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February 15, 2006
African Field Notes: The African Elephant
The African Elephant is the heaviest, largest land mammal in the world. Some adults weigh more than 14,000 lbs & their brains are 3-4x the weight of the human brain.
Elephants have lots of blood vessels in their ears. They flap their ears and their blood pumps through, cooling and then circulates back to the rest of the body. This is important because elephants don’t sweat. If they get overheated and cannot find water, they can stick their trunk down into their own stomach to get a bit of water to spray over their back.
The elephant's trunk has approx 150,000 muscles, and its used as a nose, arm and hand. Babies don’t know how to use trunk when they are born, instead they drink with mouth. Sometimes they just wiggle their trunks or suck on them like a baby would on a thumb.
Family units are led by the oldest female, who is often 40 or 50 years old, while males visit only for mating. It takes almost two years got a baby elephant to gestate – the longest of all land mammals. When an elephant is about to give birth, other female elephants may act as a midwife and comfort the expectant mother.
They communicate using something called infrasonic sounds, which are very low noises that can be heard for miles. There have also been instances of mimicry – like an elephant mimicking the noises of a truck.
Elephants also communicate thru scent – giving off smells when ready to mate, when they’re sick or about to give birth but what is most interesting is how they show empathy for each other. Elephants are known to care for others in their family. They’ll often slow down or help physically support an ailing fellow, even bringing food if they cant for themselves.
Elephants grieve, sometimes for months – especially youngsters who lose their mothers. When an elephant dies, it is not just abandoned. The family unit stays with the corpse, sometimes for days. Then, after a while, one by one they touch the body and turn away. Sometimes they will even cover the body with brush and dirt. Elephants ignore the bones of other creatures, but if they come upon elephant bones, even years later, they will stroke them, and then sometimes scatter them.
Latin Genus: Loxodonta
A Group Is Called: A Parade (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Little Big Things: The Discovery of the Pygmy Elephant
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: African Elephant
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Posted by sorsha at February 15, 2006 9:46 PM
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Comments
Why do african elephants not have good eyesight?
Posted by: toni priaulx morris | April 4, 2007 9:12 PM
Elephants can see clearly for a hundred yards or so, but distance sight is very weak. They have long lashes to protect their small eyes, which could be considered a vulnerable part of their bodies.
Adult elephants have few predators, so eyesight is perhaps not so important to them as communication with fellow elephants. Their hearing is excellent and only recently have we begun to uncover just how wide the spectrum of sound they use is. An elephants sense of smell is also well-honed.
Posted by: Lauren Darcey | April 5, 2007 9:56 AM
how elephants lose weight, but don't sweat?
Posted by: harriet cooper | April 20, 2008 4:57 AM
Gaining and losing weight is about energy, not sweat. But you're right, sweat is a way we regulate our temperature when we're burning up calories and energy.
Just like humans...The more energy an elephant eats in the form of calories, the more energy it stores in fat and muscle. The more an elephant uses energy (burns it), the more the elephant will lose fat and muscle weight. The balance of eating and using up calories will determine whether an elephant gains/loses/maintains its weight.
Elephants don't regular their body temperature using sweat like people do, though. They can do it to some extent by flapping their ears and they like to pour water over themselves to cool off, too. I'm guessing their lack of sweating came about because they live in places where drought can be a problem and so they have adapted to not losing body moisture through sweat.
Posted by: Lauren Darcey | April 22, 2008 11:22 AM