It is the African elephant, a big one that can weigh up to 8 tons and reach 4 meters in height. About 50 or 60 million years ago, the ancestors of this pachyderm, including mammoths and mastodons, could be found almost all over the planet and were divided into hundreds of species. Today, only two remain: the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which weighs around 5.5 tons and measures 3 meters, and the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). The elephant is one of the most curious animals in the world because of its large size and its long trunk, which can weigh up to 200 kilos. It corresponds to the animal’s nose and upper lip and serves to smell, pick up objects and food and also drink water – the liquid is sucked with the trunk and then thrown into the animal’s mouth. Another curiosity about the elephant is its gestation period, the longest among mammals, lasting around 22 months. When born, the puppy is already a heavy weight, weighing over 100 kilos and measuring about 90 centimeters in height. The little elephant’s appetite is impressive: he drinks more than 11 liters of milk a day! The sexual maturity of the species occurs between 8 and 12 years of age, when males leave the herd to form new groups. A herd, by the way, gathers from 40 to 50 individuals and is led by the oldest female. This pachyderm is a peaceful animal, which only attacks when it feels threatened. He has no natural enemies, although eventually a cub or a fragile individual can be attacked by hungry lionesses. But the biggest threat to the elephant is actually man, who hunts the animal to remove its tusks made of ivory – a substance used in the production of delicate finishes and works of art and highly valued on the black market. Free from human threat, the animal can live up to 70 years.
An adult animal can eat 225 kilos of vegetables a day and only sleep four hours
AFRICAN OR ASIAN?
In addition to size, the most visible difference between the African and Asian elephants are the ears, which are much larger in the former. The Asian also tends to be hairier and, at the end of the trunk, has only a small extension – used as a tweezers, to pick up objects -, while the African’s trunk has two extensions.
HEAVY RANGE
An elephant spends a good part of the day eating. It is estimated that an adult eats up to 225 kilograms (about 6% of their weight) of grass, leaves, fruits and other vegetables daily. All this food is fermented by bacteria in its digestive tract, which makes the pachyderm an animal fart-producing machine.
WHERE TO FIND THEM
Both the African and Asian elephant prefer to live in savannas and not very dense jungles. Asian is mostly found in India and Southeast Asia. It is estimated that there are 50,000 individuals of the species. The African, on the other hand, can be seen in almost all of Africa, except in the Sahara desert. It is estimated that they number around 600,000 animals
ENDLESS TOOTH
An elephant’s tusks are its two upper incisors. Together, they weigh about 200 kilos and are used by the animal to defend itself or dig the ground in search of water. The elephant has six sets of teeth and, unlike most mammals (including us), new teeth do not grow from bottom to top, but from back to front.
BAD BED
Only four hours a night, uninterrupted, sleeps an elephant. But never do all members of a herd do this at the same time. In the jungle, you can’t be too careful not to be attacked by another animal. Furthermore, it is uncomfortable for the elephant to lie on the ground for a long time because of its super heavy body.
WITHOUT FEAR OF WATER
Despite his bulk, he is a top swimmer. Elephants are even believed to have arrived on the island of Sri Lanka, in southern India, by swimming from the Asian mainland. To move around in the water, it “beats” its four legs, keeps its mouth below the water level and uses its trunk as a snorkel to breathe.
BOM DE CUCA
The elephant has a great memory and is one of the smartest animals on the planet. Its brain is larger than that of any other land mammal, weighing up to 5.4 kilograms. Although large in absolute numbers, the organ occupies only a small part of the animal’s skull and is therefore proportionally smaller than the human brain.