| Elephants are the largest land animals alive today.
Elephantidae (Latin) are a family in the order of Proboscidea in the class of mammals. The family includes three species of elephants, belonging to two types.
African Elephants (Loxodonta):
- African Bush Elephant ( Loxodonta africana);
- African Forest Elephant ( Loxodonta cyclotis)
Asian Elephants (Elephas):
- Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus)
Other species including the Mammoth have become extinct since the last ice age, which ended about 10000 years ago.
It is assumed that the elephants appeared in Quaternary.
The elephants are hunted for the sake of tusks, which are used in ornaments and ivory articles. To avoid extinction, elephants are now a protected species worldwide and included in the International Red Book.
It has been known for a long time that the tusks of dead elephants were not found in African Savannas and forests. Even a legend was around that the elephants die secretly in impregnable graveyards. In the 20th century, hunter John Hanter could establish the reason behind the disappearance of the tusks of the dead elephants: the tusks were eaten by African porcupines, thus making an effort to satisfy the mineral hunger (In the rainy season, heavy downpours wash out mineral substances from the soil).
Elephants can be easily domesticated and they can be used as a mean of transport in inaccessible areas (difficult terrains), for shifting timber and also in the circus.
Elephants in wars:
Elephants were domesticated and used in wars by armies for the first time in the Indian sub-continent. (A widely popular fact is that Alexander the Great found great worth in using war elephants in India against King Porus). Later on, elephants were used in battles both by Alexander the Great and as well as by Hellenistic states. It is worthwhile to state that the elephants were predominantly used for causing tremendous damage to the infantry and frighten the opponent. This does not mean that the elephants were weak in battles but on the contrary, they were fearsome in wars but to tame an elephant to fight the enemies and kill them was incredibly difficult.
Female elephants start to mate only after attaining 18 years of age, and males, only when they reach the weight and strength sufficient for fighting for the females. During the mating period, the male and female spend some weeks in the forest far from the herd. The female of the wild Indian elephant after lasting for 18 to 22 months of pregnancy usually gives birth to the elephant calf of a weight of 64-97 kg in the spring. If the mother is disturbed, it shifts the cub to a safer place with its trunk, and during the first weeks of life of the cub some members of the herd protect it day and night from predators. At almost up to five years of age, the elephant calf is breast fed from the nipples of the mother which are between its front feet, and thereafter it starts to eat by means of the trunk. Usually the female elephant gives birth to one cub, in all it gives birth to 5 - 12 cubs in its entire life, but frequently it is followed by 2 elephant calves of different ages, as it can give birth after a gap of three years.
|
Latest study showed that elephants are afraid of bees and respond even to the sound of bees by running away. This funding has valuable application for the protection and conservation of African elephants, who sometimes damage farm crops and trees. Installing beehives next to African farms will allow farmers to avoid shooting problematic elephants, while at the same time generating additional revenue through the sales of honey.
Until the study was published, it was considered that elephants are resistant to bee stings due to the thickness of elephant skin, and elephants were thought to have no fear of bees.
