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Home , African bush elephant, Borneo elephant, Dwarf elephant, Musth, Seismic communication, War elephant

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Raymond Carver | 128 pages | 05 Jul 2011 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099530350 | English | London, Elephant - Wikipedia

The seeds are typically dispersed in large amounts over great distances. This ecological niche cannot be filled by the next largest , the tapir. At Murchison Falls National Park in , the overabundance of has threatened several of small birds that depend on woodlands. Their weight can compact the soil, which causes the rain to run off , leading to erosion. Elephants typically coexist peacefully with other , which will usually stay out of their way. Some aggressive interactions between elephants and have been recorded. At , , a rhino attacked an elephant calf and was killed by the other elephants in the group. This is due to lower predation pressures that would otherwise kill off many of the individuals with significant parasite loads. Female elephants spend their entire lives in tight-knit matrilineal family groups, some of which are made up of more than ten members, including three mothers and their dependent offspring, and are led by the matriarch which is often the eldest female. The social circle of the female elephant does not necessarily end with the small family unit. In the case of elephants in , Kenya, a female's life involves interaction with other families, clans, and subpopulations. Families may associate and bond with each other, forming what are known as bond groups which typically made of two family groups. During the dry season, elephant families may cluster together and form another level of social organisation known as the clan. Groups within these clans do not form strong bonds, but they defend their dry-season ranges against other clans. There are typically nine groups in a clan. The Amboseli elephant population is further divided into the "central" and "peripheral" subpopulations. Some elephant populations in and have similar basic social organisations. There appear to be cohesive family units and loose aggregations. They have been observed to have "nursing units" and "juvenile-care units". In southern India, elephant populations may contain family groups, bond groups and possibly clans. Family groups tend to be small, consisting of one or two adult females and their offspring. A group containing more than two adult females plus offspring is known as a "joint family". Malay elephant populations have even smaller family units, and do not have any social organisation higher than a family or bond group. These groups appear to interact with each other, especially at clearings. The social life of the adult male is very different. As he matures, a male spends more time at the edge of his group and associates with outside males or even other families. When males permanently leave, they either live alone or with other males. The former is typical of bulls in dense . Asian males are usually solitary, but occasionally form groups of two or more individuals; the largest consisted of seven bulls. Larger bull groups consisting of over 10 members occur only among African bush elephants, the largest of which numbered up to individuals. Male elephants can be quite sociable when not competing for dominance or mates, and will form long-term relationships. Dominance depends on the age, size and sexual condition, [96] and when in groups, males follow the lead of the dominant bull. Young bulls may seek out the company and leadership of older, more experienced males, [97] whose presence appears to control their aggression and prevent them from exhibiting "deviant" behaviour. Bulls associate with family groups if an oestrous cow is present. A family of African bush elephants: note the protected position of the calves in the middle of the group. Adult males enter a state of increased known as . In a population in southern India, males first enter musth at the age of 15, but it is not very intense until they are older than At Amboseli, bulls under 24 do not go into musth, while half of those aged 25—35 and all those over 35 do. Young bulls appear to enter musth during the dry season January—May , while older bulls go through it during the wet season June—December. The main characteristic of a bull's musth is a fluid secreted from the temporal gland that runs down the side of his face. He may urinate with his still in his sheath , which causes the urine to spray on his hind legs. Behaviours associated with musth include walking with the head held high and swinging, picking at the ground with the tusks, marking, rumbling and waving only one at a time. This can last from a day to four months. Males become extremely aggressive during musth. Size is the determining factor in agonistic encounters when the individuals have the same condition. In contests between musth and non-musth individuals, musth bulls win the majority of the time, even when the non-musth bull is larger. A male may stop showing signs of musth when he encounters a musth male of higher rank. Those of equal rank tend to avoid each other. Agonistic encounters typically consist of threat displays, chases, and minor sparring with the tusks. Serious fights are rare. Elephants are polygynous breeders, [] and copulations are most frequent during the peak of the wet season. A bull will follow a potential mate and assess her condition with the flehmen response , which requires the male to collect a chemical sample with his trunk and bring it to the vomeronasal organ. While most have one surge of luteinizing hormone during the follicular phase, elephants have two. The first or anovulatory surge, could signal to males that the female is in oestrus by changing her scent, but ovulation does not occur until the second or ovulatory surge. Bulls engage in a behaviour known as mate-guarding, where they follow oestrous females and defend them from other males. Copulation lasts about 45 seconds and does not involve pelvic thrusting or ejaculatory pause. By comparison, sperm has to swim around only Homosexual behaviour is frequent in both sexes. As in heterosexual interactions, this involves mounting. Male elephants sometimes stimulate each other by playfighting and "championships" may form between old bulls and younger males. Female same-sex behaviours have been documented only in captivity where they are known to masturbate one another with their trunks. Gestation in elephants typically lasts around two years with interbirth intervals usually lasting four to five years. Births tend to take place during the wet season. Adults and most of the other young will gather around the newborn, touching and caressing it with their trunks. For the first few days, the mother is intolerant of other herd members near her young. Alloparenting — where a calf is cared for by someone other than its mother — takes place in some family groups. Allomothers are typically two to twelve years old. For the first few days, the newborn is unsteady on its feet, and needs the support of its mother. It relies on touch, smell, and hearing, as its eyesight is poor. It has little precise control over its trunk, which wiggles around and may cause it to trip. By its second week of life, the calf can walk more firmly and has more control over its trunk. After its first month, a calf can pick up, hold, and put objects in its mouth, but cannot suck water through the trunk and must drink directly through the mouth. It is still dependent on its mother and keeps close to her. For its first three months, a calf relies entirely on milk from its mother for nutrition, after which it begins to forage for vegetation and can use its trunk to collect water. At the same time, improvements in lip and leg coordination occur. Calves continue to suckle at the same rate as before until their sixth month, after which they become more independent when feeding. By nine months, mouth, trunk and foot coordination is perfected. After a year, a calf's abilities to groom, drink, and feed itself are fully developed. It still needs its mother for nutrition and protection from predators for at least another year. Suckling after two years may serve to maintain growth rate, body condition and reproductive ability. Play behaviour in calves differs between the sexes; females run or chase each other while males play- fight. The former are sexually mature by the age of nine years [] while the latter become mature around 14—15 years. Touching is an important form of communication among elephants. Individuals greet each other by stroking or wrapping their trunks; the latter also occurs during mild competition. Older elephants use trunk-slaps, kicks, and shoves to discipline younger ones. Individuals of any age and sex will touch each other's mouths, temporal glands, and genitals, particularly during meetings or when excited. This allows individuals to pick up chemical cues. Touching is especially important for mother—calf communication. When moving, elephant mothers will touch their calves with their trunks or feet when side-by-side or with their tails if the calf is behind them. If a calf wants to rest, it will press against its mother's front legs and when it wants to suckle, it will touch her breast or leg. Visual displays mostly occur in agonistic situations. Elephants will try to appear more threatening by raising their heads and spreading their . They may add to the display by shaking their heads and snapping their ears, as well as throwing dust and vegetation. They are usually bluffing when performing these actions. Excited elephants may raise their trunks. Submissive ones will lower their heads and trunks, as well as flatten their ears against their necks, while those that accept a challenge will position their ears in a V shape. Elephants produce several sounds, usually through the larynx , though some may be modified by the trunk. Trumpeting is made during excitement, distress or aggression. From various experiments, the elephant larynx is shown to produce various and complex vibratory phenomena. During in vivo situations, these phenomena could be triggered when the vocal folds and vocal tract interact to raise or lower the fundamental frequency. When the trachea is at pressure of approximately 6 kPa, phonation begins in the larynx and the laryngeal tissue starts to vibrate at approximately 15 kPa. Vocal production mechanisms at certain frequencies are similar to that of and other mammals and the laryngeal tissues are subjected to self-maintained oscillations. Two biomechanical features can trigger these traveling wave patterns, which are a low fundamental frequency and in the vocal folds, increasing longitudinal tension. At Amboseli, several different infrasonic calls have been identified. A greeting rumble is emitted by members of a family group after having been separated for several hours. Contact calls are soft, unmodulated sounds made by individuals that have been separated from their group and may be responded to with a "contact answer" call that starts out loud, but becomes softer. A "let's go" soft rumble is emitted by the matriarch to signal to the other herd members that it is time to move to another spot. Bulls in musth emit a distinctive, low-frequency pulsated rumble nicknamed the "motorcycle". Musth rumbles may be answered by the "female chorus", a low-frequency, modulated chorus produced by several cows. A loud postcopulatory call may be made by an oestrous cow after mating. When a cow has mated, her family may produce calls of excitement known as the "mating pandemonium". Elephants are known to communicate with seismics , vibrations produced by impacts on the earth's surface or acoustical waves that travel through it. They appear to rely on their leg and shoulder bones to transmit the signals to the middle ear. When detecting seismic signals, the lean forward and put more weight on their larger front feet; this is known as the "freezing behaviour". Elephants possess several adaptations suited for . The cushion pads of the feet contain cartilaginous nodes and have similarities to the acoustic fat found in marine mammals like toothed whales and sirenians. A unique sphincter -like muscle around the ear canal constricts the passageway, thereby dampening acoustic signals and allowing the to hear more seismic signals. An individual running or mock charging can create seismic signals that can be heard at great distances. Elephants exhibit mirror self-recognition , an indication of self-awareness and cognition that has also been demonstrated in some apes and dolphins. This individual was even able to score a high accuracy rating when re- tested with the same visual pairs a year later. An has been observed modifying branches and using them as flyswatters. Elephants are popularly thought of as having an excellent memory. This could have a factual basis; they possibly have cognitive maps to allow them to remember large-scale spaces over long periods of time. Individuals appear to be able to keep track of the current location of their family members. Scientists debate the extent to which elephants feel emotion. They appear to show interest in the bones of their own kind, regardless of whether they are related. This has been interpreted as expressing "concern"; [] however, others would dispute such an interpretation as being anthropomorphic ; [] [] the Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour advised that "one is well advised to study the behaviour rather than attempting to get at any underlying emotion". African elephants were listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of IUCN in , with no independent assessment of the of the two forms. By , the population was estimated to be ,; with , in Central , , in eastern Africa , , in southern Africa , and 19, in western Africa. About , elephants were estimated to live in the rainforests, fewer than had previously been thought. Population trends in southern Africa were mixed, with anecdotal reports of losses in , Mozambique and while populations grew in and and were stable in . Successful conservation efforts in certain areas have led to high population densities. As of , local numbers were controlled by contraception or translocation. Large-scale ceased in , when Zimbabwe abandoned the practice. Appendix II status which allows restricted trade was given to elephants in Botswana, , and Zimbabwe in and South Africa in The event was conducted to raise awareness of the value of elephants and rhinos, to help mitigate human-elephant conflicts, and to promote anti- activities. It is now extinct in these areas, [] and the current range of Asian elephants is highly fragmented. It is likely that around half of the population is in India. Although Asian elephants are declining in numbers overall, particularly in Southeast , the population in the Western Ghats appears to be increasing. The poaching of elephants for their , meat and hides has been one of the major threats to their existence. Following the bans, unemployment rose in India and China, where the ivory industry was important economically. By contrast, and , which were also part of the industry, were able to adapt and were not badly affected. The ban allowed the elephant to recover in parts of Africa. Still, members of the species have been killed for their ivory in some areas, such as Periyar National Park in India. Other threats to elephants include and fragmentation. Because they need larger amounts of land than other sympatric terrestrial mammals, they are the first to be affected by human encroachment. In extreme cases, elephants may be confined to small islands of forest among human-dominated landscapes. Elephants cannot coexist with humans in agricultural areas due to their size and food requirements. Elephants commonly trample and consume crops, which contributes to conflicts with humans, and both elephants and humans have died by the hundreds as a result. Mitigating these conflicts is important for conservation. Elephants have been working animals since at least the Indus Valley Civilization [] and continue to be used in modern times. There were 13,—16, working elephants employed in Asia in These animals are typically captured from the wild when they are 10—20 years old when they can be trained quickly and easily, and will have a longer working life. Individuals of the Asian species have been often trained as working animals. Asian elephants perform tasks such as hauling loads into remote areas, moving logs to rivers and roads, transporting tourists around national parks , pulling wagons, and leading religious processions. Elephants can be trained to respond to over 30 commands. They and other are thus protected under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of In both and , and other economic factors have resulted in sizable populations of unemployed elephants resulting in health problems for the elephants themselves as well as economic and safety problems for the people amongst whom they live. The practice of working elephants has also been attempted in Africa. Historically, elephants were considered formidable instruments of war. They were equipped with to protect their sides, and their tusks were given sharp points of iron or brass if they were large enough. War elephants were trained to grasp an enemy soldier and toss him to the person riding on them or to pin the soldier to the ground and impale him. One of the earliest references to war elephants is in the Indian epic Mahabharata written in the 4th century BC, but said to describe events between the 11th and 8th centuries BC. They were not used as much as horse-drawn by either the Pandavas or Kauravas. During the Kingdom which began in the 6th century BC , elephants began to achieve greater cultural importance than horses, and later Indian kingdoms used war elephants extensively; 3, of them were used in the Nandas 5th and 4th centuries BC while 9, may have been used in the Mauryan army between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC. The written around BC advised the Mauryan government to reserve some forests for wild elephants for use in the army, and to execute anyone who killed them. In his B. Indian campaign, confronted elephants for the first time, and suffered heavy casualties. Among the reasons for the refusal of the rank-and-file Macedonian soldiers to continue the Indian conquest were rumors of even larger elephant in India. Ptolemy , who was one of Alexander's generals, used corps of Asian elephants during his reign as the ruler of Egypt which began in BC. His son and successor Ptolemy II who began his rule in BC obtained his supply of elephants further south in Nubia. From then on, war elephants were employed in the Mediterranean and North Africa throughout the classical period. While they frightened the Roman horses, they were not decisive and Pyrrhus ultimately lost the . The Carthaginian general took elephants across the during his war with the Romans and reached the Po Valley in BC with all of them alive, but they later succumbed to disease. Overall, elephants owed their initial successes to the element of surprise and to the fear that their great size invoked. With time, strategists devised counter-measures and war elephants turned into an expensive liability and were hardly ever used by Romans and Parthians. Elephants were historically kept for display in the menageries of Ancient Egypt , China , Greece , and Rome. The Romans in particular pitted them against humans and other animals in gladiator events. In the modern era , elephants have traditionally been a major part of zoos and circuses around the world. In circuses, they are trained to perform tricks. Asian elephants were always more common than their African counterparts in modern zoos and circuses. Subsequently, the US received many of its captive African elephants from Zimbabwe, which had an overabundance of the animals. The largest captive population is in North America, which has an estimated Asian and African elephants. Keeping elephants in zoos has met with some controversy. Proponents of zoos argue that they offer researchers easy access to the animals and provide money and expertise for preserving their natural habitats, as well as safekeeping for the species. Critics claim that the animals in zoos are under physical and mental stress. The use of elephants in circuses has also been controversial; the Humane Society of the United States has accused circuses of mistreating and distressing their animals. Feld stated that these practices are necessary to protect circus workers and acknowledged that an elephant trainer was reprimanded for using an electric shock device, known as a hot shot or electric prod, on an elephant. Despite this, he denied that any of these practices harm elephants. Ralph Helfer is known to have relied on gentleness and reward when training his animals, including elephants and . Elephants can exhibit bouts of aggressive behaviour and engage in destructive actions against humans. Because of the timing, these attacks have been interpreted as vindictive. Elephants killed around people between and in Jharkhand while in Assam , people were reportedly killed between and In many cultures, elephants represent strength, power, wisdom, longevity, stamina, leadership, sociability, nurturance and loyalty. For instance, a " " is a byword for something expensive, useless, and bizarre. Elephants have been represented in art since Paleolithic times. Africa, in particular, contains many rock paintings and engravings of the animals, especially in the Sahara and southern Africa. At the beginning of the , when Europeans had little to no access to the animals, elephants were portrayed more like fantasy creatures. They were often depicted with horse- or bovine-like bodies with trumpet-like trunks and tusks like a boar; some were even given hooves. Elephants were commonly featured in motifs by the stonemasons of the Gothic churches. As more elephants began to be sent to European kings as gifts during the 15th century, depictions of them became more accurate, including one made by Leonardo da Vinci. Despite this, some Europeans continued to portray them in a more stylised fashion. Elephants have been the subject of religious beliefs. The Mbuti people of central Africa believe that the souls of their dead ancestors resided in elephants. During the 10th century AD, the people of Igbo-Ukwu , near the Niger Delta , buried their leaders with elephant tusks. In Sumatra, elephants have been associated with lightning. Likewise in Hinduism, they are linked with thunderstorms as , the father of all elephants, represents both lightning and rainbows. Elephants are ubiquitous in Western popular culture as emblems of the exotic, especially since — as with the giraffe , hippopotamus and rhinoceros — there are no similar animals familiar to Western audiences. Republican Party began with an cartoon by Thomas Nast. They are typically surrogates for humans with ideal human values. Seuss 's Horton. Ukiyo-e woodcut, Stone carving Elephant. Mahabalipuram , Tamil Nadu. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the living species. For extinct relatives also known as elephants, see . For other uses, see Elephant disambiguation. Large terrestrial mammals with trunks, from Africa and Asia. See also: List of elephant species. Main article: . with its trunk raised, a behaviour often adopted when trumpeting. Play media. Lone bull: Adult male elephants spend much of their time alone or in single-sex groups. Main article: Musth. Main article: . Distribution of elephants. See also: Elephant ivory and . See also: Captive elephants. Main article: . See also: Execution by elephant. African elephants at the Barcelona Zoo. Main article: Cultural depictions of elephants. See also: Elephants in Kerala culture , List of elephants in mythology and religion , and List of fictional pachyderms. Mammals portal. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 25 October Retrieved 22 January Palaeolexicon, Word study tool of ancient languages. Retrieved 19 January Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Molecular Evolution. Bibcode : JMolE.. In Wilson, D. M eds. Johns Hopkins University Press. Penny, David ed. PLOS Biology. Murphy, William J ed. Bibcode : PLoSO Annual Review of Animal Biosciences. Mammals of Africa. Bibcode : PNAS.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. In Foster, J. Bibcode : Sci Rajgopal 4 September The Hindu. Bibcode : Natur. Archived from the original on 13 June Retrieved 21 September Archived from the original on 29 July Archived from the original PDF on 20 May Retrieved 14 December Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Bibcode : ASAJ.. Archived from the original PDF on 7 December Journal of Comparative Psychology. New Scientist. Retrieved 25 June National Geographic Magazine , August , pp. A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals. British Museum Natural History. Environmental News Network. Retrieved 25 September China Daily. Retrieved 27 January The Daily Telegraph. Ecology and Evolution. African Journal of Ecology. History and population of a man-made phenomenon". Acta Theriol. Journal of Anatomy. Archived from the original on 13 January Retrieved 23 December Kram, R. Journal of Experimental Biology. Anatomy: An Illustrated Guide. Marshall Cavendish. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. BBC News. Retrieved 3 November Journal of Reproduction and Fertility. Mammalian Species. BBC Nature. Retrieved 27 November Low sounds are the growl, rolling growl, snort, and roar; high sounds are the trump, trumpet, pulsated trumpet, trumpet phrase, bark, gruff cry, and cry. Rumbling sounds initially thought to be caused by intestinal activity are now known to be produced by the voice box larynx and are considered to be similar to purring in cats. Vocalizations originate in the larynx and a special structure associated with it, the pharyngeal pouch. In the vast majority of mammals, the throat contains nine bones connected in a boxlike structure, the hyoid apparatus , that supports the tongue and the voice box. Elephants have only five bones in the hyoid apparatus, and the gap formed by the missing bones is filled by muscles, tendons , and ligaments. These looser attachments allow the larynx a great degree of freedom and enable the formation of the pharyngeal pouch just behind the tongue. This unique structure facilitates sound production and has voluntary muscles that allow the pouch to be used as a resonating chamber for calls emitted at frequencies below the range of human hearing. These low-frequency 5—24 hertz calls are responded to by other elephants up to 4 km 2. Low-frequency sound waves travel through the ground as well as the air, and results of experiments indicate that elephants can detect infrasonic calls as seismic waves. Elephants can produce a variety of other sounds by beating the trunk on hard ground, a tree, or even against their own tusks. In addition to sound production, the pharyngeal pouch is presumed to be used for carrying water. For centuries people have observed that on hot days and in times when there is no water nearby, elephants insert their trunks into their mouths, withdraw liquid, and spray themselves with it. The source of this liquid and the ability of elephants to withdraw it have posed a mystery even though the pharyngeal pouch was described in Two plausible sources of the liquid are the stomach and the pharyngeal pouch. Stomach contents, however, are acidic and would irritate the skin. In addition, the sprayed liquid contains small food particles commonly found in the pharyngeal pouch, as opposed to digested food from the stomach. Finally, repeated field observations attest that elephants can spray themselves while walking or running. Another possible function of the pouch is heat absorption, especially from the sensitive area above it. Elephant tusks are enlarged incisor teeth made of ivory. In the both the male and the female possess tusks, whereas in the Asian elephant it is mainly the male that has tusks. When present in the female, tusks are small, thin, and often of a uniform thickness. Some male Asian elephants are tuskless and are known as muknas. Tusk size and shape are inherited. Tusks are used for defense, offense, digging, lifting objects, gathering food, and stripping bark to eat from trees. They also protect the sensitive trunk, which is tucked between them when the elephant charges. In times of drought, elephants dig water holes in dry riverbeds by using their tusks, feet, and trunks. Elephants have six sets of cheek teeth molars and premolars in their lifetime, but they do not erupt all at once. At birth an elephant has two or three pairs of cheek teeth in each jaw. New teeth develop from behind and slowly move forward as worn teeth fragment in front and either fall out or are swallowed and excreted. Each new set is successively longer, wider, and heavier. The last molars can measure nearly 40 cm almost 16 inches long and weigh more than 5 kg about 11 pounds. Only the last four molars or their remains are present after about 60 years of age. Sometimes tooth loss is the cause of death, as it brings on starvation. Elephant Article Media Additional Info. Article Contents. Print print Print. Table Of Contents. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Elephant Research Foundation. Author of numerous scientific and popular publications on elephants and other proboscideans. African elephants Loxodonta africana filmed in their natural habitat. Top Questions. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today. Elephant | Definition of Elephant by Merriam-Webster As American as Donkeys and elephants may be ubiquitous in US politics today, but they weren't always mascots for Democrats and Republicans. Learn about the threats to survival elephants and other animals face with this list of important words—and what World Wildlife Fund WWF is doing to help. Words related to elephant boar , pachyderm , , tusker , . Scientists have some theories on why hundreds of elephants are mysteriously dying in Botswana Vicky Boult July 7, Quartz. Dubner February 6, Freakonomics. Short Sixes H. The Talking Thrush William Crooke. Wounds in the rain Stephen Crane. A Manual of the Antiquity of Man J. The African elephant Loxodonta africana is the larger species, with large flapping ears and a less humped back than the maximus , of S and SE Asia. Derived forms of elephant elephantoid , adjective. Here is a blog walkthrough of the dashboard. We tell our children in the United States that they can grow up to be whatever they want. It is the quintessential American dream and why thousands if not millions of people want move to our country. Find out why the dream is over before students even have a chance. It is all due to a gap between parent's understanding what counting to 10 is versus what kindergarten means by counting to Home Pricing FAQs. Continue Sign-Up. She was almost 2 full years behind where she should be. My son is a math addict and he is now 2 full years ahead of where he should be and he is excelling. We guarantee that your student will learn 1 year of math in 3 months using our system just 10 minutes per day, 3 days per week. Experiential Learning Via Gamification. Immediate Adaptation. Guaranteed Results. Parent Testimonial. Elephant Learning. How Do We Achieve Results? Months of mathematics taught 1. Placement Exam. Monthly Tuition. Read Our Case Studies. Latest Articles. December 2, November 4, October 28, October 21, October 14, October 7, September 30, September 23, August 27, August 19, August 8, July 23, July 15, April 16, April 9, December 11, October 11, June 9, June 6, May 8, June 2, By the early 20th century, elephant numbers had dropped to 10 million. Hunting continued to increase. By , their numbers were down to 1. Between and , hunting and poaching put the African elephant at risk of extinction, reducing its population by another half. Today, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as vulnerable to extinction. As few as , remain today. Because poachers target elephants for their tusks, these years of violence have also had an expecting result: African elephants are evolving to become tuskless. Studies across the continent have shown that regions with historically higher levels of poaching now have higher than usual proportions of tuskless females. Researchers are still trying to figure out how this evolution could affect the species in the long term. In , the Great Elephant Census revealed that savanna elephant numbers were declining at a rate of 8 percent—or 27, elephants a year. Compounding the problem is how long it takes for elephants to reproduce. With reproduction rates hovering around 5 to 6 percent , there are simply not enough calves being born to make up for the losses from poaching. African elephants are also losing their habitat as the human population grows and people convert land for agriculture and development. Elephants need a of room to roam, so habitat destruction and fragmentation not only makes it harder for them to find food, water, and each other, but it also puts them in increased conflict with humans—a dangerous prospect for both. African elephants are protected to varying degrees in all the countries of their geographic range. There have been recent efforts to bring re-legalize the international trade in ivory, but those so far have failed. Conservation groups and governments have worked to set aside land for wildlife— including corridors that connect those protected lands. Still, researchers believe that up to 70 percent of elephants' range is on unprotected land. To curb poaching, stopping the illegal trade is key. Advocates have launched campaigns that address both the supply side poaching and the demand side people who buy ivory. Since the ban went into effect, public demand for ivory seems to have fallen. On the supply side, protecting elephants from poaching also requires a local approach. In , a study showed that the suffering of elephants is tied to that of the humans living nearby: Regions with high levels of poverty and are more likely to have higher poaching rates. This suggests that helping communities develop sustainable livelihoods could reduce the lure of poaching. elephant | Description, Habitat, Scientific Names, Weight, & Facts | Britannica

This happened and that happened and if the news arrived at Key West as a mouse, it was often enough cabled north as an elephant. It is as large as an elephant , and its horns of enormous size; and even cave-tigers could not always master such cattle as they. A symbol see also symbol of the Republican party , introduced in a series of political cartoons by Thomas Nast during the congressional elections of Compare donkey. See also white elephant def. Chiefly British. See how many words from the week of Oct 12—18, you get right! The idiom elephant in the room was first recorded in — See elephant. Words nearby elephant elenctic , Elenore , eleoma , eleoptene , elepaio , elephant , elephant bird , Elephant Butte , elephant ear , elephant fish , elephant folio. As American as Donkeys and elephants may be ubiquitous in US politics today, but they weren't always mascots for Democrats and Republicans. Learn about the threats to survival elephants and other animals face with this list of important words—and what World Wildlife Fund WWF is doing to help. Words related to elephant boar , pachyderm , mammoth , tusker , mastodon. Scientists have some theories on why hundreds of elephants are mysteriously dying in Botswana Vicky Boult July 7, Quartz. Dubner February 6, Freakonomics. Short Sixes H. The Talking Thrush William Crooke. The Asian elephant Elephas maximus weighs about 5, kg and has a shoulder height of up to 3. The Asian elephant includes three subspecies: the Indian, or mainland E. African elephants have much larger ears, which are used to dissipate body heat. The trunk, or proboscis, of the elephant is one of the most versatile organs to have evolved among mammals. This structure is unique to members of the order , which includes the extinct mastodon s and mammoth s. Anatomically, the trunk is a combination of the upper lip and nose; the nostrils are located at the tip. The trunk is large and powerful, weighing about kg pounds in an adult male and capable of lifting a load of about kg. However, it is also extremely dexterous, mobile, and sensitive, which makes it appear almost independent of the rest of the animal. The proboscis comprises 16 muscles. A major muscle covering the top and sides functions to raise the trunk; another covers the bottom. Within the trunk is an extremely complex network of radiating and transverse muscle fascicles that provide fine movement. A total of nearly , muscle fascicles have been counted in cross sections of trunk. The trunk is innervated by two proboscidean nerves, which render it extremely sensitive. Bifurcations of this nerve reach most portions of the trunk, especially the tip, which is equipped with tactile bristles at regular intervals. At the end of the trunk are flaplike projections enabling it to perform amazingly delicate functions, such as picking up a coin from a flat surface or cracking a peanut open, blowing away the shell, and putting the kernel in the mouth. African elephants have two such extremities one above and one below ; Asian elephants have one. The trunk of the African elephant may be more extendable, but that of the Asian elephant is probably more dexterous. Elephants use the trunk like a hand in other ways as well. Tool use in elephants involves holding branches and scratching themselves in places that the trunk and tail cannot reach. Large branches are sometimes wielded, and objects may be thrown in threat displays. When elephants meet, one may touch the face of the other, or they will intertwine trunks. Breathing , drinking, and eating are all vital functions of the trunk. Most breathing is performed through the trunk rather than the mouth. Elephants drink by sucking as much as 10 litres 2. They eat by detaching grasses , leaves , and fruit with the end of the trunk and using it to place this vegetation into the mouth. The trunk is also used to collect dust or grass for spraying onto themselves, presumably for protection against insect bites and the sun. Elephants produce two types of vocalization by modifying the size of the nostrils as air is passed through the trunk. Low sounds are the growl, rolling growl, snort, and roar; high sounds are the trump, trumpet, pulsated trumpet, trumpet phrase, bark, gruff cry, and cry. Rumbling sounds initially thought to be caused by intestinal activity are now known to be produced by the voice box larynx and are considered to be similar to purring in cats. Vocalizations originate in the larynx and a special structure associated with it, the pharyngeal pouch. In the vast majority of mammals, the throat contains nine bones connected in a boxlike structure, the hyoid apparatus , that supports the tongue and the voice box. Elephants have only five bones in the hyoid apparatus, and the gap formed by the missing bones is filled by muscles, tendons , and ligaments. These looser attachments allow the larynx a great degree of freedom and enable the formation of the pharyngeal pouch just behind the tongue. This unique structure facilitates sound production and has voluntary muscles that allow the pouch to be used as a resonating chamber for calls emitted at frequencies below the range of human hearing. These low-frequency 5—24 hertz calls are responded to by other elephants up to 4 km 2. Low-frequency sound waves travel through the ground as well as the air, and results of experiments indicate that elephants can detect infrasonic calls as seismic waves. Elephants can produce a variety of other sounds by beating the trunk on hard ground, a tree, or even against their own tusks. In addition to sound production, the pharyngeal pouch is presumed to be used for carrying water. For centuries people have observed that on hot days and in times when there is no water nearby, elephants insert their trunks into their mouths, withdraw liquid, and spray themselves with it. The source of this liquid and the ability of elephants to withdraw it have posed a mystery even though the pharyngeal pouch was described in Two plausible sources of the liquid are the stomach and the pharyngeal pouch. Stomach contents, however, are acidic and would irritate the skin. In addition, the sprayed liquid contains small food particles commonly found in the pharyngeal pouch, as opposed to digested food from the stomach. Finally, repeated field observations attest that elephants can spray themselves while walking or running. Another possible function of the pouch is heat absorption, especially from the sensitive brain area above it. Elephant tusks are enlarged incisor teeth made of ivory. In the African elephant both the male and the female possess tusks, whereas in the Asian elephant it is mainly the male that has tusks. When present in the female, tusks are small, thin, and often of a uniform thickness.

African elephant, facts and photos

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