Have you ever wondered what do elephants eat? If the answer is yes, in the next section you will learn a lot about it, elephants are mammals, diet feedingón the elephant It really isn't complicated at all.
Elephant Characteristics
Elephants are relatives of the mammoth and are considered the largest land creatures on earth. They are distinguished by having a touch sensitive and portable long trunk and by their remarkable excellence and gigantic size. In any case, they are also known to be on the list of endangered creatures, mainly among those that are hunted for their meat or ivory.
The elephant is a wise, herbivorous, warm-blooded creature with plenty of memories in history, friendly and a defender of its crowd. Logically named Elephantidae, the elephant has a place with the pachyderm collection, which also incorporates other famous species referred to, for example rhinos, hippos, ungulates, and wild pigs.
One of its transcendental attributes, like its most characteristic physical part, is its long trunk. With no bone structure, however, with more than 350,000 muscles, this attribute allows it to reach high branches to feed on trees and their fruits.
For practically everything, these animals require their trunk, the day to day and the exercises that elephants do, they need to use their trunk. In any case, there are different attributes of elephants that are important to know.
Primary qualities and attributes of elephants.
Despite their size, elephants can travel at speeds of 40 km/h. They manage to live somewhere in the range of 40 and 60 years, despite the fact that in specific cases they can reach up to 90 years.
Regarding their reproduction, the females incubate every 4 to 5 years, after 22 months of growth, and take care of their young for a considerable period of time, with regular support from different females in the group.
In order to communicate, elephants use low-recurrence sounds to talk to each other, as well as their trunk, which acts as a significant arm to carry out practically each of their activities. Something characteristic of these animals is that they welcome each other, for example, when approaching or retiring.
These creatures are distinguished by their incredible memory. Their mind, the largest in the animal collective, allows them to remember the individuals of their meeting for the duration of their activities, regardless of whether they do not live with them.
Types of Elephants: The Two Living Species
Despite the fact that in the past there were more than 300 examples of elephants, today only two examples persevere, the African and the Asian. The two examples share numerous qualities, for example being solid, strong, substantial, and incredible creatures with long trunks and thick, wrinkled skin with little hair. Be that as it may, there are clear contrasts between the two species.
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African elephant
The center of the largest numbering of elephants is this family, which includes a few adult animals, their equally small girls, and their prepubescent sons. It is considered as the endangered elephant with the highest vulnerability index.
At least two nuclear families that have close ties were named a "connection reunion" by Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who observed African bush elephants for 4,5 years in Lake Manyara National Park. The nuclear family is led by a female authority who from time to time leads the connection group.
Group size changes between geographic destinations and at various seasons. In Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, assemblages are largest in the stormy season and in areas with open vegetation. It is not considered one of the poisonous animals most dangerous on the planet.
Aerial views in the late 1960s to mid-1970s uncovered a normal herd size of at least 6 elephants in Uganda's Rwenzori National Park and around 30 in the Chambura Game Reserve. In both destinations, the elephants accumulate during the wet season, although the groups are usually smaller in the dry season.
The herds of these elephants participate together in the search for food and water, in the protection of the herd, and in thinking about the posterity of the herd, called allomothering. The youngest gradually separate from the nuclear family when they are somewhere in the range of 10 and 19 years of age. They run alone for quite some time or structure every male meeting.
Asian elephant
The Asian elephant is the largest creature in Asia. Since 1986, the Asian elephant has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as the population has declined by 50 percent over the last three ages of the elephant, which is around 60 to 75 years.
It is basically compromised by loss of living space, corruption of living space, fracture, and pursuit by hunters. In 2003, the wild population was assessed to be somewhere in the 40 or 50 range. Female hostage elephants have lived for over 60 years when kept in semi-common environmental factors, eg, forest camps.
In zoos, Asian elephants die at a much younger age; The hostage population is declining due to the low birthrate and high death rate. He gestation time of an elephant it is usually different compared to other mammalian animals belonging to the same wild group or family.
This genus began in sub-Saharan Africa during the Pliocene and spread throughout Africa before venturing into the southern part of Asia. The most specific signs of the hostage use of Asian elephants are the inscriptions on the seals of the Indus Valley civilization dating from the third thousand years BC.
The Asian elephant is smaller than the African one and has the most prominent point of the body on the head. The back is arched. The ears are small with dorsal fringes collapsed along one side.
It has up to 20 sets of ribs and 34 caudal vertebrae. The feet have more nail-like structures than those of African elephants: five on each forefoot and four on each hind foot.
Where do elephants live?
For starters, the approximately 400,000 African elephants that live in the wild require formidable tracts of land to live on, as well as vast amounts of food and water. In particular, these pachyderms are isolated in two subspecies, the savannah elephants, which are the most recorded and the largest, and the wild elephants of Africa.
The former are better used to living in territories with warm atmospheres, for example, in the savannah, where their huge ears help them spread the heat and prevent them from overheating, while the latter generally have somewhat colder and increasingly colder places. humid, for example, forests and moors.
In both cases, the elephant assemblages are sorted into social structures with a lead matron, the most experienced and knowledgeable female in the gathering, along with different females and their calves, for the most part not separated from each other or within two meters. away from their moms.
In this way, the females prove to be social creatures, firm, defensive and admirers of family life. Boys, once again, will generally separate to live in isolation when they reach youth, despite the fact that they may also be grouped with different types, however, the ties that unite them are not as close as in the case of the females.
What do elephants eat?
It is considered that these animals have a fairly broad diet, that is to say, filling their stomach is not easy, their large size and musculature demand a greater consumption of nutrients and their metabolism, because it is fast, requires a daily intake of at least 110 to 140 kilograms of feed, they can eat vegetables and leaves.
It should be noted that elephant mothers consume much higher amounts of food given their milk-creation needs. Regarding the young, which weigh up to 100 kg during childbirth, their parents take care of them until they are three years old, although they can sometimes eat some types of plants.
Little by little, the physiognomic compartment of elephants, which is framed by the nose and upper lip, assumes an important job in the task of care and tracking. They use it to feel, drink, smell and select the most delicate and tempting foods, as if it were a hand nose.
On the other hand, elephants must also relax and drink plenty of water, ingesting up to 10 liters of water per drink, 140 liters per day. This is the reason why these creatures need to be constantly near water sources to satisfy their needs.
Therefore, it is not unexpected to see traces of plant filaments and even whole leaves in the stool. In this sense, it is also essential to see elephants escaping from their own defecation and that of others to obtain more food, particularly in territories where there could be seasons of food deficiencies, for example, some in Africa.
