More than one type of elephant? African and Asian elephants
Elephants are known as two distinct species: the African elephant and the Asian elephant. The African elephant is found in the vast savannahs of Africa, while the Asian elephant is more commonly found in the dense rainforests of Asia.
Recent genetic studies in the 21st century suggest that African and savannah elephants may be different enough to be considered separate species.
How to tell them apart
African elephant
African elephants are generally larger, have larger ears and are shaped like the continent of Africa. They also have a concave back and wrinkled skin.
The African elephant is further divided into two subspecies. The forest elephant, which is surrounded by the dense foliage of equatorial forests, and the savannah elephant, which is suited to the vast plains.
Asian elephant
The Asian elephant, on the other hand, is small. They are, however, quite large, but if you compare them, you will see that they are quite different in size.
Their ears are small and rounded, their backs are convex or straight, and their skin is less wrinkled.
In summary
It may be easier to remember the Asian elephant as having many features like a child, and the African elephant as having many features like an old man. (You might be offended by an old man with smooth skin and a straight back.)
In contrast to the African elephant, where both sexes have tusks, Asian elephant females are often tuskless. Therefore, if there are no tusks, except for poaching, you can definitely identify it as an Asian elephant.
Elephant body trivia An elephant’s nose is a nose but not a snout
The elephant’s symbolic tusks are an extension of its incisors. In other words, they are front teeth. A bit scary when you think about it in human terms. And tusks are both tools and weapons.
The part of the elephant called the snout also differs in occurrence from the snouts of other animals. It is a fusion of the nose and the upper lip.
The all-purpose elephant snout functions as a limb for feeding and drinking, as an acoustic amplifier for communication and as a tactile organ for exploring the environment.
An elephant’s feet can carry nearly two tonnes of weight on each foot, even when standing still. Walking puts more, but the elephant’s feet are cushioned with fat in the soles, like Nike Air shoes, to cushion this.
Elephants are hindgut fermenters and have a simple one-chambered stomach. This makes digestion less efficient and feeding time longer. Many people may remember visiting a zoo and witnessing elephants eating grass rolled up in their noses all the time, even though they could not see other animals’ mealtimes.
In African elephants in particular, their ears flap like large sails to help dissipate heat and regulate their body temperature.
Various trivia about elephants Dugongs and manatees are relatives
They have the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror. This is actually a special ability of self-recognition that only a few other species, including humans, apes and dolphins, have.
An elephant checks its own reflection with great interest. It’s a great smile.
They are also known for their depth of emotion, particularly in their response to the death of a relative, a behaviour that suggests an understanding of death that is rarely observed in the animal kingdom.
The social structure of elephants is matriarchal, with the most senior and often the largest female leading the herd.
They communicate over long distances using low-frequency infrasound, which is below the human audible range.
Female elephants endure a gestation period of about 22 months, the longest of any land mammal. She then gives birth to a baby elephant weighing 100 kg. The baby weighs a shocking 100,000 g.
They sleep just two to four hours a day, which is quite short for a mammal.
However, in terms of lifespan, elephants are the longest-living of all land mammals. In the wild, they live 60-70 years. In captivity, their lifespan is extended a bit further due to the lack of predation and continuous veterinary care.
They prefer water not only to cool off and play, but also to digest food, keep their skin clean from parasites and to stay hydrated.
Dugongs and manatees are elephant brothers Don’t forget the Steller’s sea gulls.
Elephants differ slightly from other large mammal herbivores such as rhinos and hippos. Elephants are the sole survivors of the long-nosed order (Proboscidea), a group of mammals characterised by their long, slender, muscular trunks.
The Proboscidea are a group of the Thetis therians (Tethytheria). This higher group includes dugongs and manatees as well as elephants. Dugongs and manatees are cousins of elephants. If you ask me, I don’t think they don’t look slightly similar, do they?
What? You don’t know the difference between a dugong and a manatee as well as you do between an African elephant and an Asian elephant?
Me neither. I’ve brought a video so please have a look. First of all, here is a dugong.
The dugong’s mouth eats grass on the seabed, so it is easy to recognise it if you remember that it looks downwards. And here is a video of a manatee.
The manatee is characterised by its rounded mouth and tail fin. Unlike dugongs, they eat everything on the seabed, in the water and on the surface of the sea.
As an aside, Steller’s sea cow, a giant sibling of the dugong and manatee, also existed in the past but is now extinct.
They were discovered in the Bering Sea in the 18th century. However, because of their huge size, they were slow-moving. They were cute and had the habit of helping their friends, but hunters took advantage of this and killed them when they came to the rescue. They were living a happy, carefree life in an environment with no natural enemies, and were not able to take the chance of humans with rifles.
From a phylogenetic point of view, it would have been easier to understand that elephants, dugongs and manatees are all brothers if these giant animals were alive today.
Tokyo’s idol, Hanako the elephant
Breeding elephants is not easy. The daily activities of elephants include roaming extensively, foraging and socialising with other elephants.
They also consume a significant amount of food every day, usually as much as 150 kg. Legally and ethically, elephants cannot be kept as pets and only accredited zoos and sanctuaries are able to meet their complex needs.
Hanako, an Asian elephant who lived for 66 years in Tokyo’s Inokashira Park Zoo, was the oldest elephant in Japan at the time of her death in 2016. She was sent by a Thai businessman as a personal donation after World War II to war-torn children in Japan. Hanako had fans all over Japan, even around herself.
Here is a picture of Hanako the elephant on her 65th birthday. She was very popular with people of all ages and genders.
Even now, there is an exhibition room in Inokashira Zoological Park commemorating Hanako, with a room full of photos taken since her arrival in Japan. I visited the zoo in Inokashira Park three years ago, and I remember that many of her fans came to see the exhibition.
Geographically, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are home to the largest number of elephants. Botswana tops the list with an estimated population of 130 000, although it is not well known.
Botswana and Zimbabwe are neighbours on either side, both landlocked countries to the north of South Africa. Tanzania is a country on the east coast of Africa, just south of Kenya, which is also famous for its coffee and may be immediately recognisable to many.
The record for the longest-lived elephant is the Asian elephant from Kerala, India, at a whopping 88 years old. The previous record was held by an Asian elephant in a zoo in Taiwan at the age of 86.
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