The appearance of an elephant description. elephant life

The elephant is the largest land mammal on Earth. These giants are early childhood evoke positive emotions in us. Most people believe that elephants are smart and calm. And in many cultures, the elephant is a symbol of happiness, peace and home comfort.

Elephant species

Today there are three types of elephants on the planet, which belong to two genera.

African elephants are divided into two types:

• The bush elephant is an animal of huge size, with a dark color, well-developed tusks and two small processes located at the end of the trunk. Representatives of this species live along the equator on the territory of the African continent;
• the forest elephant is distinguished by its relatively small stature (up to 2.5 m) and rounded ears. This species lives in the tropical forests of Africa. These species, by the way, often interbreed and produce viable offspring.

The Indian elephant is much smaller than the African, but has a more powerful physique and disproportionately short legs. The color can be from dark gray to brown. These animals are distinguished by small quadrangular auricles and one process at the very end of the trunk. The Indian elephant is an animal common in the subtropical and tropical forests of China and India, Laos and Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Description of the elephant

Depending on the species, the growth of an elephant at the withers ranges from 2 to 4 meters. The weight of an elephant varies from 3 to 7 tons. African elephants (especially savannas) sometimes weigh up to 12 tons. The powerful body of this giant is covered with thick skin (up to 2.5 cm thick) of gray or Brown with deep wrinkles. Baby elephants are born with sparse coarse bristles, and adults have almost no vegetation.

Large with large hanging ears, which have a fairly large inner surface. At the base they are very thick, and closer to the edges - thin. Elephant's ears are the regulator of heat exchange. By fanning them, the animal provides cooling for its own body.

An elephant is an animal with a rather specific voice. The sounds that an adult makes are called boars, lowing, whispering and roaring. in nature - about 70 years. In captivity, this period can be extended by five to seven years.

Trunk

An elephant is an animal with a unique organ. The trunk reaches a length of about one and a half meters and its weight is about one hundred and fifty kilograms. This organ is formed by the nose and fused upper lip. More than 100 thousand muscles and tendons make it flexible and strong.

The ancestors of elephants, who inhabited the Earth in the distant past, lived in swamps. They had a very small proboscis, which allowed the animal to breathe underwater, while foraging. Over millions of years of evolution, elephants left the swampy areas, significantly increased in size, respectively, the elephant's trunk adapted to new conditions.

Carries heavy loads, picks juicy bananas from palm trees and puts them in his mouth, draws water from reservoirs and arranges a refreshing shower for himself during the heat, makes loud trumpeting sounds, smells.

Surprisingly, the elephant's trunk is a multifunctional tool that is quite difficult for little elephants to learn how to use, often the cubs even step on their proboscis. Elephant mothers are very patient, for several months they teach their cubs the art of using this much-needed “process”.

Legs

An amazing fact, but the legs of an elephant have two kneecaps. Such an unusual structure made this giant the only mammal that cannot jump. In the very center of the foot is a fat pad that springs up with every step. Thanks to her, it can move almost silently.

Tail

An elephant's tail is about the same length as hind legs. At the very tip of the tail is a tuft of coarse hair. With the help of such a brush, the elephant drives away insects.

Distribution and lifestyle

African elephants have mastered almost the entire territory of Africa: Senegal and Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya, the Republic of the Congo and Guinea, South Africa and Sudan. They feel great in Somalia and Zambia. The main part of the population lives in national reserves: this is how African governments protect these animals from poachers.

An elephant can live in territories with any landscape, but desert and dense zones rainforest tries to avoid, preferring the savannah to them.

Indian elephants mainly live in the south and northeast of India, in China, Thailand, on the island of Sri Lanka. Animals are found in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia. Unlike their African counterparts, they prefer wooded areas, choosing dense shrubs and bamboo thickets.

Elephants live in herds, in which all individuals are related by kinship. These animals know how to greet each other, take care of their offspring in a very touching way and never leave their group.

Another amazing feature of these huge animals is that they can laugh. An elephant is an animal that, despite its size, is a good swimmer. Moreover, elephants are very fond of water procedures. On land, they move at an average speed (up to six kilometers per hour). While running for short distances, this figure increases to fifty kilometers per hour.

Eating elephants in nature

Researchers have calculated that about sixteen hours a day elephants devote to the absorption of food. During this time, they eat up to 300 kg of various vegetation. An elephant eats grass with pleasure (including papyrus, cattail in Africa), bark and leaves of trees (for example, ficus in India), rhizomes, fruits wild apples, bananas, marula and even coffee. Elephants and agricultural plantations do not bypass, causing them significant damage. This applies primarily to crops of sweet potato, corn and a number of other crops.

Elephants get food with the help of tusks and trunk, and chew it with molars, which change as they grind down. In zoos, the diet of elephants is much more diverse: they are fed with greens and hay, they are given various vegetables and fruits. Especially willingly they eat apples and pears, cabbage, carrots and beets, they love to feast on watermelons.

Adults drink a lot of water - up to 300 liters per day, so in vivo they try to stay near bodies of water.

The African bush elephant is a representative of the proboscis order, the elephant family. This is the largest mammal of our time. Latin name species - Loxodonta africana. Let's get to know this amazing animal better.

The African elephant now has a limited distribution area - the southern and western parts of the African continent after the Sahara desert. Previously, this giant also inhabited North Africa, but subsequently died out.

Where does the elephant live

Now animals have a discontinuous range, especially in the western part of the continent and are mainly concentrated in national parks and other protected areas. The number of the species is declining, now the animals have completely died out in the Gambia, Burundi, Mauritania, and the total area of ​​\u200b\u200bsettlement has decreased by almost 6 times: from 30 to just over 5 million km 2.

Most often you can meet an elephant on the territory of the savannas, in such states of Africa:

Arid deserts and impenetrable rainforests the giant tries to avoid.

Appearance description

The following distinguishing features will help you recognize the savannah elephant:

• A heavy massive body about 7–7.5 meters long, 2.5–3.5 meters high ( highest point bodies).
• Average weight: male about 5 tons, female - 2.7 tons.
• Short neck.
• Big head.
• Barrel-shaped limbs.
• Ears of impressive size up to 1.5 m long.
• Wrinkled skin up to 4 cm thick dark gray.
• In young individuals, hair on the body can be observed, which is gradually wiped off; in old elephants, only a black tassel remains on the tail.
• The tail is more than a meter long, the number of caudal vertebrae is up to 26.
• There are 5 hooves on the hind limbs, 4–5 on the forelimbs.
• Under the skin of the sole is a springy mass, a kind of fatty pad, which makes the giant's gait almost silent and allows him to move through the swampy lowlands.
• Powerful tusks. The older the animal, the longer they are. In an adult animal, they can reach a length of 2.5 meters and a weight of 60 kg.
• A brush of coarse hair at the tip of the tail helps the animal drive away obsessive insects.
• Large molars. The size of each is about 30 cm, weight is more than 3.5 kg. However, with age, they are erased, by the age of 70 they can no longer chew food, so the animal dies of exhaustion.
• Average duration life African elephant– about 70 years old.

The trunk is long and muscular, about one and a half meters long and weighing more than 130 kg. Represents fused upper lip and nose, while ending in two processes, ventral and dorsal. It is a very mobile and strong organ due to a complex system of tendons and muscles. Here are some more numbers:

Giant ears are adaptations for survival in arid climates. They not only play the role of a fan, but also at the expense of impressive area and excellent blood supply give the animal the opportunity to get rid of excess heat.

Like human fingerprints, the pattern of veins on the surface of the ears is unique, it is possible to identify the animal by it.

Leather African elephants very sensitive to scorching sunlight and insect bites, so animals have to constantly take baths - dust and mud, to protect it.

Lifestyle

Savannah elephants prefer to live in small families, headed by a female - animals recognize matriarchy. Also, to the elephant family includes older daughters of the main female with offspring and immature individuals - both males and males. As you can see, sexually mature males are not included in the family.

As soon as the male reaches 10–12 years old, he is expelled from the herd. Many individuals at first follow the maternal herd at some distance, but gradually get used to a solitary lifestyle or form male companies.

Elephants have an excellent sense of smell and keen hearing, but very poor eyesight. Despite the fact that elephants are land animals, they can swim and love to splash in the water.

How do elephants communicate? They can make trumpet sounds so loud they can be heard from miles away. or use language touches. Often, over the corpse of a dead relative, elephants emit a lingering trumpet sound.

African elephants spend most of their day wandering in search of food, without favorable conditions families can unite in herds.

Adult elephants prefer to sleep standing up, while it is quite difficult for old individuals to get comfortable due to impressive tusks, which is why you have to put them on a termite mound or lean on the branches of a tree. Baby elephants will sleep on the ground for a while.

Nutrition

What does an elephant eat? African elephants are herbivorous, eating leaves, tree bark, shoots, roots. Elderly elephants they prefer marsh soft greens, which even the animal's teeth that have lost their sharpness can cope with.

The constant availability of water is very important for these giants, because they drink at least 10 liters per day.

During periods of drought at waterholes, elephants line up in order of seniority to quench their thirst.

The appetite of this giant is impressive - the animal eats about 300 kg per day! Often, animals devastate plantations, causing serious damage agriculture. They get food with the help of a flexible trunk and tusks, and chew with molars.

reproduction

As a rule, African elephants give offspring in the second half of the rainy season. During the drought sexual activity animals is reduced, females do not ovulate.

To find a female, the male may move across the savannah for several weeks.

The pregnancy of elephants is quite long - from 20 to 2 months, one cub is born, cases birth of twins very little was recorded. The baby appears about a meter tall, weighing 100-120 kg, without tusks with a small proboscis.

The process of childbirth itself is also interesting: the woman in labor moves away from the herd, but the midwife-elephant accompanies her. A newborn baby elephant rises to its feet within 15 minutes after birth, but will stay with mother up to 4 years. At the same time, young females of the herd will surround him with care and attention, as if playing the role of nannies. The elephant continues to feed the baby with milk until he reaches 2–5 years, but from the second year the baby elephant can already take solid food. Interestingly, the mother elephant teaches her child to use the trunk: at first, the baby is completely unsuited to this and often steps on his own trunk.

Childbirth occurs once every 3–9 years, until the birth of the next baby, the baby elephant remains with the mother.

Females are ready to mate after reaching 7 years of age, but while living in adverse conditions This time can be shifted up to 19 or even 22 years old. Fertility lasts up to 60 years, one female can bear up to 9 cubs in her life.

Males become ready to breed at 10–12 years old, but rarely start before 25, since competition from older individuals is very strong. From 25 years old males occasionally fall into a state of must, the level of testosterone in their blood increases more than 50 times, causing the animals to become active and aggressive.

Unfortunately, more recently, the number of African giants has become less and less every year in the world. There are several reasons for this:

• Desertification of lands.
• The destruction of elephants by man for the sake of obtaining a bone. Even now, despite protection measures, poachers manage to ruthlessly destroy savannah elephants.
• The rapid growth of population and cities is crowding out animals with centuries of habitable territories.

Development Agriculture, land development by man is making the area suitable for African elephants less and less. Now these animals are under protection, live in national parks and reserves, so their complete extinction was avoided and even stabilized in numbers. In some cases, it is even necessary to restrain the growth of the population with the help of sterilization, reduction in the number of water bodies and relocation of individual individuals to other protected areas.

The role of the African elephant in people's lives

Previously, savannah elephants were used as game animals, giving ivory and skins. Various parts of the body were used: meat was dried, stools were made from legs, jewelry was woven from hair from tassels. Tusks were used for making keys piano. In the middle of the 19th and 20th centuries, up to 100 thousand elephants died annually at the hands of a person. However, due to a sharp decrease in the number of animals, they were taken under protection, their shooting is prohibited.

Now African elephants are often used as an object of ecotourism - people travel from all over the world to see the life of these amazing creatures in the wild.

In conclusion, here are some fascinating facts about African elephants:

• Among them, as well as among people, there are left-handers and right-handers, which can be determined by which tusk the elephant uses more often.
• The animal has practically no enemies in nature, crocodiles and lions are dangerous only for babies. And only man became a real enemy of the giants.
• Due to the absence of sebaceous glands, elephants do not sweat. And by waving their ears, they can lower their body temperature.
• These animals are highly trainable and can be used as labor force.
• Elephants have a good memory, they are one of the smartest mammals in the world, they are able to be sad and rejoice, to suffer at the loss of loved ones.

The savannah elephant is a real giant in the world of mammals, living on African continent. This is amazing animal suffered from man, but it was with his help that it was saved from extinction. Now the elephant is safe, but lives mostly in protected areas.

The elephant is the largest land animal on Earth, although the Indian elephant is slightly smaller than its African cousin. In this collection you will love interesting photos elephants, as well as learn about a number of interesting facts related to this animal

Elephants are amazing animals. They are very fond of water, they love to "take a shower" by watering themselves with their multifunctional trunk. The trunk for an elephant is necessary, thanks to him he not only takes a shower. An elephant's trunk is a long nose with various functions. Thanks to him, he breathes, smells, drinks, grabs food, and even makes sounds :) The trunk alone contains approximately 100,000 muscles. Indian elephants have a small finger-like appendage at the end of their trunk, which they can use to pick up some small objects (the African elephant has two such "fingers"). Elephants also have very powerful tusks. Ivory is highly valued by humans, so many elephants are killed for their tusks. Now the trade in ivory is illegal, but still it has not been completely eliminated.

A third of the elephant tusks are hidden in the body of the animal, and there are practically no elephants with large tusks now, since they were all destroyed by ivory hunters. Tusks grow throughout the life of the animal, the older the elephant - the more tusks

According to approximate calculations of scientists, the elephant eats at least 16 hours a day, absorbing about 45-450 kilograms of various vegetation during all this time. Depending on the weather conditions, the elephant drinks 100-300 liters of water a day

Elephants are usually kept in herds, where all individuals are related. They know how to greet each other, diligently take care of their offspring, and always remain faithful to the herd. If one of the members of the herd dies, other elephants are very sad. Elephants are also one of those animals that can laugh.

Elephants have an average lifespan equal to that of humans, usually 70 years.

Elephants are called thick-skinned animals, since the thickness of the skin of an elephant can reach 2.5 centimeters.

Elephants are very good memory. They remember people who treated them well or badly, as well as places in which certain events happened to them.

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

It is also surprising that such a clumsy-looking animal can develop a fairly decent speed. An elephant can run at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour

Elephants sleep little, only a few hours a day, usually no more than 4 hours.

Elephants are also very good swimmers, there have been cases when an elephant swam a distance of more than 70 kilometers.

Elephants feed on tree roots, grass, fruits, and bark. They eat a lot. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food per day. These giants practically do not sleep, they walk long distances to get their own food. Having a baby elephant is considered a serious commitment. Elephants have the longest pregnancy of any other mammal - almost 22 months. Female elephants usually give birth to one baby elephant once every four years. At birth, a baby elephant already weighs approximately 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and is about a meter tall.

The assertion that elephants have 4 knees is erroneous, although it is very common.

These animals are also very big brain- Its weight can reach 6 kilograms. No wonder elephants are on the list

The content of the article

ELEPHANTS, elephant (Elephantidae). A family that unites the largest and strongest living land mammals. These are tall, thick-skinned animals of the tropical regions of Asia and Africa that feed on young shoots of trees and shrubs. Elephants have a massive head and body, a long trunk, large fan-shaped ears and tusks from the so-called. Ivory. The family belongs to the proboscis order (Proboscidea). The boneless, muscular trunks of elephants are fused and highly elongated upper lip and nose. It ends, depending on the type of animal, with one or two protrusions, which, while sucking in air through the nostrils, can be used as fingers for grasping small objects. Elephants use their trunks to send food and water into their mouths, shower themselves with dust, douse, trumpet and make many other sounds. This sensitive organ, vital for them, turns in all directions, trapping the finest odors, and when there is a threat of damage, it twists tightly.

The huge tusks of an elephant represent the second pair of upper incisors grown to an incredible size, and a significant part of each of these teeth is deeply immersed in bone tissue skulls. The small milk tusks of a young animal are replaced by permanent ones that continue to grow throughout life. The molar tooth is formed, as it were, by a stack of transverse vertical plates, each of which is equipped with its own roots with pulp, and all together they are united by cement into a large enamel-dentine block approximately 30 cm long and weighing 3.6–4.1 kg. In total, an elephant has 24 molars, but one of them this moment only one functions on each side of the upper and lower jaws. When it is worn out, it falls out, and another, larger one, moves forward in its place. The last, and largest, molar takes its place when the animal is approx. 40 years, and serves another 20 years, until the death of the owner. Under favorable conditions, elephants live for more than 60 years.

An elephant is considered an intelligent animal, but its brain, although large in absolute size, is disproportionately small in comparison with its huge body weight. A short and thick muscular neck is necessary to support the huge tusked head, but allows only limited head movement. Small eyes surrounded by long ones thick eyelashes. Large fan-shaped ears, like fans, constantly move the hot tropical air. The legs are like vertical columns, the toes point downwards so that the heels are lifted off the ground and the weight of the body rests mainly on a thick pad behind the toes. The short tail ends in a stiff brush, and the skin - often 2.5 cm thick - is covered with sparse coarse hair.

Between the eye and the ear is a slit-like temporal gland, the purpose of which is not precisely established. When it is activated, the forehead of the animal swells, a dark oily liquid flows out of the gap; this indicates a state of extreme arousal (in India it is called "must"), apparently of a sexual nature. As a rule, "must" is observed in males, but is generally characteristic of animals of both sexes. It first appears in young elephants around the age of 21, and disappears completely by the age of 50.

Elephants feed on tall grass, fruits, tubers, tree bark, and thin shoots, especially fresh ones. To maintain normal weight and strength, the animal needs to receive approx. 250 kg of feed and 190 liters of water. In captivity, the typical daily diet of an elephant includes 90 kg of hay, more than two bags of potatoes, and 3 kg of onions.

Despite the massive build and amazing strength, the movements of the elephant are surprisingly smooth and graceful. With a normal rhythmic step, he walks at a speed of 6.4 km / h, and at a distance of approx. 50 m can accelerate to 40 km / h. However, the elephant is not capable of galloping and jumping. A ditch too wide to step over becomes an insurmountable obstacle for him. The elephant swims well, maintaining a speed of approximately 1.6 km / h in water for almost 6 hours.

Usually herds of elephants consist of one to four families and unite 30–50 individuals under the leadership of one of the females, including many baby elephants. At times, males adjoin the herds, which generally gravitate towards a solitary life. Young males sometimes form small and less stable bachelor herds. Some solitary males (hermit elephants) become very vicious in old age.

Females begin to mate only when they reach 18 years of age, and males only when they acquire mass and strength sufficient to compete for females. During the mating season, the male and female spend several weeks together in the forest away from the herd. A female wild Indian elephant, after a pregnancy lasting from 18 to 22 months, usually in the spring gives birth to a baby elephant weighing 64–97 kg. If the mother is disturbed, she carries him with her trunk to a safe place, and during the first weeks of the cub's life, several members of the herd day and night protect him from predators. Until almost the age of five, the baby elephant sucks milk from the mother's nipples between her front legs with her mouth, and then begins to eat with the help of her trunk. Usually an elephant gives birth to one cub, in total she brings 5-12 babies during her life, but often 2 baby elephants follow her different ages, because it can bring offspring once every three years.

The origin of elephants.

Elephants are the only surviving representatives of the ancient proboscis group that once inhabited most of the land, except for Australia. Its oldest known representative is meriterium ( moeritherium), a small animal with a nose slightly longer than that of a tapir, described from Upper Eocene and Early Oligocene finds in the Nile Valley in Egypt. in southern Europe and North Africa lived in the Pleistocene Palaeoloxodon antiquus, huge elephant 4.3 m high at the withers. Many of the primitive proboscis disappeared only 15,000 years ago, and Paleolithic man imprinted them on the walls of caves. Then, in the grassy tundras of the northern circumpolar regions, woolly mammoths with huge, strongly curved tusks were not uncommon; their well-preserved bodies have been repeatedly found in the Siberian permafrost. In North America, the ranges of the Columbian and Imperial subspecies of the mammoth extended as far south as northern New York State. In Europe and America, mastodons were found in abundance; their teeth and bones were found even during the laying of the New York subway. In Italy and on the islands of the Mediterranean, there were elephants no larger than the Shetland pony, distinguished by straight tusks. see also MAMMOTH; MASTODONTS.

Training and use of elephants.

Unlike a horse, a large cattle and the camel, the elephant as a species was never truly domesticated, although individual animals have long been tamed and used for a wide variety of purposes. The Indian elephant, judging by the surviving carved seals, served man as early as 2000 BC; it is believed that at the same time attempts were made to subdue his less accommodating African relative.

Probably the earliest written mention of the use of elephants for warfare dates back to 326 BC. Then the Indian king Por sent 200 elephants with archers on their backs to fight against Alexander the Great on the banks of the Gidasp River. In the battle of Heraclea in 280 BC. King Pyrrhus trampled the Roman infantry with elephants, inflicting their first and only defeat on these animals. However, five years later, he lost the decisive battle of Beneventum to the Romans, and to commemorate their victory in the war, they struck a coin with the image of an elephant. The story of Hannibal's campaign against Rome through the Alps in 218 BC is widely known: in these mountains he lost most of his 37 elephants, and all the rest, except one, died crossing the Apennines. After the final defeat of Hannibal in the Punic War, the use of war elephants was abandoned.

The first living elephant in America was a relatively small two-year-old female brought to New York from Calcutta in 1796. She may have been the Learned Elephant, or Baby Beth, who was killed in 1822 in Chepachet, Rhode Island, by boys who wanted to test whether elephant skin was really bulletproof.

The famous elephant Jumbo was born in equatorial Africa in the vicinity of Lake Chad, from where he was brought as a baby in 1862 to the Paris Botanical Gardens. In 1865 he was sold to the Royal Zoological Gardens in London, where he remained for 18 years until he was transferred to the United States. In three years, Jumbo traveled all over North America by rail in a specially equipped wagon and rolled over a million children on his back. He died in 1885 as a result of a railway accident in the Canadian province of Ontario. His effigy is now at Taft University (Massachusetts), and a huge skeleton (the height of the animal at the withers was 3.2 m) is exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

The elephant is revered by many peoples. Buddhism puts it on a par with the dove of peace, and the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, is elephant-headed. In India, all white elephants were considered the property of the Rajas and were never used for work, but the greatest honors were paid to such animals in Siam. Even the king was forbidden to ride a white elephant. He was fed on huge gold or silver platters, and his drinking water scented with jasmine. Covered with precious blankets, the animal was carried on a luxuriously cleaned platform. African pygmies believe that elephants are inhabited by the souls of their dead leaders.

MODERN ELEPHANT SPECIES

Indian elephant

(Elephas maximus) is widespread in South Asia; its range covers part of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina and the Malay Peninsula. There are three subspecies: Bengal ( E.m. bengalensis), a comparatively small Ceylon ( E.m. ceylonicus) and Sumatran ( E.m. sumatrensis), an even smaller animal, relatively slender and devoid of tusks.

The Indian elephant has smaller ears and tusks than an African elephant, a convex forehead, and only one “finger” at the end of the trunk. On the hind legs there are 4 fingers with peculiar nails, on the front - 5 each. The tusks of males reach a length of 2.4 m, but they are never longer than 3 m, the record weight of one tusk is 72 kg. In females, the tusks are usually inconspicuous, rarely protruding from the mouth. On average, an adult elephant weighs 3.5 tons with a height of 2.7 m at the withers, but the mass of especially large males reaches 6 tons with a height of 3 m.

The main use of the Indian elephant is hauling logs, especially teak trunks, from mountain slopes that are inaccessible to mechanical types transport. The animal easily drags logs weighing 2 tons, and, if necessary, four tons. Elephants usually work together, pulling huge logs down the slope without the prodding of the mahout.

Elephants do not breed well in captivity, so to use them as work force capture and train young wild animals aged 15–20 years. However, if an elephant is over 18 years old, resisting trappers, it gets seriously injured, and it will never achieve such obedience from it as from individuals that are caught at a younger age.

wild elephants are caught different ways. Lonely people are surrounded by a group of tame elephants with drovers and chased day and night until the animal allows ropes and chains to be thrown over itself. A group of elephants is surrounded by locals with torches, sticks and mallets and pushed into a round paddock made of bamboo. In Karnataka, "elephant pits" of precisely calculated size are used so that the animals that fall into them do not injure themselves while trying to escape. In Nepal, Bengal and Sri Lanka, wild elephants are sometimes caught with a lasso attached to a tame animal.

Each young elephant is assigned a male trainer, and they stay together for life. The boy bathes his ward every day, polishes his tusks with sand and teaches the animal useful skills. After the working day, the elephant goes to the forest and feeds there most of the night. In the morning, the trainer finds his sleeping pupil and carefully wakes him up, because a sharp wake-up call can put the elephant in a bad mood for the whole day. Training begins at about 14 years of age, by the age of 19 the animal is ready for light work, but he is attracted to severe only after 25 years.

As a pack animal, the elephant is unprofitable, since the average load that it can carry does not exceed 270 kg; True, they say that the Japanese during the Second World War transported 4 tons of ammunition on each animal. The cabin, blanket and harness carried by a smartly dressed elephant often weigh half a ton.

African elephant

(Loxodonta africana) is much larger than the Indian one. It was once widespread across much of sub-Saharan Africa, from the lowland savannas to 3,000 m above sea level; until now, it is common in some remote areas of the continent and reserves. By appearance This animal is easy to distinguish from Asian elephant. The height at the withers of a female is on average 2.1 m, an adult male is 3–3.9 m. Huge ears 1.1 m wide, together with the head, reach a span of more than 3 m. A trunk up to 2.4 m long has two outgrowths at the end . On the hind legs there are 3 fingers with peculiar nails, on the front legs - 4 each. Both females and males are armed with well-developed tusks. In the former, they are thinner, up to 1.8 m long, while in the latter they reach three meters in length with a mass of up to 103 kg each. The normal coloration of the skin is dark gray, but African elephants often cover themselves with dry earth, so they sometimes look brick red. Like their Asian relatives, the animals usually roam in herds of up to about 50 individuals, but temporary accumulations of more than a hundred elephants have been observed.

The considered species is divided into three subspecies: South African ( Loxodonta africana africana), considered typical, East African ( L. africana knochenbaueri) and Sudanese ( L. Africanana oxyotis).

Many researchers have repeatedly noted and described relatively small elephants from rainforests and dense jungles. West Africa from Sierra Leone to Angola in the south and to the Zaire River Basin in the east. They rarely exceed 2.4 m in height at the withers, have small ears for an African elephant and are rather densely covered with hair. These elephants were called forest elephants, or pygmy elephants, and were sometimes considered a separate species. However, most experts now believe that we are talking either about small individuals, or about the cubs of the African elephant. Indeed, all pygmy elephants that were shown in circuses reached normal sizes for this species, unless their growth was artificially retarded.

According to African legends, all the elephants of the herd come to die at the same time. certain place, but such cemeteries have never been found. However, in Angola at the beginning of the 18th century. huge piles of elephant tusks were found, often containing more than four tons of ivory, topped with wooden idols and human skulls.

African elephant

AFRICAN ELEPHANT - a mammal of the proboscis elephant family, lives only in the regions of Africa, the largest of modern land animals.

"Thick-skinned elephant" is not entirely true for these animals. The skin of elephants, with the exception of the back and sides, where it can reach 2-3 centimeters, is very sensitive and especially sensitive to the sun.

That is why elephants often cover their cubs with their shadow.

And also for the same reason, elephants cover themselves with mud.

There are two subspecies of African elephants: savanna elephant, or bush elephant - common in Eastern, Southern and partly Equatorial Africa and the forest elephant - common in the tropical rainforests of West and Equatorial Africa.

The mass of old males reaches 7.5 tons, and the height at the shoulders is 4 meters (on average, males have a mass of 5 tons, females - 3 tons). Despite the massive build, the elephant is amazingly agile, easy to move, and fast without haste.

The elephant swims perfectly, and only the forehead and the tip of the trunk remain above the surface of the water.

To claim that the trunk of elephants arose to breathe under water, so far no one has dared.

The ancestors of elephants led an aquatic lifestyle. An analysis of the tooth enamel of fossil proboscis showed that they fed on aquatic plants.

The elephant without visible effort overcomes a steep climb, freely feels among the rocks.

A striking sight is a herd of elephants in the forest. Quite silently, the animals literally cut through dense thickets: no cod, no rustle, no movement of branches and foliage.

With an even, outwardly unhurried step, the elephant overcomes great distances in search of food or, leaving danger, passing tens of kilometers during the night. No wonder it is considered useless - to pursue a disturbed herd of elephants.

The African elephant inhabits a vast territory south of the Sahara. In ancient times, it was also found in North Africa, but now it has completely disappeared from there.

Despite the vast area of ​​​​distribution, it is not easy to meet elephants: in large quantities they are now only in national parks.

In many African countries, where elephants were historically found, today there are no elephants at all.

The usual composition of an elephant herd is 9-12 old, young and very small animals. As a rule, there is a leader in the herd, most often an old elephant.

The herd of elephants is a very friendly community. Animals get to know each other well, together they protect the cubs. There are cases when elephants assisted their wounded brethren, taking them away from a dangerous place.

Fights between elephants are rare. Only animals suffering from some kind of pain, such as those with a broken tusk, become quarrelsome and irritable. Usually such elephants move away from the herd. True, it is not known whether they themselves prefer loneliness or are expelled by healthy companions.

An elephant with a broken tusk is also dangerous to humans. No wonder the first commandment that visitors to national parks need to know is: “Do not leave the car! Do not cross the road to a herd of elephants! Do not drive up to lone elephants, especially with a broken tusk! And this is no accident: an elephant is the only animal that can easily go on the attack and turn the car over. At one time, ivory hunters often died under the feet of wounded giants.

In addition to humans, the elephant has almost no enemies. The rhinoceros, the second giant of Africa, is in a hurry to give way to the elephant, and if it does come to a collision, it is always defeated.
Of the sense organs in an elephant, the sense of smell and hearing are most developed.

An alert elephant is an unforgettable sight: the huge sails of the ears are widely deployed, the trunk is raised up and moves from side to side, trying to catch a breath of the wind, in the whole figure both tension and threat are at the same time.

The attacking elephant presses his ears, hides his trunk behind the tusks, which the animal brings forward with a sharp movement.
The elephant's voice is a shrill, screeching sound, at the same time reminiscent of a hoarse horn and the grinding of car brakes.

Reproduction in elephants is not associated with a specific season. Pregnancy lasts 22 months. Usually, females bring cubs once every 4 years.

A newborn baby elephant has a mass of about 100 kilograms with a height of about 1 meter, his trunk is short, there are no tusks.

Until the age of five, he needs the constant supervision of an elephant and cannot live on his own.

Elephants mature by the age of 15, and live in nature for 70 years.

The African elephant is one of the most unfortunate animals. His tusks, the so-called ivory, have long been valued almost worth their weight in gold.

Until Europeans came to Africa with firearms, elephants were hunted relatively little - hunting was very difficult and dangerous. But the flow of lovers of easy money, rushing to Africa at the end of the last century, has dramatically changed the situation. Elephants were killed, their tusks were broken, and huge corpses were left for hyenas and vultures. And tens, hundreds of thousands of these corpses rotted among the forests and in the savannahs of Africa, and enterprising adventurers had big profits.
In the African elephant, both males and females are armed with tusks. The tusks of females are small, and the tusks of old males sometimes reached a length of 3-3.5 meters with a mass of about 100 kilograms each (the record pair of tusks had a length of 4.1 meters and a mass of 225 kilograms).

True, on average, each tusk gave only about 6-7 kilograms of ivory, as the hunters killed all the elephants in a row - males and females, young and old.

A huge amount of ivory passed through the ports of Europe. By 1880, when the ivory trade reached its peak, from 60,000 to 70,000 elephants were killed annually, but already in 1913 - 10,000 elephants, in 1920-1928 - 6,000.Elephants were becoming rare. First of all, they were killed in the savannahs. Elephants are best preserved in inaccessible swamps along the valleys of the Upper Nile and the Congo, where the road to man was closed by nature.About 50 years ago, uncontrolled elephant hunting was officially stopped, a network of national parks was created and the African elephant was saved.

There is not much space left for him on earth - he can only feel calm in national parks. The protected regime had a beneficial effect on elephants. The number began to grow, and now there are about 250,000 elephants in Africa (perhaps even more than 100 years ago).

In parallel with the growth of livestock, the concentration of animals in limited areas of the territory increased. For example, in the Kruger National Park in 1898 there were only 10 elephants, in 1931 - 135 elephants, in 1958 - 995 elephants, in 1964 -2374 elephants, at present several tens of thousands of elephants live there!

This overpopulation posed a new serious threat to elephants, and the "elephant problem" in national parks became the number one problem. The fact is that an adult elephant eats up to 100 kilograms of grass, fresh shoots of shrubs or tree branches per day. It is estimated that to feed one elephant during the year, vegetation from an area of ​​\u200b\u200babout 5 square kilometers is needed.
When feeding, elephants often cut down trees to get to the upper branches, often tearing off the bark from the trunks.

However, in the past, herds of elephants migrated many hundreds of kilometers, and the vegetation damaged by the elephants had time to recover.

Now the mobility of elephants is sharply limited, and they are forced to feed - on an elephant scale - "on a patch".

So, in the Tsavo park ( East Africa) each elephant accounts for only about 1 square kilometer. And in Queen Eliza Bet National Park, there are an average of 7 elephants, 40 hippos, 10 buffalo and 8 waterbucks per 1 square mile (2.59 square kilometers). With such a load, the animals begin to starve, and in some places they have to resort to artificial feeding (elephants receive oranges as an additional ration).

Many National parks surrounded by a wire fence, through which a weak current is passed, otherwise the elephants can destroy the surrounding plantations.

All this indicates the need to reduce the number of elephants. Therefore, in last years planned shooting of elephants in national parks has also begun.

The number of elephants is reduced by destroying artificial reservoirs, which were once specially arranged in the arid regions of some national parks. It is assumed that the elephants, having lost a watering place, will go beyond the boundaries of the park. And they perfectly know the boundaries of the protected area and, at the slightest alarm, rush to the rescue line. Having stepped over it, they stop and look with curiosity at the unfortunate pursuer.

The elephant is economically a very valuable animal. In addition to tusks, meat, skin, bones, and even a brush of coarse hair at the end of the tail are utilized.The meat is used by the local population in fresh and dried form.Bone meal is made from bones.

Peculiar tables are made from the ears, and wastebaskets or stools are made from the legs.Such "exotic" goods are in constant demand among tourists.Africans weave beautiful bracelets from the coarse, wire-like tail hair, which, according to local beliefs, bring good luck to the owner.Elephants attract tourists from other countries. without elephants African savannah would have lost half the charm.

Indeed, there is something attractive in elephants. Do the animals move leisurely across the plain, cutting like ships through thick, tall grass; whether they feed on the edge of the forest, among the bushes; whether they drink by the river, lined up in a straight line; whether they rest motionless in the shade of trees - in their whole appearance, in their manner, one feels deep calmness, dignity, hidden power.

And you involuntarily feel respect and sympathy for these giants, witnesses of bygone eras.
At the very beginning of the 20th century, work began on the domestication of the African elephant in the Belgian Congo. The work continued for several decades with some success.