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Elephant
Elephants
Elephants are the largest living land mammals. At birth, it is common for an elephant child, called a calf, to weigh 100 kg (225 pounds). The baby elephant develops for 20 to 22 months inside its mother. No other land animal takes this long to develop. The largest elephant was a male shot in Angola in 1974. It weighed 12 tonnes (13.5 tons).
An elephant's most obvious part is the trunk. The trunk is made of a very long nose with the upper lip. An elephant uses its trunk to grab objects such as food. Elephants also have tusks. These are large teeth coming out of their upper jaws. Elephant tusks are the major source of ivory. Ivory traders killed too many elephants, so now hunting them is illegal.
People knew for a long time there were two species, or kinds, of elephants. These kinds are African and Asian elephants. African elephants are larger and have bigger ears. These large ears have many veins, which carry blood throughout the body. Scientists believe the extra blood going through their ears helps African elephants to cool off. The weather is hotter in Africa, so it is harder for them to stay cool. Female African elephants have tusks, but female Asian elephants do not. African elephants have a dip in their back. African elephants have two "fingers" at the tip of their trunks, but Asian elephants only have one.
People noticed that some African elephants live on the savanna while others live in the forest. Today, many people think these are different species. Scientists named the forest group Loxodonta cyclotis and the savanna group Loxodonta africanus. This means that African elephants are even more in danger of dying off forever than people used to think.
Humans have used elephants for different things. The Carthaginian general Hannibal took some elephants across the Alps when he fought the Romans. He probably used the North African elephant, a kind of elephant that does not live today. It was smaller than other African elephants.
 African elephant (left) and Indian elephant at an English zoo  Elephant footprints (tyre tracks for scale) |
People have used elephants to move around and have fun. Many circuses have them. Siamese, Indians, and other South Asians used them for several things. They fought in armies, and they crushed criminals. They also did heavy work like lifting trees and moving logs.
However, people have never domesticated elephants. Domesticated animals are tame and have babies under human control. The male elephant in heat is dangerous and hard to control. Most elephants used by people are female, except those used in war. In a battle, female elephants run from males, so armies needed males.
In the wild, elephants have strong family groups. Their ways of acting toward other elephants are complex. They talk to each other with very low noises. The noises are so low, people cannot hear them, but elephants can hear them miles away.
Elephants are related to sea cows, which are large mammals that live in water. Some people think elephants evolved from other animals that also lived under water. Evolution is how one species develops from another. These animals would have used their trunks for breathing air while they swam. Even today, elephants can swim like this.
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The most famous fictional elephant is Dumbo. It is a flying elephant in a Disney movie. The Elephant's Child is one of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
Ganesh is the god of wisdom in Hindu. He has an elephant's head.
The elephant is the symbol for the United States Republican Party. It is similar to the Democratic Party's donkey. Thomas Nast first showed the Republican Party as an elephant in a Harper's Weekly cartoon in 1874.
Miscellaneous
A White elephant is holy in Thailand.External Links
This page was copied from the original English Wikipedia page. Writers changed it so it is easier to read.
