Asian elephants: description, features, lifestyle, nutrition and interesting facts

In this article, we want to talk about the famous giants, who occupy the second place among the largest land animals. Meet, these are Asian elephants.

Appearance of animals

The Asian (Indian) elephant is very different from the ones that inhabit Africa. An Indian animal weighs up to five with a half tons. Its height is 2.5-3.5 m. Elephants have rather modest tusks about one and a half meters in length and weighing up to twenty-five kilograms. If the animal does not have them, it is called makhna.

Asian elephants have small ears, sharp and elongated at the ends. They can boast of a powerful physique. The legs are relatively short and thick enough. Indian, or Asian, the elephant on the forelimbs has five hoofs, and on the back - only four. His strong, powerful body is guarded and protected by thick, wrinkled skin. On average, its thickness is 2.5 centimeters. The softest thin areas are inside the ears and near the mouth.

The color of the animals can vary from a dark gray to a brown color. Very rarely there are Asian elephants-albinos. Such unique animals are very much appreciated in Siam, they are even a subject of worship there. Their main feature is a light skin, on which there are more bright spots. The eyes of the albino are also unusual, they have a light yellow hue. There are even such specimens, in which the skin is pale red, and whitish hair grows on the back.

The absence of tusks in Asian elephants and their small size in those individuals that have them, saved the animals from being ruthlessly destroyed, as was the case in Africa.

Habitat

Wild Asian elephants live in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, and even in Brunei. They live in national parks, inaccessible areas and reserves. Elephants like to ruin rice plantations, as well as thickets of sugar cane, to cut off banana trees. For this reason, they are considered pests of agriculture, so they prefer to push them to distant territories, so as not to lose crops.

Indian elephants adore subtropical and tropical forests (broad-leaved) with dense thickets of shrubs and bamboo. In the summer they prefer to climb mountains. In a strong heat giants wag their ears, thus cooling their body.

Asian elephant: lifestyle

It's hard to believe, but it's a very dexterous animal. With such a significant weight, they perfectly balance, although they look extremely slow. Despite their impressive size, they climb as fast as they can through the forested mountain slopes to a height of 3,600 meters. Of course, without seeing, it's hard to imagine. The special structure of the soles of the feet gives them the opportunity to safely travel through swampy places, although they are so cautious that they periodically check the reliability of land cover underfoot with strong strikes by the trunk.

The Asian elephant is the second largest terrestrial animal, which causes genuine respect for it. Female live in small groups, consisting of a maximum of ten adult individuals with children of different ages. The leader is the oldest female, caring about the safety of her entire herd.

Females tend to help each other. For example, when one of them begins to give birth, everyone else gets around her and does not leave until the baby appears and gets to her feet. In such a simple way, they protect mother and baby from encroachment by predators. Newborn sloths usually keep close to their mother, but they can safely eat and another female, having milk.

The female gives birth to only one calf weighing up to one hundred kilograms. Pregnancy takes 22 months. Babies are born with small tusks, which they fall out in the second year of life.

Having reached the age of ten-sixteen years, males forever leave their mother, but females remain in the herd. In some ways, the way of life of these animals is similar to the human. By the age of 12-16, elephants are able to reproduce, but adults only become twenty.

How much do they live?

Elephants can be safely attributed to the longevity. They live 60-80 years. It is interesting that in the wild, individuals die not from age and disease, but simply from hunger. This situation is due to the fact that for the whole life of their teeth they change only four times. There are all the updates to forty years, and later they no longer grow. The old gradually become worthless. And now, by the age of seventy, teeth have become completely bad, the animal can no longer chew on them, and therefore loses all possibility to eat.

Indian, or Asian, elephant: food

I must say that the diet of wild elephants depends entirely on where they live. In general, animals prefer ficus leaves. An important role is played by the fact that the arid is worth the season or rainy.

Elephants are very fond of all sorts of grass, leaves, fruits, eat even the crown of trees, because from it they draw minerals. During the day, the animal eats from 300 to 350 kilograms of grass and leaves. They have a lot of water. Elephants generally prefer marsh plants. But African people love salt, they find it in the ground.

Feeding in captivity

Asian (African) elephants, living in captivity, feed mainly on hay and grass. Animals love sweets. Preference is given to apples, bananas, beets, carrots. Also, elephants like flour products, especially cookies and bread. In the zoo, they eat up to thirty kilograms of hay per day, plus another fifteen kilograms of fruits, vegetables, ten kilograms of flour products. They can also supplement the animals with cereals, for example, giving up to ten kilograms of grain. Necessarily in the diet of elephants include vitamins and salt.

Features of behavior

Elephants swim well, easily overcome the long distance. Sleeping animals only four hours, this is quite enough for them. Elephants need water, and they drink it quite a lot (up to 200 liters per day). As a rule, for this they go to the source, only quench their thirst according to seniority. Sometimes babies get water instead of water. This happens during a period of intense heat, when the reservoirs dry up. But in periods when there are a lot of fluids, elephants bathe, watering each other's trunks. Perhaps in this way they play.

Scared elephants run fast enough, speeding up to 50 kilometers an hour. In doing so, they raise their tails up, thus giving a signal of danger. Animals have developed sense of smell and hearing.

Indian and African elephants have a completely different character. Asian individuals are very friendly and good to people. In general, it is much easier to tame. It is these elephants that help people transport cargo and perform heavy work in the southeast Asian countries. If you've ever seen an elephant in a circus, then do not doubt that this is an Asian animal.

Absolutely all varieties of elephants are endangered, and therefore listed in the Red Book.

Interesting Facts

For sure, you do not know that:

1. When swimming under water, elephants use a trunk for breathing.
2. At the end of the trunk, an Asian animal has one finger-shaped growth. With it, the elephant eats.
3. In difficult times, animals can cry like people, while they make low sounds that are not audible to us.
4. Voices of each other elephants are distinguished at a distance of 19 kilometers.
5. These are the only animals that bury their dead relatives. Finding the remains, the herd together hides the bones in the ground.
6. The trunk is very important for the animal, it eats with its help, breathes and sniffs, takes out the foliage of the trees. After hitting it, the elephant can die from hunger.

Instead of an afterword

The elephant is an amazing and beautiful animal. Many of his habits are like human ones. No wonder that for many centuries animals have been and remain devoted helpers of people. In gratitude, we should make every effort to these lovely creatures did not disappear from the face of the Earth.