Amazing information you do not know about elephants
Elephants are among the animals that most people love and that we are all keen to visit, whether in zoos or to see them in any of the places designated for them. Many people like to feed the elephant by hand, but the elephant is not just an animal that we like to see and feed, there is a lot of information What many people may not know about the elephant, you should know about it. In this article, we explain amazing information that you do not know about the elephant.
Social life
Female elephants live in a herd of approximately 10 individuals under the leadership of the ruling female who is more experienced, while males live alone and move from herd to herd. Females in the herd help others to obtain food and take care of the young.
Elephants cannot lie down to sleep; Because of the straight legs which give them good support.
Elephants communicate within the herd or with other herds at a distance of several kilometers through low sounds or through their footprints.
Elephants in one herd may be cooperative, and the elephant herd is one of the most cohesive societies of any other animal. As the female never leaves the herd except in the event of her death or if she is caught by humans, and the males leave the herd upon reaching the age of 12 years and live within the bachelor herd until they mature and then live alone.
Elephants sleep about two or three hours every day. Because they need to spend most of the day eating to support their huge body, and elephants eat approximately 150 kilograms of herbs per day.
Teeth and fangs
A person is born without teeth, then a number of deciduous teeth grow, and these teeth are eventually lost, and permanent adult teeth grow in their place. Likewise, an elephant is born without tusks, then the deciduous tusks grow, and then replace them with permanent tusks.
The tusks of female Asian elephants are smaller. Elephants use tusks for digging and lifting heavy objects, and sometimes they use them as part of marriage rituals.
- Although hunting elephants is illegal; However, there are many hunters who hunt elephants in order to obtain their ivory tusk.
Because of the elephant's herbal diet, its teeth may wear out quickly. An elephant has 6 to 7 sets of teeth, unlike humans, who only have two sets.
Elephants that live alone usually die of starvation, but herd elephants help each other to get food.
Elephant trunk
- The elephant's trunk is the specialized nose that is similar to the tentacles of an octopus in its dexterity, and the elephant's trunk allows it to manipulate things, and children have been taught drawing through its skilled trunk.
- Elephants can open uncomplicated closed locks, and some skilled elephants can open more complex closed locks, and this is impossible for other animals; Where they lack dexterity and intelligence.
- Elephants in the zoo work together in cooperation, where some elephants keep watching the closed locks until they have the opportunity to open it, or one elephant pretends to be injured as a distraction so that the other elephant smuggles the rest of the elephants.
Elephant intelligence
Elephants are among the most intelligent animals on Earth. The brain of elephants contains more complex folds than the rest of the animals, with the exception of the whale, which is believed to be the important factor in their intelligence.
Elephants show some expressions such as: joy, sadness, sympathy, cooperation, awareness, the ability to use tools, and their excellent ability to learn.
– The elephant surprised the zookeepers in Korea that it could imitate the orders that were given to it, by interacting at the top of its trunk, and it also succeeded in learning eight words while executing them.
- The elephant's brain weighs about 5 kilograms, which is the largest weight in the weights of wild animals.
Mating at the elephant
The female elephant is fertilized every year in a few days, and during this time the male elephant tries to court the female through some signals with touching the hose, and if the female elephant is accepted to the male, she responds to him with some similar gestures and signals, within 20 minutes or so Almost so will be mating.
When a female elephant becomes pregnant, this pregnancy lasts for 22 months, and this period is the longest pregnancy for any wild animal.
Some elephants speed up childbirth by treating themselves using some special plants.
- Elephants are four-legged, unlike humans, so the pelvis in elephants is wider and larger than that of humans, and the percentage of deaths and birth complications is lower in elephants compared to humans.
- Baby elephants, when they are born, cannot see, and they suck their trunk for comfort, like a newborn human being who sucks a thumb.
Young elephants have a survival instinct, they learn from their mothers, and they may gain experiences from the rest of the herd.
The mother chooses a lot of elephants to take care of her young, while she eats enough food to produce milk for the young.
Elephant age
The age of the elephant ranges between 60 to 80 years. Elephants respect the dead, and they have special rituals when burying them.
- The elephant animal is like humans, as it has rituals when sick and dying. If the elephant becomes sick, the members of the herd come to bring it water and food, and invite it to recover.
- If the elephant died, the rest of the herd would try to revive it by offering it water and food for a period of time, and if it was confirmed that it had died, the herd would become very calm, which indicates sadness.
Sometimes the herd puts the body of the elephant in a hole, then the hole is covered with dirt and some tree branches, and the herd stays next to the elephant’s grave for several days, and if there is an elephant that has a close relationship with the deceased elephant, then it becomes depressed.
types of elephants
In the English language, when we mention the elephant, we actually refer to several types of elephants. Until 2010 AD, there were two types of elephants recognized scientifically, but genetic tests have shown that there are at least 3 different types of elephants, which we explain as follows:
1- The Asian elephant Alpha Maximus
This species is the smallest species of elephants in size, it has small ears and tusks, and it also has two prominent protrusions above its forehead, and its head is moderate or more erect than all African elephants, and the upper lips of the Asian elephant are not thick, and it has lips at the end of the trunk that resemble a finger.
2- African elephant “Bush luxodonta”
It is also called the savanna elephant, and it has wonderfully curved tusks, and its ear is larger than that of the Asian elephant.
3- African Forest Elephant “Loxodonta silicus”
The ear of forest elephants is also larger than the ear of the Asian elephant, but it is distinguished from the African elephant in that it is round in shape and has less hair. It has large, somewhat straight tusks. It has two lips at the end of the trunk that resemble a finger.
It should be noted here that most elephants are most active during dawn and evening, and all types of elephants are at risk.
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