![]() ![]() It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past. Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years. Asian elephants have also been known to stay behind with a sick or injured herd mate to protect and assist it. Mothers and aunts protect calves when they are threatened. Female family members often stay together for their entire lives. Female elephants are more social than males. Males leave the family unit between the ages of 12-15 years and may lead solitary lives or live temporarily with other males. When a calf is born, it is raised and protected by the whole herd. Herds consist of 8-100 individuals depending on terrain and family size. The herd is led by the oldest and often largest female, called the matriarch. At birth, a calf’s trunk has no muscle tone and will suckle through its mouth it takes several months for a calf to gain full control of its trunk.Įlephants form deep family bonds and live in tight family groups of related females called a herd. The calf may suckle from other females in the group as well as its own mother. As soon as it has been born, the family of elephants will help it to stand. The gestation period is 18-22 months and at the time of birth the whole herd will circle around the cow to protect both her and the baby. The interval between births may be as long as four years. Female elephants reach sexual maturity at about ten years of age and usually produce their first calf when they are 14-15 years old. Clearly musth has implications for captive elephants and males in musth must always be kept isolated and handled with the utmost care. Musth prepares the male to mate and to fight other competing bull elephants, but a male in musth will also attack humans and other animals, and may destroy inanimate objects that get in its way. Often, elephants in musth discharge a thick tar-like secretion from glands on the sides of the head and this trickles down the cheeks towards the mouth. The individual will become aggressive and in the wild he will wander widely in search of females. This state lasts for about three weeks (and sometimes much longer). When males reach 20 years, they start coming into ‘musth’, an extreme state of arousal when levels of testosterone in the blood may increase 20-40 times. Males leave their natal group when they reach sexual maturity at around six to seven years of age, after which time they may be solitary or live with other males. Females normally produce their first baby at around 15 years of age and there is an interval of 4-5 years between calves. Elephant calves need milk for the first two years of their lives but often continue to suckle until they are four years old. The natural life span of the elephant is generally between 50 and 70 years but some have been known to survive for more than 80 years. The biggest threats come from loss of habitat, human intrusion and poaching. Fit adult Asian elephants have no natural predators. They engage in greeting ceremonies, complex communication, teaching and communal care. As extremely sociable animals, Asian elephants have strong family ties.They use their trunks to throw objects purposefully – out of play, curiosity, defence, or aggression, and to shake feed before eating it to remove sand or insects. They use branches to scratch themselves or to remove flies from their bodies. They are adept at tool use, which they learn from the older members of the herd.Along with dolphins and great apes, Asian elephants are the only animals known to recognize themselves in a mirror.They also emit low-frequency infrasounds that are inaudible to humans but can travel several miles. Asian elephants communicate via rumbles, bellows and moans.Calves often nurse for two to four years. Asian elephants have a gestation period of 18 – 22 months – the longest of any animal.The trunks of Asian elephants can be used to pull down branches or pick up a blade of grass.In fact, of all land mammals, they have the greatest volume of cerebral cortex available for cognitive processing. Elephants have the largest brain of any land mammal.Elephant in Latin (as ele and phant) means ‘huge arch’. ![]()
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