Elephants............

ELEPHANTS

Elephants are the largest land animals now living. The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956.

This male weighed about 12,000 kilograms, with a shoulder height of 4.2 metres. The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world. They are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence, where they are thought to be on par with cetaceans and hominids . Aristotle once said the elephant was "the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind". The word "elephant" has its origins in the Greek ἐλέφας , meaning "ivory" or "elephant".

Trunk

The proboscis , or trunk, is a fusion of the nose and upper lip, elongated and specialized to become the elephant's most important and versatile appendage. African elephants are equipped with two fingerlike projections at the tip of their trunk, while Asians have only one.

The trunk is also used for drinking. Elephants suck water up into the trunk (up to fifteen quarts or fourteen liters at a time) and then blow it into their mouth. Elephants also suck up water to spray on their body during bathing.

This appendage also plays a key role in many social interactions. Familiar elephants will greet each other by entwining their trunks, much like a handshake. An elephant also relies on its trunk for its highly developed sense of smell. By raising the trunk up in the air and swiveling it from side to side, like a periscope, it can determine the location of friends, enemies, and food sources.

Tusks

The tusks of an elephant are its second upper incisors . Tusks grow continuously; an adult male's tusks grow about 18 cm a year. Tusks are used to dig for water, salt, and roots; to debark trees, to eat the bark; to dig into baobab trees to get at the pulp inside; and to move trees and branches when clearing a path. In addition, they are used for marking trees to establish territory and occasionally as weapons.

The dominant tusk, called the master tusk, is generally shorter and more rounded at the tip from wear. Both male and female African elephants have large tusks that can reach over 3 m in length and weigh over 90 kg. The tusk of both species is mostly made of calcium phosphate in the form of apatite .

Teeth

Elephants' teeth are very different from those of most other mammals. Over their lives they usually have 28 teeth.

• The two upper second incisors: these are the tusks
• The milk precursors of the tusks
• 12 premolars , 3 in each side of each jaw.
• 12 molars , 3 in each side of each jaw.

When an elephant becomes very old, the last set of teeth is worn to stumps, and it must rely on softer foods to chew. Eventually, when the last teeth fall out, the elephant will be unable to eat and will die of starvation. Were it not for tooth wearout, their metabolism would allow them to live much longer.

Skin

Elephants are colloquially called pachyderms (from their original scientific classification), which means thick-skinned animals. An elephant's skin is extremely tough around most parts of its body and measures about 2.5 centimetres thick. However, the skin around the mouth and inside of the ear is paper-thin.

Wallowing is an important behaviour in elephant society. Not only is it important for socialization, but the mud acts as a sunscreen, protecting their skin from harsh ultraviolet radiation. Although tough, an elephant's skin is very sensitive. Without regular mud baths to protect it from burning, as well as from insect bites and moisture loss, an elephant's skin would suffer serious damage. After bathing, the elephant will usually use its trunk to blow dirt on its body to help dry and bake on its new protective coat.

Legs and feet

An elephant's legs are great straight pillars. The elephant needs less muscular power to stand because of its straight legs and large pad-like feet. For this reason an elephant can stand for very long periods of time without tiring. The feet of an elephant are nearly round. An elephant can sink deep into mud, but can pull its legs out readily because its feet become smaller when they are lifted.

Ears

The large flapping ears of an elephant are also very important for temperature regulation. Elephant ears are made of a very thin layer of skin stretched over cartilage and a rich network of blood vessels. On hot days, elephants will flap their ears constantly, creating a slight breeze. This breeze cools the surface blood vessels, and then the cooler blood gets circulated to the rest of the animal's body. Therefore, they have bigger ears.

The ears are also used in certain displays of aggression and during the males' mating period. If an elephant wants to intimidate a predator or rival, it will spread its ears out wide to make itself look more massive and imposing.

Hunting

The threat to the African elephant presented by the ivory trade is unique to the species. Larger, long-lived, slow-breeding animals, like the elephant, are more susceptible to overhunting than other animals.

At the turn of the 20th century, it is estimated that elephants numbered between 5 – 10 million, but hunting and habitat destruction had reduced their numbers to 400,000 to 500,000 by the end of the century. Chad has a decades-old history of poaching of elephants, which has caused the elephant population of the region, which exceeded 300,000 in 1970, to drop to approximately 10,000 today.