ASIAN AND AFRICAN ELEPHANT: DESCRIPTION, FACTS, LONGEVITY, BEHAVIOR...

They are huge and intelligent, strong? and sociable.  Humans have been impressed by elephants  for centuries, simply because they are so big - a male African elephant can weigh up to 7.5 tons (6.8 metric tons)! They also amaze us with their long, flexible noses, large flapping ears and loose, wrinkled skin. There are many stories about elephants - you've probably heard of Horton, Babar and Dumbo. The elephant is one of the most famous animals in the world.

Elephants are a "keystone species". If a keystone species becomes extinct or extirpated, the entire ecosystem will change dramatically. Other species depend on the keystone species for their survival. They are also  the largest land animals  on Earth, eating an incredible 50 tonnes of food each year. Here's our guide to the world's largest land mammals, including key facts about both species and their habitat, diet...

1) The African Elephant in 10 Seconds TOP CHRONO

• COMMON NAME:  African elephant
• SCIENTIFIC NAME:  Loxodonta africana
• BASIC GROUP OF ANIMALS:  Mammals
• DIET:  Herbivore
• GROUP NAME:  Herd
• SIZE:  Height at the shoulder, from 2.5 to 4 meters
• WEIGHT:  2.5 to 7 tons
• LIFESPAN:  Up to 80 years (60 years in the wild.)
• HABITAT: Dense tropical forests  and African savannahs? 
• CURRENT POPULATION TREND:  Increasing
• CONSERVATION STATUS:  Vulnerable

2) The Largest Land Animal

The elephant (family Elephantidae), the largest living land animal, is characterized by its  long trunk  (elongated upper lip and nose), columnar legs, and enormous head with temporal glands and large, flat ears. Elephants are grayish to brown in color, and their body hair is sparse and coarse. 

They are most commonly found in  savannas ,  grasslands  , and  forests , but occupy a wide range of habitats, including deserts, swamps, and highlands in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia.

3) How many species of elephants are there?

If all elephants seem the same to you, take a closer look. There are two commonly recognized types of elephants:  the African bush elephant  and  the Asian elephant  . There is ongoing debate over how many subspecies there are, or whether any of them could be species in their own right. Elephants are also the only remaining members of the mammalian order Proboscidea. The order included the extinct woolly mammoth and the American mastodon. 

Today, according to some scientists,  three species of elephants  have survived:

• Asian elephant  (Elephas Maximus)
• African bush elephant  (Loxodonta Africana)
• African Forest Elephant  (Loxodonta Cyclotis)

The common belief that there are "pygmy" elephants and "water" elephants is unfounded; they are likely varieties of African forest elephants. Thus, some taxonomists ?‍? propose that the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is a distinct species from the African bush/savanna elephant, and others believe that there may even be  three species of African elephant  with an additional species called the West African elephant. While African elephants are closely related, the Asian elephant is quite distinct. 

Among Asian elephants, there are three subspecies: 

• The Indian  or continental elephant (E. maximus indicus)
• The Sumatran elephant  (E. maximus sumatranus)
• The Sri Lankan elephant  (E. maximus maximus)

They are distinguished by  physical traits  linked to their geographical location.

4) How to Tell the Difference Between an African Elephant and an Asian Elephant?

There are several anatomical and behavioral differences between the major species:

• Ears  :  The most notable difference is the ears. The ears of the African elephant are much larger than those of its Asian cousin, extending over the shoulder.  Elephants from the African savannahs are said to have large ears that closely resemble those of the African continent. The ears of African forest elephants are more oval. While those of Asian elephants that live in cooler forest areas, have smaller ears that resemble those of the continent of India.

• Tusks:  Both male and female African elephants have long tusks, but only male Asian elephants ♂️ have them (and not all males). Some female Asian elephants have barely visible, stocky tusks.

• Skin  :  The skin of African elephants is very wrinkled - unlike Asian elephants whose skin is not as wrinkled as that of African elephants.

• Head  :  African elephants have more rounded foreheads, while Asian elephants have twin domes on their heads with a notch in the middle.

• Trunk  :  The tip of an African elephant's trunk has two fingers ✌ or "lips"; the Asian elephant's trunk has only one.

• Back  :  While the African elephant's back is concave (with a slight hollow), that of the Asian elephant is convex (slightly rounded).

• Size  :  Generally, African elephants are larger. Adult males weigh up to six tons, while male Asian elephants typically weigh no more than five tons.

5) Questions and Answers about Elephants

A- Are Elephants Mammals?

The elephant is  the largest  land mammal in the world. They are warm-blooded vertebrates that nurse their young with milk produced by mammary glands, and they are hairy creatures (the hair is just small and sparse, so it doesn't look hairy). This means that they meet all the requirements to be mammals.

B- How much does an elephant weigh?

African bush elephants  are not only the largest elephants, but also the largest land animals in the world. They weigh an average of  6,000 kg  and stand 3.2 m (11 ft) at the shoulder on average, while females are about 60 cm (2 ft) shorter and weigh half as much. Male Asian elephants weigh about 4,000 kg (880 lb) and stand 2.75 m (9 ft) at the shoulder, while the African forest elephant, which weighs 2,000 kg (440 lb) and stands 2.2 m (7 ft), is the smallest elephant species.

C- How much does a baby elephant weigh?

Baby elephants? weigh on average  about 100kg , heavier than most adult humans, and some newborns have reached 120kg. These are the figures for African bush elephants - baby elephants of other species are naturally smaller.

D- What is a baby elephant called?

Baby elephants are called  calves  ?

E- Do Baby Elephants Suck Their Trunks?

Yes, they do! As with all young mammals, the suckling reflex of the elephant calf, which prompts it to drink from its mother's breast, is strong. And when a youngster is not feeding,  it may suck its trunk  for comfort, much like a human baby would suck its thumb.

Although trunk sucking is more common in the early stages of life,  elephants of all ages do it , even big old bulls, usually when they are feeling nervous or unsure.

Sometimes an elephant that appears to be sucking its trunk is actually using it  for smelling , placing the tip in its mouth after touching or sniffing feces or urine to assess pheromones produced by other elephants.

F- Can Elephants Be Right or Left Handed?

Yes. Just as humans are right-handed or left-handed, elephants are known to  use one tusk more than the other . This favored appendage is sometimes called the "master tusk" and often appears more worn.

G- How Much Methane Does an Elephant Produce?

Elephants produce  a lot of gas  - methane as a byproduct of digestion. Scientists estimate that the amount of methane they emit in one day would be enough to power a car for 20 miles!

H- Are Elephants Dangerous?

They are well known for living in matriarchal social groups (led by females), and although elephants are respected and revered by people throughout their range in Africa and South Asia, they are also feared because they  can be aggressive and dangerous .

I- When Are Elephants Most Dangerous?

Musth, pronounced "must," is when males experience a 60-fold or greater increase in testosterone levels. These changes prepare them to compete for females and make them much more aggressive. This condition is most pronounced in Asian elephants and can last up to 60 days.  Elephants in musth  hold their heads and ears higher than normal and make a distinctive growling sound. A male elephant in musth can be extremely dangerous to anything in its path.

6) The Elephant; a Key Species

Elephants are a keystone species, meaning they play a vital role in their ecosystem. Also known as “ecosystem engineers,”  elephants shape their habitat  in many ways. During the dry season, they use their tusks to dig into dry riverbeds and create waterholes – where many animals can drink. Their droppings are full of seeds, which helps plants spread throughout the environment.

In the forest, their feasting on trees and shrubs creates passageways for small animals, and in the savannah, they uproot trees and eat the young shoots, helping to  keep the landscape open  for zebras and other plains animals to thrive.

7) Elephant Habitat

Home is where the herd is. African elephants are found in  eastern, central and southern Africa . African savanna elephants live in the grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. The African forest elephant lives in the Congo River basin of west-central Africa.

Asian elephants live throughout  Southeast Asia , from India in the west to the Indonesian islands in the east. Their habitat is scrub forest and rainforest, and they are often found along rivers during the dry months. 

8) The Pachyderm's Diet

All elephant species are herbivores  , consuming only plant material. Elephants eat all types of vegetation (over 100 species of plants) - from grass and fruit to leaves and bark - about 75 to 150 kilos per day, or 4 to 6% of their body weight. They spend an average of 16 hours a day eating! These hungry animals don't sleep much, and they travel great distances while searching for the large quantities of food they need to sustain their massive bodies.

An adult elephant also consumes  about 100 liters of water per day  ; these quantities can double for a hungry and thirsty individual. Such consumption makes elephants an important ecological factor; they significantly affect and even modify the ecosystems in which they live.

A- The Food of the African Elephant

African elephants are grazers and  eat grass , including sedges, flowering plants, leaves, shrubs, and small to medium-sized trees. African forest elephants are browsers and eat leaves, fruits, seeds, roots, branches, and bark.

B- The Diet of the Asian Elephant

Asian elephants are both grazers (feeding on shrubs and trees during the dry season and after heavy rains) and browsers (feeding on grass during the early part of the wet season). They may consume  many species of plants , as well as twigs, bark, and large quantities of bamboo. The choice of plants varies with the seasons. 

C- What does the Elephant eat at the Zoo?

Zoo elephants  eat less than their wild counterparts  - about 120 pounds of food per day - because they don't have to burn as many calories searching for food. Yet adult male African elephants must eat over 70,000 calories per day! Zoo elephants are offered hay, herbivore pellets, acacia, celery, cucumbers - and lettuce daily. Elephants drink 20 to 45 gallons of water per day. They drink by sucking up to 2.5 gallons of water into their trunks and then squirting it into their mouths.

D- The Elephant and Human Cultures

As elephants eat a lot, they come into increasing contact with humans ?‍?. An elephant can  destroy an entire season of crops  in a single night - a severe blow to a farmer, who may want revenge. 

There are a number of  conservation programs  that work with farmers to help them protect their crops (elephants are so smart they can learn to get around electric fences ⚡ quickly!) and provide compensation when an elephant attacks them.

9) Physical Description of the Pachyderm

The bush elephant (Loxodonta africana)  weighs up to 8,000 kg  (9 tonnes) and stands 3–4 metres (10–13 ft) at the shoulder. The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), which lives in tropical forests, was recognised as a separate species in 2000 and is smaller than the bush elephant. It has slender, downward-pointing tusks. 

The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) weighs  about 5,500 kg  and has a shoulder height of up to 3.5 metres. 

A- Fresh Ears

An elephant's ears are  like an air conditioner . When elephants flap their ears on a hot day, the blood flowing through the many blood vessels in the ears is cooled. If they cross a river and splash around in the water, all the better! This ear-flapping behavior cools their large bodies in hot weather.

B- The Loose and Thick Skin of the Elephant

The term "pachyderm" comes from the Greek word pachydermos, meaning " thick-skinned ," and the term often refers to elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses.

An elephant's skin can be up to  1 inch thick  on some parts of its body. It's also loose, which makes it look like the elephant is wearing baggy pants or sagging stockings. But there's a good reason for that: It keeps the animal cool by trapping moisture that takes longer to evaporate. And even though it's thick, elephant skin is also very sensitive to touch and sunburn. Elephants often splash themselves with water or roll in mud or dirt to protect themselves from the sun and biting insects.

C- The Ivory Defenses

Tusks are the incisor teeth of the elephant and are the only incisors the elephant has. They are used for  defense ,  digging  for  food  and  water , and  lifting objects . Tusks present at birth are baby teeth, which are shed after a year when they are about 5 centimeters long. Permanent tusks extend beyond the lips after two or three years and develop throughout the animal's life. The size and shape of tusks are inherited.

African elephants of both sexes ♀️♂️ usually (but not always) have them and among Asian elephants, only males have tusks, and not all males have them, these males are known as muknas.  About 1/3 of the tusks are hidden , buried deep in the elephant's head. This part of the tusk contains a central pulp cavity that contains tissue, blood and nerves.

The visible part of the tusk is  made of ivory  (dentine) beneath the outer layer of enamel, but the distinctive diamond pattern of the elephant's tusk gives it a distinctive sheen not found in the ivory tusks of other mammals such as hippopotamuses, warthogs, walruses and sperm whales, and African elephants are sometimes killed by poachers just for their ivory tusks.

The average size and length of tusks has decreased over time ⏰, which is thought to be  a side effect of selective hunting  of male elephants with larger tusks. As a result, the genetics inherited from large tusks are becoming increasingly rare. 

D- The Biggest Teeth in the Animal World

Elephants also have four molars, one on top and one on the bottom on each side of their mouth.  A molar can weigh about 5 pounds  and is about the size of a brick?! Each elephant can go through up to six sets of molars in its lifetime. (Elephants are hypsodonts, so their teeth are constantly growing.)

New teeth do not erupt vertically, as in most mammals, but  grow from back to front , pushing out the old, worn teeth, like a production line? of teeth moving along the jaw from back to front. As elephants age, their remaining molars become sensitive and worn, so they prefer to eat softer food.

Swamps are  the perfect place for soft plant food , which is why old elephants are often found there. Often, they remain there until they die. This practice has led some people to believe that elephants go to special cemeteries ⚰ to die.

E- The Nose or the Trunk?

La trompe, ou proboscis, de l'éléphant est l'un des organes les plus polyvalents ayant évolué chez les mammifères. Cette structure est unique aux membres de l'ordre des Proboscidea, qui comprend les mastodontes et les mammouths éteints ?. La trompe d'un éléphant est à la fois une lèvre supérieure et un nez. Il y a 8 muscles principaux de chaque côté de la trompe et 150 000 fascicules musculaires (parties de muscles) pour l'ensemble de la trompe. 

Il n'y a ni os ? ni cartilage dans cet appendice unique. La trompe d'un éléphant est si forte qu'elle peut pousser les arbres et si agile qu'elle peut ramasser une seule brindille de paille. Les éléphants utilisent aussi leur trompe comme nous utilisons nos mains : pour saisir, tenir, ramasser, atteindre, toucher, tirer, pousser et lancer. La trompe est grande et puissante, pesant environ 130 kg chez un mâle adulte et capable de soulever une charge d'environ 250 kg. 

La trompe est aussi un nez ?, et possède deux narines à son extrémité qui aspirent l'air par les longues voies nasales et dans les poumons. Les éléphants utilisent également leur trompe pour boire, mais l'eau ne remonte pas jusqu'au nez comme une paille ; au contraire, l'éléphant n'aspire l'eau que sur une partie de la trompe, l'enroule vers sa bouche, incline sa tête vers le haut et laisse l'eau de la trompe se déverser.

L'éléphant d'Asie enroule le plus souvent le bout de sa trompe autour d'un objet et le ramasse selon une méthode appelée "prise", tandis que l'éléphant d'Afrique utilise la "pince" ?, ramassant les objets d'une manière similaire à l'utilisation du pouce et de l'index par un humain. La trompe de l'éléphant d'Afrique est peut-être plus extensible, mais celle de l'éléphant d'Asie est probablement plus habile.

Les éléphants d'Asie ont une petite saillie en forme de doigt à l'extrémité de la trompe. Les éléphants d'Afrique ont deux "doigts". Ces "doigts" (saillies) sont très sensibles et permettent aux éléphants de saisir de très petits objets ?. 

10) Les Troupeaux : La Structure Sociale des Éléphants

A- L'Organisation des Troupeaux

Tous les éléphants sont des animaux de troupeau avec une structure sociale très définie. Les éléphants sont matriarcaux, c'est-à-dire qu'ils vivent en groupes dirigés par des femelles ?. La matriarche est généralement la plus grande et la plus âgée. Elle préside un troupeau multigénérationnel qui comprend d'autres femelles et leurs petits.

The matriarch remembers where and how to find food and water, how to avoid predators, and the best places to take shelter.  She also keeps young elephants  in line and teaches them how to behave in elephant society. 

Male elephants stay with the herd during adolescence, then move away as they grow older. As adults, they tend to roam alone, sometimes forming smaller, less closely related groups of males. African savanna elephants can live in very large  herds of 20 to 70 individuals , while African forest elephants, like Asian elephants, tend to live in smaller herds. 

When groups become too large, "bonding groups" break up but maintain free association. Sometimes groups of elephants allow "strangers" to join them. Living in groups  makes individuals safer  and allows them to devote more time to caring for and training the young.

B- Good Manners in the Elephant Herd

Manners? are important in elephant society.  The trunk is used for greeting  : a lower-ranking animal will insert the tip of its trunk into the mouth of another. A trunk may be held out to an approaching elephant to greet it and is also used for petting, bonding, wrestling and checking breeding status.

11) Elephant Predators 

Baby elephants can be a potential meal for hyenas, lions, leopards or crocodiles, but as long as they stay close to their mother or herd, they have nothing to worry about. If an elephant senses danger, it lets out a loud alarm call to alert the others. The herd then forms  a protective ring, with the young in the middle  and the adults facing out to confront a potential predator. The only enemy of a healthy adult elephant is a human poacher with a powerful rifle.

12) Reproduction and Life Cycle of the Elephant

Having a baby elephant is a serious commitment? Elephants have  a longer gestation period  than any other mammal. Females typically give birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh about 90 kg and are about one meter tall.

A- The Gestation Period of Elephants

African elephants have  a gestation period of 22 months , while Asian elephants have a gestation period of 18 to 22 months. Elephants typically give birth only two or three times in ten years, and young elephants may nurse for a few years.

B- The Musth Period

Elephants live in small family groups led by older females (called cows). When food is plentiful,  the groups come together . Most males (bulls) live in bachelor herds. Both males and females have two glands that open between the eye and the ear. Elephants of all ages and sexes secrete a fluid called temporin from this open