Asian Elephant
Asian Elephant – Limited to isolated populations from southern India and Sri Lanka through Assam to Vietnam and southern China, and south to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Elephant ias an impressive and intelligent giant. It spend it time ambling throught forests in small herds, searching for fresh pastures to satisfy its purely vegetarian diet. Not as large its African cousins, and with smaller ears, the Asian or Indian elephant was once common throughtout the continent. it is now confined to a few area in south and southest Asia. this elephant has a long association with humans and has been used for logging and transport.
Caring community
Asian elephants live in herds of between three and 40 females and their young; older males are solitary, while younger ones join bachelor groups. An elderly female or matriarch, is responsibles for the safety of the herd and each day, leads it to fresh pastures and water. Elephants dont appear to have sweat galands, so must bathe, roll in mud or blo dust over themselves. Communication with touch, sight, scent and sound; elephants make a wide variety of noises, ranging from squeaks to loud, trumpeting calls. They greet each other by entwining their trunks and sniffing, and will reassure a frightened elephant by stroking it. Excellent swimmers, they sometimes swim or walk underwater using their trunks as snorkels.
Big Babies
A new born is hairy with a short trunks and staggers to its feet within half-an-hour. Letting its trunk flop backwards on to its head, it uses its mouth to suckle from nipples between its mothers front legs. Young elephant grow fast and curious. As they confidence, they play with other youngster in the herd.Females in the herd often give birth at around the same time and care for the young together. While the calves are small, the herd travels slowly, the young holding on to their mothers tail with their trunk. Although infants nurse for 18 months, they start to eat grass once they are a few months old. They also eat their mother dung which contains nutrients, as well as bacteria that aid cellulose digestion.
Statistics
- status – endangered
- social unit – group
- lenght – up to 3.5 m
- tail – 1-1.5 m
- weight – 2-5 tonnes
- sexual maturity – about 15 years
- breeding time – any times
- gestation period – 22 months
- number of young – 1
- breeding interval – up to 5 years
- diet – grasses, tree bark, roots, leaves, bananas, rice and sugar cane
- lifespan – up to 70 years
Part of bodies
- flexible trunk – small, triangular finger at the end for easy grasping
- huge skull – supports trunk and tusks and is filled with air spaces and sinuses to lighten it. These cavities allow the animal to make a low growl that carries for kilometres
- skin – thick and wrinkled with a few stiff hairs
- pointed ears – networked with blood vessels to regulate temperature. The blood is cooled as the elephant flaps it ears
- tusks – modified upper incisor teeth that grow throughout an elephants life and are used as tools and weapons
- huge feet – flat soles help spread the elephant weght. Cushioned pads allow silent movement
Myth or fact
It sis well known that elephant have excellent memories and are capable of using their intelligence to solve practical problems. One elephant in the wild was observed lifting her calf over an electric fence with her trunk. Individual elephants have been seen crying with frustration, coming to the aid of a sick or injured member of the herd, and even rescuing humans caught up in a naturaldisaster. Treated domestic elephants working for unscrupulous logging companies have also been crying in pain and misery.
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