| Elephants (Latin - Elephantidae), is the family of mammals from the group hemipterous. Some classifications consider the elephant as a sub-family Elephantinae. These are large animals: the height of the body can up to 3.5m. The trunk is massive, the neck is short, the limbs are column shaped: front – 5 fingers, rear - 5 or 4 fingers; different fingers from outside are not visible, as they are hidden under the skin; a small nail shaped hood corresponds to each finger. The upper lip and nose, grown together, form a long mobile trunk on the end of which the nostrils and also finger-shaped growths (2 or 1) are located. The trunk serves as an organ of smell, touch and grabbing. They have 4 Molars, 1 from each side of the upper and bottom jaw. The teeth gradually wear out and fall, and their place is occupied by the subsequent one, formed in the cavities in the back part of the jaw. Such changes during the life of elephant happen 6 times. Canine teeth are absent; strongly developed secondary cutter teeth are present only in the top jaw, they form tusks which grow during life and sometimes reach very big sizes. The stomach is simple. The skin is thick (up to 3 cm), almost naked, is covered by rare rough hair. Only the mammoth had thick hairy skin. Elephants live about 70 - 80 years. They reach puberty at 17- 20 years. Pregnancy lasts 22- 24 months, the newborn weighs about 90 kg, and its height is about 1m.
Elephants eat vegetative food: branches, leaves and the bark of trees, juicy rhizomes and fruits, young bamboo, and also grass. They collect the food with their trunk, but if it is to be excavated from the ground or if the tree is to be fallen down, they use their tusks. Water is collected in the trunk, and then poured into the mouth. In a search of food, they travel faraway distances (up to 100 km a day), they can freely move in thick forests or in swamps, easily climb sharp hills and swim very well. They live in herds, sometimes in several tens and even hundreds of heads. They are significantly destroyed by humans and are under protection. The tusks are used for making various ornaments, and also for industrial purposes: its meat is eaten. Elephants can be easily tamed and trained.
Modern elephants are of 2 types: Asian (Elephas) and African (Loxodonta). The type of Asian elephants is presented by type 1 - Asian elephant (asiaticus elephant). The height of the body of males is up to 3.2m, females - to 2.7m, and weigh up to 5 tons. The frontal skull is slightly bent, and the ears are small. They have a trunk with a 1 finger-shaped growth at the end. The tusks of males are well developed (a length of up to 2.5m, and a weight of up to 75 kg each), sometimes females don’t have them. They are found in the forest areas of South East Asia (India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, islands of Sri Lanka and Sumatra). It has been brought to the island of Kalimantan by humans. It mainly eats grassy plants. It can be well tamed and used for various work, mainly in forest areas; can bear up to 600 kg of weight on its back or pull trees of a weight up to 500 kg (by small distances) using its trunk.
In the news: Animal rights activists are deeply upset about an elephant that has been spray painted as part of an art exhibit. The art exhibit has been created to protest world poverty. The painted elephant is named Tai. The paint that was used actually is made from flowers and was completely nontoxic. It was part of an exhibit by British artist Banksy as part of the Barely Legal exhibit. The exhibit is set at a warehouse in London. This exhibit is slated to run through Sunday, with the elephant present for the entire affair. There were famous faces at the opening of the event, including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Tai the elephant is owned by Kari Johnson and her husband. She maintains that there was nothing wrong about painting the elephant and that Tai was not harmed in any manner whatsoever. The Johnsons own an operation called Have Trunk, Will Travel which provides elephants for events such as the art exhibit against world poverty. Bill Dyer, the regional director for In Defense of Animals, visited Tai the elephant and the exhibit and concluded that while Tai was not under stress or mistreated per se, the painting on the elephant represented what he called an unnecessary exploitation of an animal. |
[ Sunday marked the end of the last-week's anti-poverty "Barely Legal" art exhibit in LA, which included a live elephant with a floral paint job. Even though the paint was composed of non-toxic bio-ingredients similar to the ones used in movie makeup, animal activists called it an 'animal abuse' and demanded that the elephant is cleaned immediately and sent back to the owner. They kept pressuring the exhibit organizers, interfered with the exhibit, and called the LA police until the exhibit organizers finally agreed to wash off the paint from the elephant. ]
