Where do elephants live. What is the difference between an Indian (Asian) elephant and an African Indian elephant description for children

15.06.2019

Elephant- one of the most amazing animals. They not only know how to do a lot, but they can also be sad, worry, get bored and even laugh.

AT difficult situations they always come to the aid of their relatives. Elephants have the ability to music and drawing.

Elephant Features and Habitat

Two million years ago, during the Pleistocene period, mammoths and mastodons were distributed throughout the planet. Currently, two types of elephants have been studied: African and Indian.

There is an opinion that this large mammal on the planet. However, it is wrong. The largest is the blue or blue whale, in second place is the sperm whale, and only the third place is occupied by the African elephant.

It is indeed the largest of all land animals. The second largest land animal after the elephant is the hippopotamus.

At the withers, the African elephant reaches 4 m and weighs up to 7.5 tons. Indian elephant weighs a little less - up to 5t, its height - 3m. The mammoth belongs to the extinct proboscis. The elephant is a sacred animal in India and Thailand.

Pictured is an Indian elephant

According to legend, Buddha's mother dreamed White elephant with a lotus, which predicted the birth of an unusual child in her. White elephant- a symbol of Buddhism and the embodiment of spiritual wealth. When an albino elephant is born in Thailand, it is a significant event, the King of the state himself takes him under his care.

These largest land mammals that inhabit Southeast Asia. Prefer to settle in savannah areas and tropical forests. It is impossible to meet them only in the deserts.

elephant animal, which is famous for its large tusks. they are used in the extraction of food, to clear the road, in order to mark the territory. Tusks grow constantly, in adults the growth rate can reach 18 cm per year, old individuals have the largest tusks of about 3 meters.

Teeth are constantly worn down, fall out and new ones grow in their place (they change about five times in a lifetime). The price of ivory is very high, which is why animals are constantly destroyed.

And although the animals are protected and even listed in the International, there are still poachers who are ready to kill this beautiful animal for the sake of profit.

It is very rare to find animals with large tusks, since almost all of them have been exterminated. It is noteworthy that in many countries the killing of an elephant entails the death penalty.

There is a legend about the existence of separate mysterious cemeteries among elephants, where old and sick animals go to die, since it is very rare to find the tusks of dead animals. However, scientists managed to dispel this legend, it turned out that porcupines feast on tusks, which thus satisfy mineral hunger.

Elephant - a type of animal, which has one more interesting organ- a trunk reaching seven meters in length. It is formed from the upper lip and nose. The trunk contains approximately 100,000 muscles. This organ is used for breathing, drinking and making sounds. It plays an important role when eating, as a kind of flexible hand.

For picking up small items Indian elephant uses a small protrusion on the trunk that resembles a finger. The African representative has two of them. The trunk serves both for picking blades of grass and for breaking big trees. With the help of a trunk, animals can afford to take a shower from dirty water.

This is not only pleasant for animals, but also protects the skin from annoying insects (the mud dries up and forms a protective film). An elephant is a group of animals which have very large ears. At African elephants they are much larger than those of Asia. Ears in animals are not only an organ of hearing.

Since elephants do not have sebaceous glands, they never sweat. Numerous capillaries penetrating the ears in hot weather expand and give off excess heat to the atmosphere. In addition, this body can be fanned like a fan.

Elephant- the only thing mammal who can't jump or run. They can either just walk or move at a fast pace, which is equivalent to running. In spite of big weight, thick skin (about 3 cm) and thick bones, the elephant walks very quietly.

The thing is that the pads on the animal's foot spring and expand as the load increases, which makes the animal's gait almost silent. The same pads help elephants move through marshy areas. At first glance, an elephant is a rather clumsy animal, but it can reach speeds of up to 30 km per hour.

Elephants have excellent vision, but they use their sense of smell, touch and hearing more. Long eyelashes designed to protect against dust. Being good swimmers, the animals can swim up to 70 km and stay in the water without touching the bottom for six hours.

The sounds made by elephants with the help of the larynx or trunk can be heard at a distance of 10 km.

The nature and lifestyle of the elephant

wild elephants live in a herd, up to 15 animals, where all individuals are exclusively females and relatives. The head of the herd is the female matriarch. The elephant does not tolerate loneliness, it is vital for him to communicate with his relatives, they are faithful to the herd to death.

Members of the herd help and care for each other, raise children with conscience and protect themselves from danger and help weak members of the family. Male elephants are often solitary animals. They live next to some group of females, rarely form their own herds.

Children live in a group up to 14 years. Then they choose: either stay in the herd, or create their own. In the event of the death of a fellow tribesman, the animal is very sad. In addition, they respect the ashes of their relatives, they will never step on them, trying to move them away from the path, and even identify the bones of relatives among other remains.

Elephants spend no more than four hours a day sleeping. Animals african elephants sleep standing. They huddle together and lean on each other. An old elephant lays his big tusks on a termite mound or a tree.

Indian elephants sleep on the ground. The elephant's brain is quite complex and second only to whales in structure. It weighs approximately 5 kg. Elephant in the animal kingdom- one of the most intelligent representatives of the fauna in the world.

They can identify themselves in the mirror, which is one of the hallmarks of self-awareness. Only and can boast of this quality. Also, only chimpanzees and elephants use tools.

Observations have shown that the Indian elephant can use a tree branch as a fly swatter. Elephants have excellent memories. They easily remember the places they've been and the people they've interacted with.

Food

Elephants love to eat. Elephants feed 16 hours a day. They need up to 450 kg various plants daily. An elephant is able to drink from 100 to 300 liters of water per day, depending on the weather.

Pictured are elephants at a watering hole

Elephants are herbivores, their diet includes the roots and bark of trees, grass, fruits. Animals replenish the lack of salt with the help of licks (salt that has come to the surface of the earth). In captivity, elephants feed on grass and hay.

Never refuse apples, bananas, cookies and bread. Excessive love for sweets can lead to health problems, but sweets of a wide variety of varieties are the most favorite delicacy.

Elephant reproduction and lifespan

Within the time frame mating season elephants are not strictly marked. However, it is noticed that during the rainy period, the birth rate of animals increases. During the estrus period, which lasts no more than two days, the female attracts the male with her cries for mating. They stay together for no more than a few weeks. At this time, the female may move away from the herd.

Interestingly, male elephants can be homosexual. After all, the female mates only once a year, and her pregnancy lasts quite a long time. Males need sexual partners much more often, which leads to same-sex relationships.

After 22 months, usually one cub is born. Childbirth takes place in the presence of all members of the herd, who are ready to help if necessary. After their completion, the whole family begins to trumpet, shout and proclaim and add.

Elephants weigh approximately 70 to 113 kg, are about 90 cm tall and are completely toothless. Only at the age of two years do they have small milk tusks, which will be replaced by indigenous ones with age.

A newborn baby elephant needs more than 10 liters of mother's milk per day. Up to two years, it is the main diet of the child, in addition, little by little the baby begins to eat plants.

They may also feed on their mother's feces to help them digest the branches and bark of plants. Elephants are constantly kept near the mother, who protects and teaches him. And you need to learn a lot: drink water, move along with the herd and control the trunk.

Working with a trunk is a very difficult task, constant training, lifting objects, obtaining food and water, greeting relatives, and so on. The mother elephant and members of the entire herd protect the babies from attacks and.

Animals become independent at the age of six years. At 18, females can give birth. Females have babies with a frequency of about once every four years. Males become mature two years later. In the wild, the life expectancy of animals is about 70 years, in captivity - 80 years. The oldest elephant, who died in 2003, lived to be 86 years old.

Elephants' feet are also wonderfully arranged: under the skin on the sole there is a special springy jelly-like mass that allows you to step almost silently. In addition, when the animal leans on the leg, then the sole expands, as if swelling and thereby increasing the supporting surface. But as soon as the elephant unloads the leg, the sole takes its original shape. Therefore, elephants easily overcome swampy swamps and do not get stuck at all, even up to their belly, plunging into a bog.

The body of Indian elephants is covered with wrinkled thick dark gray skin. The thickness of the skin in these animals reaches 2.5 cm, but is very thin around the mouth and on inside ears. The skin does not have sweat glands, it is dry, so caring for it takes a significant part of the life of elephants. Taking mud baths, they protect themselves from sunburn, insect bites and fluid loss. Dust baths, tree scratching and bathing also play an additional role in skin hygiene.

Most often, Indian elephants are kept in family groups of up to 20 individuals, but there are herds of more than 100 heads, as well as loners. Adult males in herds make up 30%, females - about 50% and young elephants - 20%. In each such herd there is an experienced old female to which other animals strictly obey.

Indian elephants to a much greater extent than African ones, forest dwellers. At the same time, they prefer light forests with dense undergrowth of bamboo and shrubs. In summer, elephants climb the wooded slopes quite high into the mountains, and in the Himalayas they can be found near the border of eternal snows.

Indian elephants spend almost 20 hours a day feeding and searching for food and are strict vegetarians. Only during the hottest time of the day do elephants take shelter in the shade of trees to avoid overheating. The basis of the food of elephants is grass; in smaller quantities they eat roots, leaves and flowers different plants, bark and fruits. The amount of food eaten daily by elephants is 150 - 300 kg of various vegetation. Animals pluck long grass and leaves with a flexible trunk; and if the grass is short, they first loosen the soil with kicks. From the trees, the bark is scraped off with molars, holding the branches with the trunk. Indian elephants are happy to ruin agricultural crops, planting bananas and sugar cane. Due to the huge amount of food they eat, they rarely feed in one place for more than 2-3 days.

Reproduction of Indian elephants occurs at various times of the year. During the mating period, males secrete a black secret from the skin gland, which is located between the eye and ear, and the animals themselves at this time are very excited. In India, this state of males is called must. Pregnancy in females lasts 605-640 days; one, very rarely two cubs are born, weighing about 90 kg. At the age of 8-12, baby elephants reach sexual maturity, and Indian elephants live for about 60-70 years.

Both African and Indian elephants belong to the elephant family, but are different kinds. To this family belonged mammoths, extinct in the last ice Age, as well as mastodons that lived in America and disappeared shortly before people arrived there. These are the reasons why most of the differences between these species are visible to the naked eye.

It's no secret that the elephant - the largest living creature on earth. To be more precise, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is recognized as the largest on the planet, about four meters tall at the shoulders. The length of the torso of such an animal fluctuates between marks 6 - 7.5 meters. Weight of an average individual - 7 tons.

Indian or Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are inferior to the record holder in all respects:

Growth up to three meters.
The footage of the body is up to six and a half meters.
The average male weighs 5 tons.

Scientists believe that the African elephant is a descendant of mastodons, and the ancestors of Indian elephants are mammoths.

External differences

In African elephants ears bigger size than Asian elephants. In the first species of animals, this part of the body grows up to one and a half meters long, rounded. Ears Asian look elongated and slightly sharp downwards.

Nature rewarded both males and females with tusks African species. In "girls", however, they are usually smaller. At Asian elephants the opposite is true: only “boys” grow tusks, and even then not a hundred percent. The Indians call tuskless elephants Makhna. In the African species of elephants, the tusks are longer (up to 3.5 meters), curved. In the Asian species of elephants, they are shorter and almost straight.

African elephant skin covered countless wrinkles and folds. The Indian, on the contrary, has a modest hairline. Also, these two species differ in color: African elephants are gray-brown, Indian elephants can have a color palette from deep gray to brown.

Constitution and eating habits

The back of African elephants is almost straight, slightly concave, with an increase in sacral region. In Asian elephants, the spine, on the contrary, is convex. Relatively modest in size, the Asian giant of the savanna visually looks more massive African, as its limbs are short and thick, unlike those of other species. The structure of the legs can be easily explained by the dissimilarity in the eating behavior of Indian and African elephants: the former eat only branches and leaves, but do not disdain to nibble grass: the latter, on the contrary, eat only leaves from tree branches.

Trunk – distinguishing feature elephants as a species. It's not quite a nose, rather fused with the nose upper lip. With the help of the trunk, the elephant breathes, gets food, drinks, takes a bath, and so on. The structure of this organ in the species under consideration is also different. The end of the trunk of the African elephant is equipped with a pair of finger-like processes, while the Indian has only one such process (above).

The differences between African and Asian elephants extend to the structure of the foot. Indian elephants have five hooves on their front legs and four on their hind legs. Africans have five hooves on their front limbs (sometimes four), and three on their hind limbs.

Internal structure and behavioral features

The differences in the structure of the organs and systems of African and Asian elephants are as follows: in the former - 42 ribs, the second - 38 , the former have thirty-three vertebrae in the tail, while the latter have only twenty-six. There are differences in the arrangement of molars.

African elephants become sexually mature 25 years old. Indian develop much faster: they are ready to produce offspring already in 15 – 20 years old.

As for temperament, Asian elephants win here. From the point of view of people. Why? Because they behave more friendly, they are easier to train. Asian elephants in their homeland (in southeast Asia) help people carry heavy loads and perform other complex physical work. Around the world, Indian elephants work in circuses. African elephants, on the contrary, are much more aggressive and less obedient to humans. But their training is theoretically possible: it is known that African elephants participated in Hannibal's campaign against Rome in the 3rd century BC.

Where do they live

The Asian species is now distributed in East, Northeast and South India, East Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Ceylon, Malacca and Sumatra. They live in a variety of areas from savannahs overgrown with tall grass to dense jungles. The herd usually has from 15 to three dozen individuals. Chapter - wise old female.

The African elephant lives throughout Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Initially, the habitat of the African giants of the savannah was continuous, but today it is full of gaps: this species animals no longer inhabit the vast majority of territories South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Ethiopia; in the north of Somalia it is not at all. The African elephant can live in the most diverse landscapes, except for the desert and semi-desert. These elephants of impressive size live in herds. Previously, there could be up to four hundred individuals in the herd.

Elephants of both species during their lives give birth to approximately five cubs. Very strong in herds family ties. A group of elephants can consist of hundreds of individuals related by blood. Elephants are nomadic animals, they do not have a specific habitat. Herds of elephants spend their whole lives on the move: they look for food, which they need a huge amount of every day, and spend the night near water bodies.

To date, all known to science elephant species are under the threat of complete extinction, so they are listed in the Red Book.

Indian or Asian elephant (lat. Elephas maximus) takes an honorable second place among the largest land animals. The growth of this giant is 2.5-3.5 m with a body weight of 2.7 tons (females) to 5.4 tons (males). The length of an adult elephant reaches 5.4-6.4 m, and the tail - 120-150 cm.

The physique of the Indian elephant is more massive than that of its African counterpart. It has relatively short and thick legs. There are five hooves on the front limbs, and four on the hind limbs. The powerful body is reliably protected by strong wrinkled skin, the average thickness of which is 2.5 cm. The most delicate and vulnerable areas are on the inside of the ears and around the mouth.

The color of Asian elephants varies from dark gray to brown. Extremely rare are albino elephants, which are highly valued in Siam and even serve as an object of worship there. Their main feature is light skin with even lighter spots and pale yellow eyes. Some specimens had a pale red-brown coloration with white hairs on the back.

A distinctive feature of the Asian elephant are small ears in the shape of an irregular quadrangle. Their tusks are two or even three times smaller than those of African elephants. In some subspecies, only males have them, while in Sri Lankan they are completely absent. This saved the Indian elephant from insatiable poachers, who caused significant damage to the elephant population in Africa.

Wild Asian elephants are found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, as well as in Brunei. They live in areas national parks, in nature reserves and hard-to-reach areas. Since elephants willingly destroy plantations of rice, sugarcane and bananas, they are considered pests. Agriculture and are carefully ousted from the "cultural" areas.

It's hard to believe, but Indian elephants are very agile animals with an amazing sense of balance. Despite their size, they willingly climb the wooded slopes of the mountains to a height of up to 3.6 thousand meters (to the border of eternal snow in the Himalayas). The structure of the sole allows them to travel through swampy areas without fear, although from time to time they test the reliability of the soil under their feet with powerful blows with their trunk.

Asian elephant females live in small groups of 2-10 adults and their young. different ages. "Commands" all the most adult female, who cares about the safety of all members of the herd.

Elephants often help each other out: for example, when one of them comes to the time of childbirth, all the others surround her in a dense ring and do not disperse until the baby is born and stands on her legs - this is how they protect the mother and her cub from predators. In addition, a young elephant, although it adheres to its mother, can “snack” from any other lactating female in the herd.

At the age of 10-16 years, young males leave their mother forever and begin to live alone, while females remain in their own herd for life. Generally, life cycle elephants are similar to humans: at 12-16 years old, young animals become capable of reproducing offspring, but they reach adult sizes only by the age of 20.

Elephants have a life expectancy of 60-80 years. Interestingly, in the wild, they do not die from disease (this rarely happens), but from hunger. The fact is that chewing teeth in elephants are replaced only 4 times during their life. After 40 years, new teeth no longer grow, and old ones gradually wear out. By the age of 70, they become unsuitable for chewing and the elephant loses the ability to eat.

Niramin - Feb 14th, 2016

The Indian or Asian elephant (lat. Elephas maximus) is one of the largest land animals on the planet, only the African bush elephant is larger. The life expectancy of these animals is 70 years. The weight of males reaches 5.4 tons with a height of about 3 m. The thickness of the skin is 2.5 cm, but in the area of the ears and on the muzzle it is very thin, often attacked by insects. Since there are no sweat glands on the skin, the elephant is forced to escape from the heat, solar radiation and dehydration with mud baths.

The Indian elephant differs from its African counterpart not only in body size, but also in the size of the tusks, which grow only in males. In addition, elephants have 4 chewing teeth, which change six times during their lives. When the last of them wear out, the animal dies of exhaustion.

The habitat of Indian elephants covers Sri Lanka, Sumatra, India, southern China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, Indonesia. Subspecies of the Asian elephant include the Indian, Sri Lankan, Sumatran, and Bornean elephants. They live mostly in tropical and subtropical forests in which bamboo grows. AT summer period Elephants go to the mountains, where they can reach heights up to 3500 m.

Elephants have a developed sense of smell and hearing, but poor eyesight: they see poorly at a distance further than 15 m. When communicating over long distances, they use infrasound.

In order to get enough, an elephant needs up to 150 - 300 kg of fresh plant matter daily. The composition of the diet includes grass, bark, rhizomes, leaves, flowers and fruits of plants. In captivity, elephants are happy to eat vegetables and fruits. In the wild, they tend to ruin agricultural crops. The daily need for water is 100 - 200 liters, so elephants have to live near water bodies, constantly migrate in search of new pastures.

Elephants live in family groups consisting of a female and her children: adult females and male cubs. Adult males are mostly solitary, however, the oldest of them may migrate with family groups. Sexual maturity in males occurs at 16 years of age. Pregnancy in females lasts an average of 20 months.

Indian elephants are easily tamed and highly trainable. In Asia, they are often used for heavy work, as a means of transportation. They make brilliant circus performers.

Gallery of photos of Indian elephants:

A photo: Asian elephant floats in the water.