A single ear may weigh as much as one hundred pounds. When an elephant is angry or feels threatened, it may respond by spreading its ears wide and facing whatever it may perceive as a threat. Both are born with small brain masses. Similar to a human being, there is considerable growth and development in the brain as a young elephant grows up. As the mass of the brain increases so does the learning ability of young elephants. Brain size provides a rough measure of mental flexibility; large mammalian brains are associated with superior intelligence and complex social behavior.
The skull, parts of which are six inches thick, contains many air spaces making the inside appear something like a honeycomb or sponge. This adaptation has allowed the skull to grow to a large size without enormous weight.
The legs of an elephant are in an almost vertical position under the body, like the legs on a table. This design provides strong support for the massive body and huge weight that the legs have to carry. It also allows elephants to sleep standing up without the risk of their legs buckling. Elephant skin lacks moisture so it must be loose, especially around the joints, to provide the necessary flexibility for motion. The skin of the African elephant is more wrinkled than that of the Asian elephant.
The pink or light brown areas of skin on some Asian elephants are from a lack of pigmentation. This lack of pigmentation can be influenced by genetics, nutrition, habitat and age. The condition is not seen in African elephants. The natural color is grayish black, but an elephant usually appears to be the same color as the soil where the elephant lives.
One way a person regulates body temperature is by sweating — on a person, sweat glands are located throughout their skin. Elephants have very few sweat glands. The few sweat glands that an elephant has are located on the foot, near the cuticles.
This results in a skin that is dry to the touch but soft and supple. If you look at an elephant on a hot day, you may see a wet area around the top of their toenails. The only visible glands that are found on the skin of an elephant are the mammary glands and the temporal glands.
Elephants have one temporal gland on each side of the head between the eye and the ear. The temporal gland is a large gland, much like a sweat gland, that sometimes produces a secretion that trickles down the side of the face.
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The tusks are actually elongated incisor teeth that first appear at two around years of age. To give you an idea of just how many elephants are lost to the ivory trade, in the 's there were 1. Elephants also have rather large ears. They are designed this way to pump blood around them to help cool the elephant down under the hot African sun.
The more the ears flap, the hotter the elephant is. They say an elephant never forgets. This could be because they are extremely intelligent creatures and have brains that can weigh as much as kg. The skin of an elephant can be up to 2. Despite this, elephants are very prone to skin parasites and use mud and dust baths to try and get rid of them, as well as to cool off. Elephant have six sets of teeth that grow one set after another, throughout their lives.
By the time they reach their 50's, most elephant have started to use their final set. Elephant Social behaviour Elephants are social animals who tend to live in large groups. There is usually one leader, the matriarch, who is often the oldest female, with the rest of the herd being made up of her own offspring. Being the oldest, she has the experience and knowledge that will ensure the survival of the herd in times of hardship. She will take them to water and food beyond their usual range, and teach them how to protect themselves from danger.
Young females will usually stay with the herd, whilst the males leave the herd during adolescence between the ages of 10 and 19 years to lead the life of a more solitary bull elephant. Family life is definitely all about mums and their babies, although the male elephants are usually not too far away, keeping an eye on their offspring.
Elephant Communication Elephants are highly intelligent, social animals that use a variety of different means to communicate with each other. Like humans, they love to talk to each other by vocalising a range of calls and sounds. Research shows that as many as 70 different calls have already been identified, ranging from the loud trumpets of panic to the comforting rumbles of reassurance. They also use infrasound sounds that are at a frequency inaudible to humans calls which can be heard up to 14km away.
Recent evidence also suggests that they may also be able to communicate through seismic waves that pass through the ground, which they pick up through their sensitive feet. Like many other animals, elephants also use smells to pick up information about other elephants and their environment. For example, a male can tell when a female is ready to mate from the chemical signs she leaves in her urine and faeces.
This, combined with the characteristic calls of that time, ensures that all the local males will know when the time is right to compete for her affections.
Elephants secrete chemicals from temporal glands that are behind their eyes. We do not fully understand their function but it does appear to be linked to chemical communication. Elephant Reproduction Reproduction is one of the most important elements of nature. It ensures the continuation of every species, and every species does it differently!
In the elephant world, females are generally ready to become a mum at around years old and can give birth to as many as 12 calves throughout the course of their lives. Whilst we consider the human gestation period to be lengthy, at a mere 9 months, be thankful you are not an elephant! The average gestation period for a female elephant is a whopping 22 months. Female elephants must have a thing for the older man, as males do not come into their prime until they are between years of age.
Musth is a periodic condition in bull elephants that is characterised by highly aggressive behaviour and is accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones. Testosterone levels in an elephant in musth can be as much as 60 times greater than in the same elephant at other times. Musth can last for as long as six months in the dominant males and they will often stop feeding for several days during this period of time.
Elephant Love and Relationships Rumour has it that elephants mate for life. Whilst this is not necessarily true, animal scientist have proven that they will never stray far from mating partners.
They are known to be able to develop strong and intimate bonds between friends and family members. They can form lifelong friendships and will often only move in the same groups for their entire life. Elephants are also known to mourn the death of a loved one, and have even been seen grieving over stillborn calves, or baby elephants who do not survive the first few months of life.
Family groups have even been known to return to the locations where friends or family members died and linger there for some time. Elephants need excellent memory skills in order to survive in the wild, and can recognise a previous companion or family member by the scent of their urine alone. So, whilst elephants may not quite be as romantic as we like to think they are, there is certainly a lot of evidence that they do form strong bonds with their own social networks.
Elephants can live for up to 70 years in the wild, so being part of a group is important to them. Baby Elephant Facts Baby elephants are cute - there are no two ways about that. But, they are also highly evolved and one of the most advanced species when it comes to their new born capabilities. A baby elephant is called a calf and can weigh around lbs 91 kg and stand about 3 feet 1 m tall. They can't see very well when they are born, but much like human babies, they can recognise their mothers by touch, scent, and sound.
For the first few months, the babies stay very close to their mothers for food, warmth and support. They are hungry little things too, and can consume as much as 3 gallons of their mothers milk every day. Weaning is not a speedy process for elephants either, as babies can continue to drink their mothers milk until they are as much as 10 years old.
Luckily, the female elephant community is social and supportive, with young calves being tended to not only by their mothers, but also by other females in the herd. When a new baby is born, all of the females in the group trumpet the news and announce the new arrival. Within minutes of being born, the calf must stand on its own four feet, literally.
Calves need to be upright in order to reach their mothers milk, otherwise they will perish. For the first year of their lives, their trunks are not something they are able to control very well.
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