Of course you know the elephants, those huge, beautiful and friendly animals that you may have seen in a zoo, in a circus or on television, but did you know that they are true engineers and that they help maintain the balance of biodiversity in ecosystems that they share with other species. We invite you to read this article to find out many more things.
The elephants
It is the largest land mammal in the world all continents. But elephants are native to Africa and Asia, although they have acquired a relevant cultural and symbolic meaning around the world.
They are so important in our cultures that a special day of the year has even been designated as World Elephant Day and it is August 12. It is considered a majestic animal, with its huge trunk and ears, characteristics that make it one of the most beautiful wild animals that exist. Of course, their fangs are another feature that makes them extraordinary, but they are also to blame for their being an endangered species.
The ivory from the tusks of elephants is highly coveted, to the point that there is an entire trade on the black market that is supplied by poachers who violate the laws that protect elephants and kill them to remove those tusks and collect the large sums paid for them.
From
As has been said, elephants are descendants of the ancient and now extinct mammoths and mastodons, which were divided into the two species of elephants, which are Asian and African. They belong to the mammalia class, a proboscidean order that has the scientific name of Elephantidae, which is capable of communication and with an intelligence that draws much attention from scientists.
Despite their large size and weight, elephants are capable of running at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, which makes them a fast and very dangerous animal. An elephant calf can weigh about 100 kilos, and will double that weight at two weeks of age. When they are adults, they can weigh up to 5 tons and when fully grown, they can weigh between 7 and 8 tons.
The name elephant comes from Greco-Latin roots, a culture in which it began to be called elephas, which literally means horned deer or giant beast, which absolutely describes this animal. His current name separately also has its own meaning, because ele and fante are the greatarch names that refer to his huge fangs.
By evolving from mammoths, elephants have lost practically all their hair and this is due to an evolutionary adaptation, due to the climate of the places where they began to live. The life expectancy of elephants in the wild is between 60 and 70 years, but in captivity their life expectancy is increased to 5 or 10 years more.
Food
Elephants are herbivorous animals, so their diet is made up of all kinds of vegetation and fruits, so that their daily diet consists of consuming herbs, plants, shrubs, tree bark and fruits. The daily diet of an elephant is around 300 kilos of food. Its favorite habitat is the leafy forests where there is also a lot of water.
It is usual that when an elephant finds fruits that it likes on a tree and cannot reach them with its trunk, it will proceed to throw the tree to the ground in order to take them. In its normal day, an elephant will dedicate 16 hours exclusively to feeding, and its body only feeds on 50% of what it eats. For an elephant to take a sip of water is to consume 15 liters of water in one go.
Reproduction
In order to reproduce, the elephants initiate a ritual with random movements of their ears to attract the attention of the females. If a female is attracted, she will approach the male and they will begin rubbing her bodies and intertwining their trunks. If the female accepts it, before copulation she will challenge the male in a small race in which the male must reach her and if she succeeds, then they will proceed to copulate.
In the case of females, sexual maturity is reached between 14 and 16 years of age. The males usually wait until they are around 50 years old to copulate for the first time because before that they will not be prepared and can be damaged and injured.
The gestation period for elephants is 22 months, and when the calves are born, they can consume up to 10 liters of breast milk a day. The young are born blind and even when they gain their sight, they usually stay with their mothers for a very long time.
Elephant Behavior
They are gregarious and social animals, who enjoy moving in herds, particularly in the case of females and their young, which tend to move separately from the males. The herd of females constitutes a matriarchal society, and it has been proven that they are animals capable of asking for what they want and showing feelings.
African elephants are the most intelligent, it is thought that the reason is that they have a gigantic brain. In the case of Asian elephants, it has been proven that when you sense that an individual is going to die, they accompany him until he dies and are capable of mourning his death. Another curious fact about Asian elephants is that during their lives they suffer from a period of lack of control of their bodies for a period of between 25 and 40 days, during which they become very dangerous, which has received the name of must.
Surprising Facts about Elephants
In this section of the article we have found it convenient to answer some important questions related to elephants:
What is the difference between Asian and African Elephants?
We can find around more than ten physical peculiarities that distinguish Asian elephants from African ones. Thus, Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants and their ears are straight at the bottom, compared to the large fan-shaped ears of African species.
Only some male Asian elephants have tusks, while both male and female African elephants have tusks. In addition, it is relevant to indicate that there are two species of elephants on the African continent, which are the elephant of the savannah and the elephant of the forest, with a series of characteristics that make them different.
How many muscles does an elephant's trunk have?
An elephant's trunk has approximately 40,000 muscles. The human being, for example, has more than 600 muscles throughout his body. Elephants use their trunks to suck and drink water, pick up objects, make warning sounds, and greet each other.
Do Elephants have a dominant tusk?
Elephants have been found to be right or left handed with respect to the use of their tusks. That is why the tusk they use is the one they use most often and is usually the smallest.
How do elephants use their tusks?
Elephant tusks can be used for many purposes. These exaggerated outwardly projecting teeth can be used to guard the elephant's trunk, lift and move objects, gather food, and strip bark from trees. Another use they give them is as a means of defense. In times of drought, elephants can use their tusks to dig holes and find water under the ground.
Fangs, can they grow back?
The elephant's tusks are really teeth that stick out of its mouth. They are connected to the skull and have nerve endings, just like our own teeth. In case a tusk is broken, damaged or removed, it stays that way, it cannot grow back.
How often do elephants give birth?
Elephants are the ones that have the longest gestation period of any other mammal and that is 22 months. The females have their young every four or five years. Herds of elephants have complex social structures that are directed by matriarchs, and are made up of groups of adult females and calves, on the contrary, male elephants usually live in isolation or in small groups of bachelors.
How do elephants help the ecosystem they live in thrive?
Elephants are important engineers in ecosystems. They are used to making paths that cross the dense forests they inhabit, facilitating the transit of other animal species. Many tree species in the forests of central Africa and Asia require seeds to pass through the digestive tract of an elephant before they are able to germinate.
And as if that were not enough, the footprint of an elephant, when filled with water, can facilitate the development of a micro-ecosystem, becoming a home for tadpoles and other organisms.
How do you help humans and elephants coexist peacefully?
Due to the reduction of natural habitats, elephants and humans have been forced into contact, often with tragic effects. The activities to be implemented are those that help prevent and mitigate potential conflict between humans and elephants.
For this purpose, programs are used that try to discourage elephants from approaching crops, adopting better agricultural techniques and creating wildlife corridors to facilitate the migration of elephants in the seasons.
What is the biggest threat facing elephants?
Today, the most significant threat to African elephants is poaching, which fuels the illegal ivory trade. In the case of Asian elephants, the greatest threat to them is habitat loss and the resulting human-elephant conflict that this produces.
Based on the knowledge about illegal wildlife trafficking, the experience in public policies, and using communication tools and campaigns, it is necessary to work closely with the communities and other key actors so that policies that have to protect elephants and their habitats.
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