Wild Facts

Photo by Elephant Country Web

We have taken a look at elephants in the past, however, we focused on their interesting behaviours such as grief and altruism. Today, I want to help Hailey’s little brother with his project on elephants, so we are going to look at some of the unique physical features of these gentle giants.  There are two types of elephants in this world, African and Asian.  I would like to focus today’s fact on the larger and in my opinion the more popular African Elephant.

The African elephant is the largest known land mammal and can be found in Central and Southern Africa.  I know it is shocking to hear that you can find the African Elephant in Africa.  These elephants spend their time wandering the Savannah grazing on grass and searching for water.  You can probably imagine how hot it can get in Africa so how do elephants handle the heat? Well for starters their super large ears aren’t just a fashion statement.  The large surface area of their ears helps radiate the heat and keeps them cool.  When it gets to hot to handle, the elephant will then go and play in the water. You know you would do the same thing. Elephants are often seen sucking up water with their trunk and spraying it all over their bodies.  This shower actually keeps them cool.  After they finish with their water park the elephant will often cover himself in sand.  Mother’s can probably relate to this phenomenon. I am sure you have given your child a bath and before you can get them changed into their pajamas the little rascals are outside playing in the dirt.  I guess it is a little different since elephants use this dust to protect their skin from elements such as the sun.

Besides the ears, people usually notice the trunk of the elephant.  Not only does the trunk act as a nose but it is also used for drinking, breathing, trumpeting and of course grabbing things. Believe it or not there are a 100 000 muscles in the trunk alone! The African Elephant also has two finger-like features at the end of their trunk which is excellent for picking up their favourite food, leaves and grass.  For the record, the Asian Elephant only has one of these finger-like adaptations.

African Elephant Fast Fact: Both female and male African Elephants have tusks that can grow to 2.5 metres (7.5′) and weigh between 50 and 100 pounds.  They use the tusks to dig in the ground for food and water as well as to strip bark off the trees.  Males will also use their tusks to battle with other male elephants.  Unfortunately, these tusks have caused problems for the elephant since poachers will kill the elephant simply for their ivory tusk.

I recommend checking out the following sites for more information:

National Geographic for Kids

World Wildlife Fund

As well, don’t hesitate to ask any questions.  Have a great weekend!

The video below will expand on the discussions in the Wild Stories post about elephant altruism.  This video tells the tale of elephants coming into help out a fellow family member.  As well, in the video they talk about elephants communicating using a pitch that humans can’t hear.  This is the same communication technique that Giraffes use, as mentioned in Wild Fact #999.

I discussed in a previous blog post that elephants may have deeper feelings with death, similar to humans.  I didn’t mention what elephants do when they see elephant remains but this video will give some insight into the deeper complexities and emotions of elephants.

After I posted Wild Fact #992 – A Death in the Family I came across some interesting stories about elephants showing sensitivity and altruism.  I started to think that there are probably a lot of stories out there that display the capacity of animal intelligence. So as an added bonus I will pass along these fascinating stories as I come across them.

I will start with one that I found about the gentle nature of elephants.

The Ranch Herder

This is a story I came across from a book titled “Coming of Age with Elephants” by Joyce Poole. She retold a story about a ranch herder that was by himself in the wilderness when he came across a family of elephants.  The matriarch, being the protective leader, charged the ranch herder and broke one of his legs.  I know this doesn’t sound like a very altruistic behaviour but just bear with me.  When the herder didn’t arrive home that night they sent a search party out to look for him.  They found the man without any difficulties, however, they had to deal with a protective elephant guarding the wounded man.  Once they scared the elephant away the ranch herder told them that he was unable to stand up.  The man recounted how the elephant lifted the man with her trunk and placed him under a shady tree.  From then on she spent the day guarding the man and would gently touch him with her trunk from time to time.  This shows the true altruism of elephants as the elephant would not benefit from spending her day looking after a human.

If you are interested in hearing about more from Joyce Poole and how she grew up studying the behaviour of elephants then be sure to pick up her book: Coming of Age With Elephants

They say that an elephant never forgets.  Does this mean that elephants are more intelligent than I am since I forget things all the time? I would hope that this is not the case since I don’t know many elephants that have their own blog; however, elephants may be one of the smartest animals aside from humans.  We know chimpanzees and dolphins are intelligent and I would think it is safe to put elephants in that same class.  Elephants have a very large brain and much like humans actually have to learn how to survive unlike most animals which are born with those instincts.

Over the years, elephants have exhibited behaviours closely related with what we have described as grief, compassion, sense of humour, and altruism to name a few.  I would like to focus on the grief aspect since elephants are the only other animal besides humans to have a death ritual.  No, they don’t spend $10 000 on a funeral but their ritual is just as impressive.  It has been documented that after an elephant dies, the rest of the family group will gather around the body for two days, only leaving to get food and water.  The young elephants have been known to weep but generally they will stand quietly around the body.  Often the family will try to bury the body with sticks, sand, leaves, etc. On a side note, elephants have been known to bury dead or sleeping humans as well so be sure that you are well rested when in elephant country. I can’t say for sure that elephants are exhibiting the same type of feelings that humans have around death but it definitely appears that elephants have the capacity for a variety of emotions.

If you are interested in more on elephants then make sure you pick up this great story on DVD:

Did you find this Wild Fact interesting?  Did you already know about this?  Do you have an idea for future Wild Facts? Let me know in the comment form!