating between 60 and 80 years while others suggesting more than 100 years.
The eyes of elephants are about the same size as a human's. The eyes are usually dark brown, with upper and lower lids, and long eyelashes on the upper lid. With one eye on either side of their head elephants have a wide visual field, although their eyesight is relatively poor, particularly in bright sunlight.
Few animals other than humans have a more complex social network than elephants, which field biologists are just beginning to decipher. These outgoing, emotionally demonstrative animals rarely fight among themselves and peacefully coexist with most other animals. Elephants give and receive love, care intensely for their young, grieve deeply for their dead, get angry, show fear, and are thought to be more intelligent than any other animals except the higher primates.
Elephants mourn deeply for their dead and often cover them with leaves, dirt, and grass. An animal will stand over the body of a dead loved one, gently rocking back and forth as other animals caress the mourner with their trunks. One field-biologist watching such a display wrote: "This isn't just a dead elephant; it is a living elephant's dead relative or friend."
Additional Topics
Elephants are placed within the suborder Elephantoidea, in the order Proboscidea. The first identifiable ancestors of today's elephants were small beasts that lived
An African elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Photograph by Malcolm Boulton. The National Audubon Society Collection/Photo Researchers, Inc. Reproduced by permission.
50–70 million yea…
Asian and African elephants can be distinguished by the shape of their backs, the Asian having a convex, gently sloping back and the African a concave or saddle-shaped one. Male elephants (or bulls) are much larger than females (cows), being 20–40% taller and up to 70% heavier. The average African adult bull weighs about 5 tons and measures about 8 ft (2.4 m) to the shoulder. The largest el…
Supporting the elephant's massive body are four sturdy, pillar-like legs. Although the back legs are slightly longer than the front legs, the high shoulder makes the forelimbs look longer. The back legs have knees with knee-caps, while the front leg joints are more like wrists. Elephants kneel on their "wrists," stand upright on their back legs, sit on their haunches, and can …
Elephants have a small mouth and a large, mobile tongue which cannot extend past the short lower lip. Contributing to the elephant's unique appearance is its long, strong, flexible trunk, which is a fusion and elongation of the nose and upper lip. The trunk, with no bones and more than 100,000 muscles, is so strong and flexible it can coil like a snake around a tree and uproot it. At the en…
The tusks of elephants begin as two front teeth which drop out after about a year. In their place grow ivory tusks which eventually protrude from beneath the upper lip. The tusks of female Asian elephants, however, remain short and are barely visible. Male African elephants grow the largest tusks, the longest recorded measuring approximately 137 in (348 cm) and weighing over 220 lb (100 kg) each. …
Each elephant troop has its own home range, but territorial fights are rare even though ranges often overlap. While several hundred elephants may roam a similar range, small "kin groups" form between female relatives. The leader of each group is a respected old female with years of accumulated knowledge. This matriarch is the mother and grandmother of other members but sometimes allo…
Female elephants come into estrus (heat), marking ovulation and the ability to get pregnant, for only a few days each year. Because the mating season is short, mature female elephants are never far from adult males. The scent of a female elephant in estrus attracts male bulls. A receptive female will hold her head high, producing a low, rumbling invitation as she leaves her group and runs quickly …
Because of their high intelligence level, elephants can adapt to and modify habitat, while their wide range of food choices permits habitation of a diverse range of ecosystems, including forest, woodland, savanna, grassy plains, swampy areas, and sparsely vegetated desert. Unfortunately, because of massive poaching for ivory and the destruction of much of the elephant's natural habitat, mos…
Only a few surviving elephant herds remain in the wild. In Asia, elephants are venerated. However, they are also highly valued as domestic animals for work and transport and most tamed animals must be captured from the wild (although there has been recent progress in captive breeding). One-third of the surviving 35,000 Asian elephants are now in captivity, and the survival of all wild herds is thr…
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User Comments
9 months ago
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11 months ago
jy
face
almost 2 years ago
Elephants do not have eyelashes. The hairs seen are not anchored and do not have the same anatomy as eyelashes seen in other animals, though the function is similar.