The Kodiak bear is the World’s second largest land carnivore.
Elephant Facts
Taxonomy Classification
| Asian Elephants | African Elephants | |
| Class | Mammalia | Mammalia |
| Order | Proboscidae | Proboscidae |
| Family | Elephantidae | Elephantidae |
| Genus | Elephas | Loxodonta |
| species | maximus | africana |
Conservation Status
Asian Elephants
The Asian elephant is listed as endangered on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Red list of Threatened Animals.
African Elephants
The African elephant is listed as endangered on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Red list of Threatened Animals.
Lifespan
On average elephants can live up to 50 - 70 years of age. However due to poaching and the ongoing clearance of forests and natural habitats which result in human-elephant conflict over resources many wild elephants are no longer reaching this age span. The oldest Asian elephant recorded in Australia was 'Jesse' who lived at Taronga Zoo up until 1939 and was 69 years old.
Geographic Distribution
Asian Elephants
Asian elephants live in the forests and grasslands of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and southern China. Across all these regions their natural habitat has been greatly reduced resulting in massive declines of wild populations. In Thailand, a country synonymous with the Asian elephant the wild elephant population now stands at only approximately 1,500. At the current rate of decline they could be extinct in the wild within a time span as short as 20 years.
African Elephants
African elephants live throughout many parts of Southern, Eastern and Western Africa although many of their former ranges are now broken into patches. They are most widespread in drier woodlands and savannas and are now most common in countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania. Forest elephants, a sub - species of the African elephants can be found in dense equatorial forests of Central Africa.
Threats to Future Survival
The main threat to remaining wild elephant populations is habitat loss and destruction as a result of human encroachment. Wild populations now inhabit only a small percentage of their former ranges due to land being cleared for farms, roads and cities. This has lead to ongoing human-elephant conflict over resources and resulted in many elephants and people being killed. Poaching is still a major problem and large tusked elephants in both Africa & Asia are killed every year for ivory products. Asian elephants are also killed or seriously wounded each year by land mines scattered through forests remnants of human conflict and battles.
Size / Weight
Asian Elephants
Males can exceed 5,000kg's in weight and can reach 10ft in height at the shoulder.
Females reach weights of between 3 - 4000kg's and can reach 8 - 8.5ft in height at the shoulder.
African Elephants
Males can exceed 7,000kg's in weight and can reach 12ft in height at the shoulder.
Females can exceed 5,000kg's in weight and can reach 10ft in height at the shoulder.
Behaviour
Female and young elephants live in cohesive family groups called herds. Many of the adult females are related and the herd is led by a 'matriarch' usually the oldest or most experienced in the group. The matriarch sets the pace and direction of the herd's activities and these movements usually depend on food and water availability. Male offspring either leave or are driven from these family herds as they begin to sexually mature and become increasingly disruptive. Young males band together in bachelor groups spending many years sparring to determine their dominance in the bull hierarchy. Once mature, male elephants will usually only socialise with herds when the females are reproductively cycling.
Intelligence / Communication
Elephants are extremely intelligent and social animals. The brain of an adult elephant weighs 4.5 -5.5kg's. Elephants have a complex repertoire of communication that includes touching, body posturing and vocalising. Many of these sounds are below the range of human hearing. This is called infrasound and can travel for over a kilometre.
Breeding / Reproduction
Elephants sexually mature between the ages of 8 - 10. However this is dependant on diet and environment. A plentiful food supply and no environment stresses such as droughts mean some elephants can reproduce at younger ages. There are recorded births from elephants as young as six years old in captivity.
Female elephants cycle every 14 - 17 weeks and once pregnant give birth to a single calf (twins are very rare) after a gestation period of almost 22 months.
Whilst young elephant males may be eager and willing to breed they may not be in a position to do so until they are able to assert their dominance through size and strength over other males. This could be well in to their late 20's or 30's. Adult male elephants (bulls) go through periods of heightened sexual activity, increased aggressive and sexual behaviour, secretions from glands on the side of the head (temporal glands) and urine dribbling. This is known as musth. Musth is usually associated with increased secretion of testosterone and may last for periods of a few weeks to months. Bulls do not have to be in musth to breed successfully.
There is one official report of a male African and female Asian elephant interbreeding in 1979, however the calf died 10 days after birth.
Teeth
Elephants develop six sets of molar teeth throughout their lifetime. They have large molar teeth on either side of the upper and lower jaw. These teeth have ridges which are slightly different in shape and appearance between African and Asian elephants. As an elephants teeth become older, a new set develop from behind and move forward, similar to a conveyor belt system. These teeth are grown and lost at regular intervals during an elephant's lifetime and are a good indicator of an elephants age. Once the last set of teeth are worn away, the elephant cannot chew properly and soon passes away from malnutrition. While each individual is different this usually occurs over 60 years of age.
Illustration of the differences in molar teeth of African and Asian elephants
Tusks
African elephants (both males and females) and male Asian elephants have tusks. Tusks are modified incisor teeth and are made of dentine (ivory). 50% of Asian elephant females grow tushes which are much shorter than tusks and in some cases may not be seen under the trunk. Other females do not develop tushes at all.
The longest recorded tusks of an African elephant bull were 326cm's and weighed 102kg's. Comparable figures for an Asian elephant bull were 302cm's in length and 39kg's in weight.
Heart / Respiration
The heart of an elephant is huge, weighing 12 - 21kg's. In relative terms however, it only weighs 0.5% of the elephants body weight which is normal for large mammals (human hearts are approx 0.4% of overall body weight). The average heart rate is 25 - 35bpm but rises if an elephant gets excited. An elephants respiration rate is only 4 - 6 breaths per minute but can rise to 15 if they get excited. While elephants can breathe through their mouth the majority of air is taken through the trunk.
Skin
The skin on an elephants body varies in thickness from a few millimetres around the ears to almost 3cm's on other parts of their body. Despite its thickness, the skin is sensitive with sparse hair and bristles all over the body. Baby elephants are very hairy when born and this hair gets sparser as they get older. Many Asian elephants also lose pigment in their skin most noticeable on the trunk and ears. This results in large patches of pinkish colouration in these areas.
Food / Digestion
Elephants are generalised feeders and consume a large variety of plants, grasses, trees and fruits. By using their trunks they can obtain food anywhere from ground level to high up in the trees. If they can't reach it and they still want it, they just bulldoze the tree until it falls over. They can spend up to 16 hours a day feeding and consume approx 4 - 8% of their body weight each day.
Their digestive system is quite simple and common among mammals. On average it takes an elephant 24 hours to digest a meal. However, they only digest approx 40% of their food intake with the remaining food passing undigested.
Feet / Toenails
Elephants are very sure footed and have fantastic balance. Although an elephant appears to be flat-footed it actually walks on its toes. The heel is a pad of fatty and elastic connective tissue. As an elephant walks, its feet, under weight and pressure bulge like a large suction cup, and then as it sets off this bulging retracts so the foot does not get stuck in muddy or boggy terrain. The number of toenails on each foot is different for African and Asian elephants. African elephants have 4 nails on the front feet and 3 on the rear feet. Asian elephants have 5 nails on the front feet and 4 nails on the rear feet.
Ears
Elephants have excellent hearing. They communicate and are able to pick up sounds well below the range of human hearing. This sound is called 'infrasound'. In both African and Asian elephants the ears also function as cooling devices. The skin on the ears is only a few millimetres thick which is the thinnest on an elephant's body. By flapping their ears an elephant can cool the blood running through the extensive vein network on the back of the ears thereby dissipating heat.
The ears for African and Asian elephants are different in size and shape. African elephants have larger, rounder ears while Asian elephants have smaller, triangular ears.
Trunk
An elephant's trunk is the most versatile appendage in the animal kingdom. The trunk of an African elephant has two finger-like processes at the tip, on the dorsal and ventral sides, while the Asian elephant only has one, located on the dorsal side of the trunk. It is connected to respiration and can be used as a snorkel when swimming, used as a straw for drinking and as both a knife and fork when eating. An elephant's trunk can pick up something as small as a peanut and as big as a tree trunk. It also assists in communication, dusting, smelling, lifting, defence and offence. An elephant's trunk contains no bones or cartilage and recent research work suggests that there are over 100,000 muscle units within the trunk itself. Measurements show that the trunk of an adult Asian elephant can hold almost 9 litres of water and a thirsty adult bull can drink over 200 litres of water in less than five minutes.
A young elephant must learn how to use its trunk just children learn to use their arms and hands
Differences between African and Asian Elephants
African and Asian Elephant
|
|
African Elephant Loxodonta africana |
Asian Elephant Elephas maximus |
| Size | Larger - Can grow up to 7000kg's | Smaller - Can grow to 5000kg's |
| Head | Has only one lobe / bulge in middle of head | Has two lobes / bulges on head |
| Ears | Larger more circular ears | Smaller more triangular ears |
| Tusks | Both male & females have tusks | Only males grow prominent tusks |
| Teeth | Sloping molars with lozenge shaped ridges | Molars with more compressed ridges |
| Trunk | Has two finger-like tips at the end of trunk | Has only one finger-like tip on trunk |
| Feet | Has 4 nails on front feet and 3 on rear feet | Has 5 nails on front feet and 4 on rear feet |
| Back | Has concave shaped back |
Has convex shaped sloping back |
