Category Zoology

          Elephants are magnificent wild animals. Hundreds of elephants are being hunted down every year across the globe for their tusks. Ivory from elephant tusks is more valuable than gold today. The ivory trade became a serious threat to elephants in the 1970s.

          Thousands of these animals are attached by poachers using automatic weapons, motorized vehicles and airplanes. In 1990, the concern over the decline of the elephant population led to the banning of the ivory trade world over.

          However, though the ban brought about a temporary decrease in poaching, the illegal hunting of these animals has increased dramatically in the last 10 years or so.

          This is primarily due to the rapid development of the traditionally ivory-consuming nations, particularly China.

        How many kilograms of food do you consume a day? However hard you try, it will not be more than three kilograms. Do you know how much as elephant consumes a day? Compared to other animals, an elephant has a huge body frame. Therefore, elephants have to eat and drink proportionate to the size of its body.

        Do you know that an elephant consumes about 180 kg of food each day? It spends about 18 hours just eating. Elephants are herbivores and feed on grasses, tree foliage, and bark, twigs and other vegetation. African elephants largely prefer tree leaves, bark, and branches, Asian elephants, on the other hand, shrubs, in addition to juicy leaves and fruit.

        These animals need to drink a lot of water too. An elephant consumes about 190 litres of water a day. That is how much water a standard bathtub can hold!

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        Have you ever gone close to an elephant? The most intimidating aspect of an elephant is its size. An enormous tusker is an awe-inspiring sight. While the Asian elephant is big, the African bush elephant is bigger.

        The most obvious difference between the African and the Asian elephants is the size of their ears. The African’s ears are twice as big as those of the Asian. There is difference in the structure of the chewing surface of the teeth too. While the teeth of the Asian elephant have close narrow loops, the African elephants have wider, diamond shaped surfaces.

        There are four toes on an Asian elephant’s hind foot, while the African has only three. There are more folds or rings in the African elephant’s trunk. Its trunk has two fingers at its tip. The Asian counterpart has only one finger at the end of the trunk. Another significant difference between these animals is that while among the Asian elephants the females do not tusks, the female African elephant has long tusks!

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        Although elephants are the biggest land animals, there is variation among the species in terms of their size and weight.

        The African bush elephants are largest in the Elephantidea family. The males of these species are about 3.2 metres tall at their shoulder. They weigh up to 6 tonnes. Male Asian elephants, on the other hand, grow up to 2.75metres at their shoulder. They are much lighter than African bush elephants, with a weight about 5 tonnes. The smallest elephant species is the African forest elephants. They grow to a height of about 2.2 metres and weights between 2-5 tonnes.

        There are differences in physical features between the male and the female elephants. Male African elephants are typically 23% taller than females, whereas male Asian elephants are only around 15% taller than females. There are about 326 to 351 bones in an elephant’s body.

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        There will be hardly anyone who does not know the answer to this question. The largest living land animal is none other than the elephant. Usually two kinds of elephants are identified in terms of their location: the Asian, and the African variety. Of the African bush elephants, with their huge ears and longer tusks, are bigger than their Asian counterparts. These animals are known for their physical features and great strength. They live long, and possess complex herd behavior.

        These animals belong to the family Elephantidae. There are three species identified among elephants: the African bush elephant and the Asian elephant. They play a major role in nature and therefore are considered keystone species due to their impact on nature.

        In Asia, these animals are domesticated for various hard tasks. In times gone by, they played a key role in wars. Today, these majestic animals are exploited by Man for entertainment, and are put on display in zoos.

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        It has been a perennial quest of Man to know where he came from. While the theory of evolution gave him clues as to who his closest relatives are. Great apes are much like us, sharing great genetic resemblance. In fact, bonobos share 98.5% of the human DNA. This is the reason why they possess very human-like qualities too.

        Bonobos are profoundly intelligent and possess deep emotional capacity. It is reported that bonobos have picked up many important features of human culture while in captivity. Most of this was accomplished through their ability to observe, and assimilate ideas.

        They are intelligent enough to learn how to   communicate, use tools and play music. In a case reported, a female bonobo tried her hand at driving a golf cart, though a short while later, it crashes on to a free!

        No doubt, a bonobo is very much like a human.

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