ELEPHANTS By Adrian Kaluka

Elephants belong to the order of mammals Proboscidea, belonging to the family Elephantidae containing three living species (the African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant, and Asian Elephant).

The only species found in southern Africa is loxodonta African (African elephant).The African savanna, or bush, elephant (Loxodontaafricana) weighs up to 8,000 kg and stands 3 to 4 metres at the shoulder. This is the largest living land mammal with its body size continuously increasing with age. It has a specialized system for crushing course vegetable matter formed by the skull, jaw and molar teeth. Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 5 kg and measures about 30 cm long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair shifts forward, and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age, the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.

 

The African Elephant

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

• It is the largest land mammal
• Extremely wide habitat tolerance including montane, forest, different savanna associations, semi desert and swamp, with the only requirement being access to adequate food, water and shed.
• The nose is prolonged as a trunk with two finger like projections at the tip.
• Height and weight, geographically and individually vary. Fully mature bulls average over 3m to 4m and 5000kg to 6000kg
• Their teeth have got one functional tooth in each quarter, a total of 6 sets of progressively larger size tusks that grow continuously, size genetically controlled but also age dependant, averaging 61kg at 60 years in bulls and 9.2 kg in cows.
• Their feet has four nails on fore and three on hind feet
• Their skin is grey or brown, wrinkled up to 3cm thick but pliable and sensitive, sprinkled with sharp, coarse bristles; trunk ears and forehead fuzzy with sensory hairs
• Their ears are up to 2m high and 1.5m wide. Their large ears serve as display and signaling devices, as well as being used to cool the blood. Cooling is sometimes aided by squirting water behind the ears with the trunk.
• Hearing and sight are excellent, eye moderate, best in dim light.
• There genitalia is open downwards through skin flaps between rear legs in both sexes, testes are internal, extended penis recurved to rear except fully erect.
• They usually show little parental care

DIET                                         

The proportions and kinds of forage eaten vary seasonally and according to the availability. Generally, elephants select the most nutritious and palatable of the plants available in quantity. Like other mixed feeders, they tend to concentrate on grasses and herbs in the rain season and on woody plants in dry season. Elephants therefore, wander most widely across the savanna in the rains, and spend most times in the forest and concentrate near water points at other times.

Elephants have a more catholic diet than practically any other herbivore. Thanks to their size, milling action of the two pairs of long, rasp like molars (which slide forward and backward rather than side to side as in most herbivores), and the incredibly versatile trunk, they can feed from ground level to 6m (rarely rearing), pick up nuts, strip off leaves and bark, break off branches and uproot shrubs and small trees. Tusks are used to strip tree bark and dig for roots, and the front feet are sometimes used to kick loose grass clumps and shrubs. Flowers and fruits of certain trees such as marula (Sclerocaryabirrea) are favoured and may attract animals from considerable distances. Some bulls master the technique of pushing over mature trees. Elephant eat about 4% - 6% of its body weight daily. Average food intake of adults is from 150 to 300kg, and daily water consumption is 100 and 227 litres. Nursing mothers eat proportionally more than other classes. The fibrous dung shows that digestion is very incomplete. Only 44% of the food is assimilated, compared with the ruminants 66%. But elephants compensate by processing much coarser forage at a rapid rate.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

i.          Communication- With their highly mobile trunks, keen sense of smell, glandular secretions, great ears, and varied vocalizations, elephants are notably well equipped to express themselves.

ii.         Tactile and Olfactory communication- This would include; greeting, caressing, twinning, slapping, and checking reproductive status, temporal gland secretion. Elephants are very much contact animals. Family members often stand touching while resting or drinking. They lean and rub their bodies together, and often touch one another with their trunks in various contexts. A greeting ceremony in which the lower ranking animal inserts the its trunk tip into the other’s mouth, enables elephants of different rank and relationships to come close together amicably. The performance may derive from the calf’s habit of putting its trunk into its mothers mouth, both sample food and for reassurance. Holding the trunk outward an approaching elephant is a greeting intention movement. Mothers often guide a calf by gripping its tail. A touch, an embrace, or a rub of a foot reassures and a slap disciplines a calf. Courting elephants may caress each other and twine their trunks; playing and fighting elephants trunk wrestle.

VOCAL COMMUNICATION

The elephant’s vocal repertoire is limited to four (4) different sounds, but gradations in pitch, duration and volume enable elephants to express wide range of emotional states.

Rumbling- A deep growling sound believed by generations of hunters to emanate from the stomach, is actually a vocalization and the main form of distance communication among elephants. The discovery that rumbling calls cover a broad range of frequencies, most of which are below human hearing thresholds.

Trumpeting- A sound of excitement is produced by blowing through the nostrils hard enough to make the trunk resonate (having an extended effect), meanwhile usually holding it straight down or curved slightly backward. The sound can be modulated, from a short blast, given by a startled animal, to a prolonged reverberating (echoing) cry of rage. It is combined with growling and screaming in threat displays. Trumpeting can also sound an alarm or a cry for help; it is also voiced during intense greeting ceremonies. The trumpeting of small elephants sounds very much like that of adults.

Squealing- This is a juvenile distress call that elicits an immediate response from the mother or other females.

Screaming- This is the adult equivalent, which is used along with trumpeting to intimidate opponents.

AGONISTIC BEHAVIOUR

Dominance/threat displays- This is the turning toward and spreading of ears. Stand tall (or the erect posture), head-nodding, jerking, shaking and tossing forward-trunk-swish, demonstration and real changes.

Defensive/submissive- Mostly signs of fear and indecision by an elephant. Avoidance (turning away, backing up, running away), flattening ears, arching back, raising tail, agitated trunk movements, touching temporal gland, throwing dust, pawing, foot-swinging, swaying and exaggerated feeding behavior.

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