Elephants : Facts About Asian and African Elephants

“Found to be a face of an important god in India called ‘Ganapati’, this huge yet humble looking animal has lots of things to know about. Lets understand some real internals and facts about African and Asian elephants..”

Asian and African Elephants Facts

• We grew up learning there are two types of elephants in the world: Asian and African Elephants. But genetic studies have shown that the African elephants is actually two different species – the large Savannah elephant of east and south Africa, and the smaller forest elephant of west and central Africa. There are, therefore, at least three species of elephants: the Asian elephant (Elephants maximus), the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). They look alike, but the Asian and the African elephants are actually very different creatures, more different genetically than the tiger, the lion and the leopard are from each other!
• Why don’t we remove the tusks of an elephant so that they are not poached ?
• Ivory comes from the two tusks, the modified incisors of the male Asian elephants and male and female African elephants. Being teeth, they have pulp cavity with nerve endings and blood vessels for more than three-fourths of the tusk. If we cut tusks at the level, elephants bleed to death. If cut at the tip, there will be ivory left for poachers.
• The largest, heaviest of living land mammals, the elephant is also one of the most highly intelligent and socially complex animals alive in the world today.
• The Asian and African elephants originated in Africa over 50 million years ago. The Asian elephant, which evolved near the AI Fay yum swamps in present day Egypt, is older than African elephants. When the African elephants evolved, it pushed the Elephants maximums into Europe from where it radiated into Asia. At least 26 species of elephants have lived in this world one time or the other, and have populated all continents except Australia and Antarctica.
• They are found in 50 countries (13 in Asia and 37 in Africa), in forests, grasslands, hills and even dessert-like arid areas. There are 50,000 elephants in the wild in Asia and 250,000 (at least) in Africa. So, the Asian elephants is far more in danger than the African one.
• Elephants do not have massive elephant graveyards as myths tell us but are fascinated by death. Researchers who collect the bones and jaws of dead elephants for biological studies at their camps often have elephant relatives paying them a visit at night ones taken away from their field camps. Elephants will also cover dead bodies of other elephants with soil and grass and stand and caress and try to receive dead members for long periods.

Why are elephants still killed ?

Elephants are poached for their ivory and meat and killed in conflict when they come into contact with man. Elephants are poached only for ivory in Asia, but the meat is also eaten in many parts of Africa. The ivory is largely used to make hankos or chops, cylindrical seals used in Japan and China as signature seals. This is a 100-year-old tradition as the pictorial script of these countries does not allow for traditional signatures. Some ivory id also used for carvings, chopsticks, billiard balls, pinano keys, netsukes, etc. The bushmeat killings in central and western Africa is also threatening elephants.

Some areas of Asia that have over four elephants a square kilometer, report high man-elephant conflict.

To conserve elephants, you must know that elephants are big nomads with fancy teeth.

Eating Habits Of Asian and African Elephants

Elephants are large eaters. An adult elephants can eat up to 200kg fodder a day, sometimes eating continuously through the day! Since the forest will be destroyed if they feed in one place, they have no move in search of food and water while the forests they leave behind regenerate. That is why they are nomads. They need corridors to move through from one forest to another which normally follow migratory routes they have used for hundreds of years. If man blocks these with development, in habitation, agriculture, man-elephant conflict results in which elephants kill more than 200 people a year in India.

Memory Of Asian/African Elephants

Elephants have a remarkable memories and a brain that is 6 times the size of a human one, which is exceptionally good at remembering the past. Stories of mahouts who are cruel to captive elephants being punished by their elephants many months later are common, and orphaned hand-reared elephants released to the wild still recognize their foster month after 20 years of rehabilitation.

More Facts

It takes several months for a calf to control the use of its trunk. This can be observed as the calf trips over its trunk or as the trunk wiggles like a rubbery object when the calf shakes its head.

Elephant vocalize in a wide range of situations. They call to advertise physiological or hormonal state, to warn or threaten, to demonstrate strong emotions, to announce needs, to propose, negotiate or discuss a plan of action, to coordinate group movement, to secure group defense, to care for calves, to elicit care of support, to reinforce bonds, to reconcile differences, and to assert dominance. Elephants communicate with one another using over 70 different call types.

Note About Domestic Elephants

There is nothing called a domestic elephant! There are no domesticated elephants in the world. All captive elephants are wild animals in captivity. There are 15000 elephants in captivity in Asia and very few are in captivity in zoos and parks in the rest of the world. They were made captive nearly 4,000 years ago, but have still not bred into separate domestic species (like dog, wolf, cat or tiger), because, for most of these years, they were not breeding in captivity alone, It is also a myth that only Asian elephants can be tamed and ridden. Hannibal crossed the Alps using elephants from present day Ethiopia. Even now, small safari owners in southern Africa use trained elephants. It is only the tradition that is stronger in Asia than in Africa to catch and train elephants.

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