"Elephants are useful animals," said Sharikov in Bulgakov's novel Heart of a Dog. The largest land mammal, a giant among animals. They are the main characters of many myths and legends, since their life until recently was surrounded by a halo of mystery and suspense.

Description of the elephant

Elephants belong to the proboscis order, the Elephant family. characteristic outward signs elephants are big ears and a long trunk, which they use as a hand. Tusks, which are hunted by poachers for valuable ivory, are an important attribute in appearance.

Appearance

All elephants are united big sizes- their height, depending on the species, can vary from two to four meters. The average body length is 4.5 meters, but some especially large specimens can grow up to 7.5 m. About 7 tons, African elephants can gain weight up to 12 tons. The body is elongated and massive, covered with dense gray or gray-yellow skin. The skin, about 2 cm thick, is bumpy, uneven, folded in places, without sebaceous and sweat glands. There is almost no hairline, or it is very short in the form of bristles. In newborns, the hairline is thick, over time, the hairs fall out or break off.

Large fan-shaped ears are very mobile. Elephants fan themselves with them to cool the skin, and also drive away mosquitoes with a wave. Ear sizes are importance- they are more among the southern inhabitants and less among the northern ones. Since the skin does not contain sweat glands, which could be used to cool the body temperature through the release of sweat, the auricles serve as the temperature regulator of the whole body. The skin on them is very thin, penetrated by a dense capillary network. The blood in them is cooled and distributed throughout the body. In addition, there is a special gland near the ears, the secret of which is produced in mating season. Waving their ears, males spread the smell of this secret through the air over long distances.

This is interesting! The pattern of veins on the surface of the ears of an elephant is individual, like fingerprints in humans.

The trunk is not a modified nose, but a formation from an elongated nose and upper lip. This muscular formation serves both as an organ of smell and a kind of "hand": with its help, elephants feel various objects on the ground, pluck grass, branches, fruits, suck up water and inject it into their mouths or spray the body. Some of the sounds that elephants make can be amplified and altered by using their trunk as a resonator. At the end of the trunk there is a small muscular process that works like a finger.

Thick columnar limbs, five-fingered, fingers covered common skin . There are hooves on each foot - 5 or 4 on the front legs, and 3 or 4 on the hind legs. There is a pad of fat in the center of the foot that flattens out with each step, increasing the area in contact with the ground. This allows elephants to walk almost silently. A feature of the structure of the legs of elephants is the presence of two kneecaps, which is why animals cannot jump. Teeth are constantly changing.

Only the upper third incisors remain unchanged - the famous elephant tusks. Absent in female Asian elephants. Tusks grow and wear out with age. The oldest elephants have the largest and thickest tusks. The tail is approximately equal to the length of the limbs and is equipped with a stiff hair brush at the end. They fan themselves with them, driving away insects. When moving with a herd, elephants often hold on to the tail of their mother, aunt or nanny with their trunk.

Character and lifestyle

Elephants gather in groups of 5 to 30 individuals. The group is ruled by an adult female matriarch, the oldest and wisest. After her death, the place of matriarch is taken by the second in seniority - usually a sister or daughter. In groups, all animals are related to each other. Mostly females are in the group, males, as soon as they grow up, are expelled from the herd. However, they do not go far, stay nearby or go to another group of females. Females favorably treat males only when the mating season comes.

Members of family herds have well-developed mutual assistance and mutual assistance. Everyone plays their part - there is a kind of manger, kindergarten and school. They are kind to each other, raise children together, and in the event of the death of one of the herd they are very sad. Even when they stumble upon the remains of an elephant that did not belong to the family, the elephants stop and freeze, honoring the memory of the deceased relative. In addition, elephants have a funeral rite. Family members carry the deceased animal to the pit, blow it as a sign of farewell and respect, and then throw it with branches and grass. There are cases when elephants buried the found ones in the same way. dead people. Sometimes animals stay near the grave for several days.

African elephants sleep standing up, leaning on each other. Adult males can sleep with their heavy tusks resting on a termite mound, tree, or log. Indian elephants sleep lying on the ground. Sleep in animals is about four hours a day, although some Africans with short breaks of forty minutes. The rest of the time they move in search of food and care for themselves and their relatives.

Because of the size of the eyes, elephants do not see well, but at the same time they hear perfectly and have an excellent sense of smell. According to studies by zoologists studying the behavior of elephants, they use infrasounds that are heard over great distances. The sound set in the language of elephants is huge. Despite their huge size and seeming awkwardness in their movements, elephants are extremely mobile and at the same time cautious animals. Usually they move at a low speed - about 6 km / h, but can develop it up to 30-40 km / h. They can swim and move along the bottom of reservoirs, exposing only their trunk above the water for breathing.

how long do elephants live

Elephant Intelligence

Despite the size of their brain, which is relatively small, elephants are considered one of the most intelligent animals. They recognize themselves in the reflection of the mirror, which indicates the presence of self-awareness. These are the second animals, besides monkeys, that use various objects as tools. For example, they use tree branches as a fan or fly swatter.

Elephants have exceptional visual, olfactory and auditory memory- they remember the places of watering and feeding for many kilometers around, remember people, recognize their relatives after long separation. In captivity, they are tolerant of mistreatment, but can eventually become enraged. It is known that elephants experience various emotions - sadness, joy, sadness, rage, anger. Also, they can laugh.

This is interesting! Elephants are both left-handed and right-handed. This is determined by the sharpness of the tusk - it is ground from the side that the elephant often wields.

In captivity, they lend themselves well to training, so they are often used in circuses, and in India - as mounts and working animals. There are cases when trained elephants painted pictures. And in Thailand, even elephant football championships are held.

Elephant species

Currently, there are four species of elephants belonging to two genera - the African elephant and the Indian elephant.. There is still debate among zoologists about the different subspecies of elephants and whether to count them. separate view or leave it in the subspecies category. For 2018, there is the following classification of living species:

  • Genus
    • View Savannah elephant
    • View Forest Elephant
  • Genus
    • View Indian, or Asian elephant
      • Subspecies Bornean elephant
      • Subspecies Sumatran elephant
      • Subspecies Ceylon elephant

All African elephants differ from their Indian counterparts in the shape and size of their ears. African elephants have larger and rounded ears. Tusks - modified upper incisors - of African elephants are worn by both males and females, while sexual dimorphism is often expressed - the diameter and length of the incisors in males exceeds that of females. The tusks of the Indian elephant are straighter and shorter. There are differences in the structure of the trunk - Indian elephants have only one “finger”, African ones have two. The highest point in the African elephant's body is the crown of the head, while the head of the Indian elephant is lower than the shoulders.

  • forest elephant- a species of elephant from the genus of African elephants, previously considered a subspecies of the savannah elephant. Their average height does not exceed two and a half meters. They have fairly thick hard hair and rounded massive ears. The body is gray-yellow with a brown tint due to the color of the coat.
  • bush elephant, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the most close-up view land mammals and the third largest animal on the planet. The height of elephants at the withers can reach up to 3-4 meters, and the average body weight is about 6 tons. There is pronounced sexual dimorphism in the size of the body and tusks - females are somewhat smaller and have short tusks compared to males.
  • Indian elephant - the second of the currently existing types of elephants. It is more massive than the African one. It has shorter and thicker limbs, lowered head and ears. They are covered with wool more than African elephants. The back is convex and humpbacked. There are two bulges on the forehead. There are non-pigmented pink patches on the skin. There are albino elephants, which are the object of worship and worship.
  • Ceylon elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant. It grows up to 3 m high. It differs from the Indian elephant proper by the absence of tusks even in males. The head is very large in relation to the body with a discolored spot at the base of the trunk and on the forehead.
  • Sumatran elephant also has almost no tusks, differs in less depigmentation of the skin. Their height rarely reaches more than three meters.
  • Bornean elephant- the smallest of the subspecies, sometimes called the pygmy elephant. They differ from their relatives in a long and thick tail, almost reaching the ground. The tusks are more straight, and the hump on the back is more pronounced than in other subspecies.

Range, habitats

African elephants live in southern Africa in Sudan, Nambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and many other countries. The range of Indian elephants extends to the northeast and southern part India, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Ceylon. Since all species and subspecies are listed in the Red Book, animals live in various nature reserves. African elephants prefer the shady savannah zone, avoiding open desert landscapes and overgrown dense forests.

They can be found in primary broad-leaved and moist tropical forests. Some populations are found in the dry savannahs of Nambia, in the south of the Sahara, but are rather an exception to general rule. Indian elephants, on the other hand, live on tall-grass plains, in bush thickets and dense bamboo forests. An important aspect in the life and habitats of elephants is water. They need to drink at least once every two days, in addition, they need almost daily bathing.

Elephant diet

Elephants are quite voracious animals. They can consume up to half a ton of food per day. them depends on the habitat, but in general they are absolutely herbivorous animals. They feed on grass, wild fruits and berries (bananas, apples), roots and rhizomes, root crops, leaves, branches. African elephants can peel off the bark of trees and eat the wood of baobabs with their tusks. Indian elephants love ficus leaves. They can also cause damage to cultivated plantations of corn and sweet potato.

The lack of salt is made up by lickers coming to the surface of the earth, or by digging it out of the ground. The lack of minerals in their diet is compensated by eating bark and wood. In captivity, elephants are fed hay and greens, pumpkin, apples, carrots, beets, and bread. For encouragement, they give sweets - sugar, cookies, gingerbread. Due to overfeeding with carbohydrates in animals kept in captivity, there are problems with metabolism and the gastrointestinal tract.

Reproduction and offspring

There is no seasonality in mating periods. Different females in the herd are ready to mate in different time. Males ready for mating are very excited and aggressive for two to three weeks. Their parotid glands secrete a special secret that evaporates from the ears and the smell of which is carried by the wind over long distances. In India, this elephantine state is called must.

Important! During must, males are extremely aggressive. Many cases of attacks by male elephants on humans occur during the musta period.

Females, ready to mate, are somewhat separated from the herd, and their calls are heard for many kilometers.. Males are drawn to such females and arrange battles for the right to continue their race. Usually the fights are nothing serious - the rivals spread their ears to appear bigger and trumpet loudly. Whoever is bigger and louder wins. If the forces are equal, the males begin to cut down trees and lift fallen trunks to show their strength. Sometimes the winner drives the loser away for several kilometers.

Lasts 21-22 weeks. Childbirth takes place in the company of other females, more experienced ones help and protect the giving birth from the encroachment of predators. Most often, one baby elephant is born, sometimes there are cases of the birth of twins. A newborn weighs about a hundred kilograms. After a couple of hours, the baby elephants rise to their feet and are applied to their mother's chest. Immediately after the birth, the family loudly welcomes the newborn - the elephants trumpet and shout, announcing the world about the addition to the family.

Important! The nipples of elephants are not in the groin, as in many mammals, but on the chest near the front legs, as in primates. Elephants suckle milk with their mouths, not their trunks.

Feeding with mother's milk lasts up to two years, and all the females that produce milk feed the elephant calves. Already in six months, elephants add plant foods to the diet. Sometimes baby elephants feed on their mother's feces, as only a certain percentage of the food consumed is digested. It is easier for an elephant calf to digest plant elements that have already been processed with food enzymes.

Elephants are taken care of by their mothers, aunts and grandmothers until about 5 years old, but affection remains for almost a lifetime. Mature males are expelled from the herd, and the females remain, making up for the natural loss of the herd. Elephants become sexually mature at about 8-12 years of age.

Most big elephant in the world The largest animal living on earth is considered an elephant - it boasts an excellent memory, can distinguish simple songs. In general, it lends itself well to learning. Did you know that there is an elephant that can paint a whole picture using its own trunk?

What is the largest elephant? A massive body, huge ears, a long trunk and a couple more tusks, although the latter are not inherent in everyone. These colossi chose Africa and India as their residence. Elephants often take a mud shower - this is how they escape from annoying insects. The mud, drying up, forms a crust that, like a shell, protects its thick skin. It is officially recorded that the largest elephant weighs 12,000 kg. Usually, their weight does not exceed eight thousand kilograms.


In the jewelry industry, there is a great demand for tusks - they are used to make original jewelry which are very popular. Poachers during the hunt are not stopped by the fact that elephants are listed in the Red Book. In India, elephants are used to facilitate labor - elephants make a good vehicle, especially in difficult places. On the African peninsula, such treatment of animals is not practiced.

The diet of elephants consists of plants, they can gnaw on the bark of trees. They prefer to eat carrots, they are unlikely to resist an apple. Elephants have a terrible sweet tooth, and are able to stand indefinitely near the fence of the enclosure in the hope that they will be treated to a sweet treat. FROM a large number sweets, animals not only get fat, but also become addicted to sweets.

Asian elephants

There are three types of elephants living in Azi - Sri Lankan, Indian, Sumatran. Of the Sri Lankan individuals, the most prominent is an elephant 3.5 m high and weighing 5.5 tons. He lives on the island after which he is named. The Indian elephant is not uncommon; you can meet him in any of the Asian countries. It weighs no more than 5 tons. The smallest Sumatran - growth is 2.5 m, and weight - three tons.

African elephant


These are the largest animals on the planet. In nature, there are two types of African elephants - savanna and forest. The first of them can weigh up to eight tons and grow up to four meters, the latter are inferior to them in their parameters - no more than five tons and three meters in height. These are very friendly animals, fights and quarrels rarely arise between relatives. Usually they live in one large herd, take care of the cubs, and do not leave the sick in trouble. During mating, due to the increased level of testosterone, elephants can be aggressive, and only during this period can one elephant injure another member of its kind. Relations with females are tender - after looking at a couple, elephants are removed to short distance from the herd and there, far from prying eyes, they indulge in mutual caresses.


Until the baby elephants are five years old, they are under the tireless attention of their mother, upon reaching 15 years old, the elephant becomes an adult. In the savannah, young elephants are in danger - lions. One largest elephant is able to eat 100 kg of grass - often these good-natured creatures cause the death of shrubs and trees. Due to the destruction of green spaces, the shooting of these large animals was allowed. Average age the life of an African giant is 60-70 years. Unlike their Indian relatives, African ones are much more difficult to train.

Elephant Yossi


The world's largest elephant lives at the Safari Zoo in Israel. He has reached a very respectable age - he is 32 years old, but continues to grow and is already barely squeezing through the gate leading to the courtyard - to overcome them, the elephant has to squat - the only way he can be on a walk. Experts believe that such a kind of exercise only benefits the animal. An elephant named Yossi became the tallest elephant ever to live in captivity. Now its height is 3.7 m. Its weight is 6 tons, the tail of an elephant is 1 meter, the trunk is 2.5 meters, ears = 1.2 meters. According to assumptions, the reasons for growth lie in the genes. An important factor is a complete meal.

Since ancient times, people have learned to use elephants for heavy work– transportation of heavy burdens, people. Repeatedly took part in bloody battles. But you should not hang an unbearable burden on an elephant - an elephant is not omnipotent and is not able to lift a load that is more than a quarter of its weight.

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There were times when the kings of nature were creatures much larger than us - real prehistoric giants! And one of them still lives on Earth, can you imagine?

We are in website we can't decide what we'd like to do more - ride a paraceraterium or fly a quetzalcoatl.

Amphicelia

Amphicelia is the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth. These herbivorous dinosaurs lived 145-161 million years ago. One vertebra of amphicelia was equal to 2.5 meters.

Titanoboa

Titanoboa - close relative boa. But much, much more. Titanoboa lived 58-61 million years ago and reached 13 meters in length. Modern reticulated python can grow up to a maximum of 7.5 meters.

Megalodon

Megalodons were apex predators that lived 3-28 million years ago. Only one megalodon tooth can hardly fit in the hands of an adult. Its length could reach 20 meters, and its weight reached 47 tons. Megalodon bite force was equal to 10 tons!

Argentavis

Argentavis lived 5–8 million years ago. This is one of the most big birds throughout the history of the earth. Its wingspan reached almost 7 meters, and it fed on rodents.

bighorn deer

Large-horned (Irish) deer appeared a couple of million years ago. When the forests began to advance on open spaces, the big-horned deer died out - with their huge (more than 5 meters in span) horns, they simply could not move among the dense branches.

Giant short-faced bear

The giant short-faced bear (bulldog bear), having straightened up, reached a height of 3.5-4.5 meters and had incredibly powerful jaws. He was one of the biggest predatory mammals who lived on earth in glacial period. Males were much larger than females and could reach a weight of 1.5 tons. 14 thousand years ago, bulldog bears became extinct.

Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus - the largest great apes of all times. They lived about 1 million years ago. It is difficult to draw unambiguous conclusions from rare remains, but scientists believe that Gigantopithecus was 3–4 meters tall, weighed 300–550 kg, and ate mainly bamboo.

paraceratherium

Paraceratheria (indrycoteria) lived 20–30 million years ago. They are relatives of modern rhinos, but they did not have horns. The paraceratherium is one of the largest land mammals that have ever existed. They reached 5 meters in height and weighed up to 20 tons. Despite their imposing appearance, they were not predators and fed on the leaves and branches of trees.

Elephants are amazing animals. People have been admiring their mind, endurance and wisdom for more than one millennium. In addition, the elephant is the most large mammal of those living on land. These animals have a huge powerful body, large ears and a long trunk, with which you can not only eat, but also bathe or take objects. If elephants have tusks, unfortunately, endlessly attracting poachers, hunters for easy money. Usually the weight of the animal does not exceed eight tons, but an elephant weighing 12 tons has been recorded in history. How much does it weigh on this moment the biggest elephant in the world?

If we deviate from official facts in the direction of archival data, then the most big elephant would be an animal caught in Angola in the 19th century. It weighed almost 12.5 tons, and both tusks weighed at least half a centner each.

More recently, the title of the largest elephant in the world was received by an animal named Yossi. He lives in the Israeli zoo "Safari" and is quite old. His age has already exceeded three decades, and he weighs 6000 kg. The tail length of Yossi is 100 cm, the ears are about twenty meters, and the trunk is two and a half meters. He is about four meters tall.

The elephant is the so-called "elder" of the zoo.

Because of his size, he can hardly push through the gates of his pen, he even has to squat for this. Veterinarians agree that physical exercise do not harm him, but on the contrary, benefit him.

The largest animals belong to this species. Compared to its Asian relative, it is much larger, and both males and females have tusks. The largest and heaviest elephant in history, weighing 12 tons and 7 meters high, belonged to the African species. Even their individual tusks can weigh up to 200 kilograms. Tusks are needed both for protection against predators (although few dare to attack such giants, except perhaps for the old and sick), and for digging the earth and skinning tree bark.


In the wild, they can be found in Zimbabwe, Senegal or Namibia.

Of course, the height and weight of the animal is largely dependent on nutrition. IN good conditions elephants eat about 1.5 centners of food per day, females a little less. Actually, about 2/3 of the day it takes them only to absorb food, only two hours to sleep, and the rest - to search for food. During the dry season, they have to travel many kilometers in search of food and drink. The main delicacies of giants are grass and young tree shoots. If possible, eat fruit. However, only about half of this amount of food is digested.

The habitat of African elephants used to be the entire African continent, but now the range has been significantly reduced due to human fault. Most of these animals found shelter in national parks Congo, Tanzania and Kenya.

This animal is significantly inferior in size to its African counterpart. The largest representative of this species was killed in 1924, its weight exceeded 8 tons. The tusks of the Asian elephant are several times smaller than those of the African, and are not present in all individuals.

Initially, these animals lived throughout the territory South-East Asia, starting from the Malay Peninsula and ending with Mesopotamia, as well as on some Indonesian islands, the Himalayas and certain regions of China. Now the range is greatly reduced, there are fragments in India, Malaysia, Thailand, Bhutan and some other regions.


In Sri Lanka, there is a subspecies of elephants without tusks, which are called makhna in the local dialect.

Moreover, biologists have identified as many as five subspecies of the Asian elephant:

  • Indian, whose males have not yet lost their tusks;
  • Sri Lankan - has a large head without tusks with spots on the forehead and at the base of the trunk;
  • the Bornean is a rather small animal, but with very large ears and almost straight tusks;
  • Sumatran - one of the smallest elephants, he was even nicknamed "pocket";
  • a separate subspecies living in Sri Lanka. This elephant is quite tall, 30 centimeters taller than the standard Indian elephant. There are only about 100 of them left.

Elephants usually live about 6-7 decades. Officially recognized as the longest-lived elephant from Taiwan, who died in 2003, Ling-Wan. This "veteran" was used by the Chinese from 1934 to 1957 during armed conflicts with the Japanese.

It is worth noting that the elephant is often considered a serious pest for Agriculture. And not without reason: it happens that they destroy whole herds of rice, sugarcane or banana plantations. And, despite their impressive complexion, these animals run pretty fast, especially in case of panic: then they will crush anyone that gets in their way, or they can even demolish a brick wall.


At the time of death, the animal was 86 years old.

Unfortunately, the number of these beautiful animals is steadily declining. The reasons for this are as follows:

  • killing by poachers hunting for meat and tusks;
  • persecution by villagers trying to protect their land;
  • general deterioration environment associated with human activity;
  • despite their size, elephants quite often die under the wheels of road transport.

Elephants are one of the few animals capable of conscious emotion. They mourn when their neighbor dies, especially if it is a newborn baby elephant. And from good events they rejoice and even laugh in their own way. If a small cub falls to the ground, an adult (not necessarily a parent) will certainly extend its trunk to it to help it get up. They very often hug, using trunks for this.

Which elephant is the tallest in the world?
Traditionally, for some reason, we always talk about the weight of these land giants, but we don’t mention growth, although, of course, these two qualities are interconnected. It is worth noting that the height of four-legged animals is measured differently from that of humans. Not to the crown, like ours, but to the withers.
Although it is unlikely that it will be possible to identify a copy of the largest elephant, but if it were possible to do this, then most likely it would be found among the largest genus of these animals, Loxodonta, or, as we still used to call them, among African elephants.
Representatives of this genus are the largest animals on planet Earth. Their height varies (depending on gender) up to 3.3 meters in males and 2.7 meters in females. The weight of these giants is even more impressive - in males it reaches 6 tons, and in females 3.
African elephants live, as the name implies, in Africa, and more specifically, in its southern part. Once these animals also lived in the north of the continent, but today they have completely disappeared from there. In addition, the genus of African elephants is divided into two more species, these are Savannah and Forest. If we make a comparison between them, then it is the Savannah Elephant that is the largest.
It must be said that in history there was a precedent for the capture of the largest elephant, but who can say that there is no even bigger one in the wilds of the savannah? This specimen was shot in 1972, in Angola, and its mass reached 12 tons. It is he who is the largest officially registered elephant. One can only guess about the growth of such a giant.
African elephants, due to the demand for their precious tusks, are listed in the Red Book.

Photo of the tallest elephant