v.saisriniwasan
New member
Elephants are wonderful animals! They are the largest mammals in the world that live on land. There are two kinds of elephants; African and Asian. Asian elephants have smaller ears and shorter tusks than African elephants.
The African elephant is bigger and taller than the Asian elephant. The largest living mammal on earth is none other than the elephant. With the heaviest mammal weighing around 12000 kgs you can imagine how huge this living giant can be. Its one leg
could probably crumble an entire tree or a couple of them.
The gestation period of this mammal is 22 months, the maximum of any mammal in the animal kingdom. And baby calf weighs around 120 kgs. Heavy baby! But as heavy as they may seem they are vulnerable to being hunted by lions who gulp in baby elephants and the weaklings in the herd. As otherwise no animal dare come into close proximity of the elephant, anyway who wants to have their bones crushed.
Other than animals, humans are more of a threat to this breed. As they are poached and hunted for their tusks or a wide scale. Over a lakh of elephants were killed earlier on an annual average. It is only recently in India that laws against poaching have gotten stringent making it difficult to poach them, not impossible. The practice continues although much diminished in Africa. The tusks of the elephant are of pure ivory that is a great material for crafting. To the adult mammal it keeps growing on an average of 7 inches in a year. Summing to sometimes 10 feet in an African elephant and weighing around 90 kgs. Well now we know why they are so healthy, all to carry their own weight around.
The tusks are used to dig water, carry logs of wood for shelter or to clear the trees as these guys make their way through the jungle. An interesting fact about the tusk is like humans who are right and left handed, elephants are right and left tusked. The dominant tusk is a little shorter and rounded as against the other tusk. So you have a right tusked elephant and left tusked elephant. There are many nuances of the elephant that when put light upon bring awe and awareness to the common man.
The African elephant is bigger and taller than the Asian elephant. The largest living mammal on earth is none other than the elephant. With the heaviest mammal weighing around 12000 kgs you can imagine how huge this living giant can be. Its one leg
could probably crumble an entire tree or a couple of them.
The gestation period of this mammal is 22 months, the maximum of any mammal in the animal kingdom. And baby calf weighs around 120 kgs. Heavy baby! But as heavy as they may seem they are vulnerable to being hunted by lions who gulp in baby elephants and the weaklings in the herd. As otherwise no animal dare come into close proximity of the elephant, anyway who wants to have their bones crushed.
Other than animals, humans are more of a threat to this breed. As they are poached and hunted for their tusks or a wide scale. Over a lakh of elephants were killed earlier on an annual average. It is only recently in India that laws against poaching have gotten stringent making it difficult to poach them, not impossible. The practice continues although much diminished in Africa. The tusks of the elephant are of pure ivory that is a great material for crafting. To the adult mammal it keeps growing on an average of 7 inches in a year. Summing to sometimes 10 feet in an African elephant and weighing around 90 kgs. Well now we know why they are so healthy, all to carry their own weight around.
The tusks are used to dig water, carry logs of wood for shelter or to clear the trees as these guys make their way through the jungle. An interesting fact about the tusk is like humans who are right and left handed, elephants are right and left tusked. The dominant tusk is a little shorter and rounded as against the other tusk. So you have a right tusked elephant and left tusked elephant. There are many nuances of the elephant that when put light upon bring awe and awareness to the common man.
