Today something more has to be revealed to you about the types of elephants, those phenomenal and interesting creatures. From where they live to what resembles each of the types of elephants that exist on the planet. Would you like to know the type of elephants and their qualities?
What are the types of elephants?
Currently two classes of elephants are known, which are made up of Asian and African elephants, they are quite similar, they only differ in shape, size, trunk and tusks that certain breeds are large and others are shorter.
To discover how to successfully recognize one and the other, this section has been organized, with the main contrasts between the types of elephants that are found in the world today, it is interesting to know the endangered elephant.
Traits of the various types of elephants
They are highlighted in detail in order to know a little, how to know what covers the elephants and what that particularity is like.
Weight and size
Although an African elephant can weigh as much as its Asian counterpart, it is essential that the main species is heavier than the second. An individual African elephant can weigh between 4.000 and 7.000 kilograms, while an Asian one can weigh between 3.000 and 6.000.
In shoulder height, Africans change from three to four meters in a period of time to three and a half meters from their Asian relatives, making them taller. In this sense, the highest purpose of their life systems is the shoulders, while Asia's is situated on the back.
Skin
The skin also establishes a state of contrast between the two species. The African elephant is substantially more wrinkled and lumpy than the Asian elephant.
Fangs, trunks and nails
While African elephants of both sexes have tusks, even though those of males are larger, in Asians they are seen more on males and females simply have simple tusks or no tusks at all.
Fangs
The appreciation of its trunk in the Asian elephant has a more solid consistency than that of the African, however, it has fewer rings and a solitary finger, located on the lower edge of its tip, different from the two fingers or expansions, one in the area low and the other in the upper area, which is at the tip of the African elephant's trunk.
French horn
Elephants have huge support limbs and therefore have nails on each of their fingers, they are very peculiar because there are elephants that have four on their base limbs like Africans and five in the case of Asians.
Nails
Differences in essential body parts
- An African elephant has up to 21 sets of ribs, to the 20 that Asians have, and their ears are larger and fall to the neck, which they can exceed.
- Therefore, its trailing part represents a curved shape of an arched or rectilinear leg of its family and its stomach falls inclined towards its trailing legs.
- The belly of the Asian elephant, meanwhile, is practically straight or set in the center.
Regarding the head, the Asian has it twisted from front to back, with projecting structures at the tip of the head and a protuberance at the temple; completely different from that of the African, which has not bent or has any gouge.
Characteristics that the types of elephants show
In rural areas of India, families in charge of a blind minor frequently isolate and deprive him/her of the care and attention they provide to their other children; such situation becomes even more severe among lower-caste families, orphans and if the blind child is a girl. characteristics of elephants It stands out that they are very stocky animals that come from the elephantidae lineage and have a very special classification, they are giants, they walk in groups, they take care of each other.
Elephants live, in nature, in parts of Asia and Africa, they are the largest that exist today, when they are born, and after almost two years of pregnancy, they weigh 100-120 kilograms, also interesting to know?what do elephants eat?
Their tusks, in case they are species with them, are made of ivory, deeply valued, being hunted in numerous events to acquire said ivory. Due to this persecution, numerous species have become extinct, and part of those that remain are, unfortunately, in real danger of disappearing.
How many types of elephants are there?
There are currently two types of elephants to consider:
- What are the Asian Elephants: they originate from the Elephas type and in turn this has 3 classes that define it.
- And the African Elephants: they come from the Loxodonta variety, which also has 2 classes that determine it.
In total, it could be said that there are 5 types of elephants. On the other hand, there is a sum of 8 types of elephants that are currently extinct. Next, each of them will be described:
African elephants
Within the classes of African elephants, two more typologies have been discovered: the African forest elephant and the savannah elephant. Although both classes have been considered similar until now.
A few specialists accept that these are two hereditarily unequal classes, although this has not been indisputably illustrated. They have huge ears and huge fangs, which can match 2 meters in length.
savannah african
Sometimes called the bush elephant, Loxodonta africana or scrub elephant, today it is the largest warm-blooded creature on earth, featuring males up to 4 meters tall and up to 7.5 meters long and weighing up to 10 tons.
They have a huge head with huge fangs in the upper jaw, they are extremely durable, with a future life of up to 50 years in the wild and 60 in captivity. Their pursuit is totally prohibited in light of the fact that the class is in real danger of disappearing.
forest african
Also called Loxodonta cyclotis or wild African elephant, this class is found in central places in Africa, including Gabon, it is distinguished by its small size, reaching only a limit of 2.5 meters high.
asian elephants
Asian elephants can be found in various areas of Asia, for example Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. They contrast from Africans in that they are smaller and their ears are relatively smaller. Three classes are recognized within the Asian elephant:
Sumatran or Elephas maximus sumatranus
It is a very small elephant, barely 2 meters tall, it is considered to be at risk of disappearing. With more than seventy-five percent of their home range having been crushed, Sumatran elephant populations have declined so much that it is expected to be over in a couple of years. It is common on the island of Sumatra.
Indian or Elephas maximus indicus
It is the second largest among the Asian elephants and the most abundant. It can be found in various places in India and has small fangs. Borneo elephants are seen as a species of Indian elephant, not a particular class.
Sri Lankan or Elephas maximus maximus
This class can be found on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, it is believed to be the most gigantic of the Asian elephants, measuring more than 3 meters tall with 6 tons of weight.
extinct elephants
Although there are only African and Asian elephants today, including their comparison class, there are many more types of elephant classes that no longer exist today. A part of these annihilated elephant families are:
Elephants of the Loxodonta variety
There is the Carthaginian Elephant, which is also called Loxodonta africana pharaoensis, it was located in North Africa or Atlas elephant, despite the fact that it was eliminated in Roman seasons. They are celebrated for being the class in which Hannibal crossed the Alps and Pyrenees in the Second Punic War.
Loxodonta exoptata: it is a class that was located in demarcations of East Africa for many millions of years. According to taxonomists, it is the forerunner of the savannah elephant and the African forest elephant.
Elephants of the genus Elephas
Within the types of elephants of the Elephas class are:
The renowned Chinese elephant, one of the eliminated families of the Asian elephant, is believed to have been located in the XNUMXth century, in southern and central China.
Likewise, another class is obtained as the Syrian elephant, another family eliminated from the Asian elephant, being a class that lived in the most western place of all. He lived until 100 a. c.
