Elephants are herbivores plant eaters , but they cannot digest cellulose, the substance that makes up much plant matter. They spend about three-quarters of their time, day and night, selecting, picking, preparing and eating food. An adult elephant in the wild will eat in the region of to Kg to lb. The number of plant species eaten by any one elephant may vary but it is likely to be more than fifty.
About per cent of elephant diet is grass, if it is available. Like humans and apes, an elephant's choice of food-plants will be determined partly by what grows locally, partly by what was learned from its mother, and partly by what it has discovered by trying novel food items.
Elephants also select their meals taking into account the time it takes to prepare each mouthful. Eating long grass is probably the easiest and quickest way for an elephant to fill up! On the other hand, one of the most time-consuming food-items for elephants to prepare is bark. With larger trees, the elephant drives a tusk between the bark and the sapwood and then yanks a strip off the tree with its trunk.
The soft wood of some trees such as the baobab is also eaten. Such tusking sometimes destroys the whole tree. Elephants can give birth at any time of the year if food is plentiful all year round. In areas where food is scarce during dry seasons, most births occur during rainy seasons. This ensures that the mother has plenty to eat while she is suckling her calf.
Females between 14 - 45 years may give birth to calves approximately every four years with the mean interbirth intervals increasing to five years by age 52 and six years by age Interbirth intervals of up to 13 years may occur depending upon habitat conditions and population densities. The mean calving interval varies from population to population, with high density populations or otherwise nutritionally stressed populations exhibiting longer intervals between births.
After 22 months growing inside its mother's womb, a newborn baby elephant weighs more than the average adult human being. Female calves weigh kg - lb. Males are heavier and weigh up to kg lb. An adult bull savanna elephant can have a shoulder height of 3. Females are smaller, weighing up to 3, Kg 7, lb. Elephants are unusual among mammals in that they continue to grow throughout their life, although their rate of growth slows after they reach sexual maturity. Elephant home ranges vary from population to population and habitat to habitat.
Individual home ranges vary from 15 to 3, square kilometers , square miles. Elephants are not territorial although they utilize specific home areas during particular times of the year. Elephants communicate with each other in many ways and with all their senses. They rely less on their eyes than humans do but visual signals are important and the position of their ears and trunks show what mood they are in. Team Lioness is transforming what it means to be a woman ranger protecting African elephants and other wildlife from poachers at the border of Tanzania and Kenya.
Read about their innovative work to save these animals. The problems we face are urgent, complicated, and resistant to change. Real solutions demand creativity, hard work, and involvement from people like you. Unfortunately, the browser you use is outdated and does not allow you to display the site correctly. Please install any of the modern browsers, for example:. Skip to main content. Where do elephants come from? How much does an elephant weigh?
Are elephants really the largest living land animal? What is the smallest species of elephant? Why did elephants evolve such large ears? How does an elephant use its trunk? 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 corruption are more likely to have higher poaching rates.
This suggests that helping communities develop sustainable livelihoods could reduce the lure of poaching. Elephant family members show signs of grief and may revisit the bones of the deceased for years, touching them with their trunks.
All rights reserved. Animals Photo Ark. African elephant. An African elephant photographed at Indianapolis Zoo in Indiana. Common Name: African elephants. Scientific Name: Loxodonta. Type: Mammals. Diet: Herbivore. Group Name: Herd. Size: Height at the shoulder, 8. Weight: 2. Size relative to a 6-ft man:. Elephants recognize themselves in a mirror—something few animals are known to do.
This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our photo community on Instagram. Follow us on Instagram at natgeoyourshot or visit us at natgeo. Share Tweet Email. Go Further. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London.
Stranger danger. Elephant calves could be a potential meal for hyenas, lions, leopards, or crocodiles, but as long as they stay near Mom or their herd, they have little to worry about.
If an elephant senses danger, it trumpets a loud alarm call to alert the others. The herd then forms a protective ring, with youngsters in the middle and the adults facing out to confront a potential predator. At birth a baby elephant, called a calf, may stand three feet one meter tall.
A calf is usually quite hairy, with a long tail and a very short trunk, and is very dependent upon its mother and other members of the herd.
Calves stick close to Mom and nurse frequently; they gain, on average, 2 to 3 pounds 1 to 1. Herd mates tend to look out for the calves. Despite all the playtime and protection, calves still have to navigate through social nuances and establish their social rank within the herd.
Babies spend their days practicing making all four legs go in the same direction at the same time, perfecting their ear flaring, and mastering trunk control. Calves are clumsy at first with their trunk, but they learn to use it as they grow older. By the time they are two to three years old, they no longer need to nurse. After being led off the train, the two Asian elephants refused to move another step, no matter how much encouragement they received.
When Gabe gave her breakfast, she would grumble and trumpet at him until he left her alone to eat—apparently, she was not sociable in the morning. She also showed a marked preference for men, even pushing away Zoo Executive Director Belle Benchley when she tried to say hello.
Its features include the state-of-the-art Elephant Care Center, which is helpful, as some members of our herd are older, non-breeding elephants. Yet just a few years later, they were scheduled to be culled due to overpopulation. These elephants are one of the most genetically valuable African elephant herds in North America. Whether daintily presenting a foot, patiently standing parallel to the bars for a cleaning, or offering up their trunk for a saline flush, elephants are clearly highly cognizant and deserve the best care.
Elephants are now protected, but poachers still hunt them, and they face other problems, too. African forest elephants are Critically Endangered. We are actively promoting elephant conservation through a variety of methods aimed at understanding elephant behavior and their reproductive biology. We can apply the knowledge we gain studying the elephants at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park to help sustain elephants in their native environments.
In one multidisciplinary approach, our scientists record elephant auditory communication and behavior for a clearer understanding of the social dynamics of a herd and the relationship between mother and calf. To further reproductive success, we are monitoring hormones to uncover the details of the complex estrous cycle of elephants. Our conservation scientists wanted to know how elephant walking distances at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park compared to elephant walking distances in Africa.
They used GPS collars and GPS anklets to document elephants' movement patterns for eight elephants at the Safari Park and found the elephants walked an average of 3 to 7 miles 5 to 11 kilometers per day. They walked the most during the middle of the day. These distances are comparable with what has been observed in elephants in Africa. Also, the relationship of the walking rate and time of day mirrors activity patterns observed in some populations of elephants in Africa.
Partnerships and collaborations. We are working with the Northern Rangelands Trust in Kenya, helping local ecologists and rangers reduce human-elephant conflict in the area.
0コメント