Elephants are the unmistakable, iconic, gentle, grey, giants of Africa. The low-pitched, rolling-rumble of these mammoths communicating contentedly in close proximity is an incomparable experience and the sound waves tangibly tickle an onlooker’s senses. As large and heavy as they are, elephants are also able to literally vanish into the bush without so much as a muffled footfall to betray their exit, should they choose to do so. The largest terrestrial mammal worldwide, they exhibit extreme intelligence and strength, modifying habitats to both the benefit and detriment of entire ecosystems. Their complex society mirrors the altruistic elements of our own, visibly mourning their dead and learning over a life-long period. They occupy any habitat with adequate food, shade and water, from rainforests and savannas to deserts and mountains.
African elephant
Pachyderms of power and peace
Gentle giants
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A memory of elephants
At a glance
Height
2.5-3 m
Weight
4-6 tons
Gestate
22 months
Young
1 calf
Lifespan
55-60 years
Diet
Mixed feeder
Get to know the elephant
Loxodonta africana
Adapted from Game Ranger in your Backpack © Megan Emmett
Ears
An elephant’s enormous ears can measure 1.2 metres (4 feet) and weigh 20 kilograms (44 pounds) each. These massive flaps ensure brilliant hearing by channelling sound into the eardrum. Ears also express mood and help with thermoregulation.
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They make up 20% of the elephant’s surface area and the skin here is thin and well supplied with blood vessels. Since blood pumps through the ears at about 12 litres (3 gallons) per minute, by moistening the ears with water or mud and flapping them, the blood can be significantly cooled down before it flows to the rest of the body. Ears are held back against the body to conserve heat when it’s cold.
Trunk
The trunk is an apparatus unique to elephants and is put to extraordinary use in many ways: to process the variety of foods they eat, to act as a limb, to smell and to suck like a straw. The trunk is a fusion of the nose and the upper lip.
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It contains many thousands of muscles terminating in finger-like protrusions for grasping. It is sensitive, can stretch to reach things or shrink for travelling, suck up air, water, dust and even fruit to transport into the mouth or spray on the body, break and strip branches, scoop up several or grasp single items, or manipulate food in the mouth. Young elephants don’t easily gain control of their trunks, which remain uncoordinated until they’re 3 months old. Smell is extremely well developed in elephants and the trunk is used to test the air and collect scent at different levels. This compensates for limited vision, an elephants least developed sense. The chemo-receptive Organ-of-Jacobsen on the palate is also well developed and used for deciphering reproductive and inter-personal chemistry.
Feet
Elephants have unusual near-ungulate feet and are able to walk silently because they walk on their toe bones cushioned under the heel with a shock-absorbing cartilaginous pad. Forefeet are largest to support the heavy forequarters.
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The hind feet step into the tracks of the front ones. The hind track is more oval in shape. There are five toenails on the front feet and four on the back. Toenails are used to cut off tufts of grass while feeding or scrape fruit together to scoop up with the trunk.
Teeth
Tusks are actually modified upper incisor teeth that grow continuously and are used in defence against predators, in conflict with other elephants or as tools for foraging. Different elephant’s tusks differ in size and shape.
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They can be broken, worn down, lost through injury or absent altogether, and animals are usually left or right tusk dominant, as seen by the shorter length of one tusk. Older bulls may develop enormous tusks in older age, when they no longer conflict with other bulls as much. Elephants produce six sets of molars in a lifetime – large, oval, and flat on top, with enamel ridges. Two sets occur on both sides and jaws, and, as the leading molar becomes worn away, the next tooth pushes forward from the back. Each tooth is larger than the previous one to correlate with the growing body size. Once the last set of molars has worn away, the elephant usually starves to death, around the age of 60. The softer the food in an elephant’s diet, the longer its teeth last and the longer it may potentially live.
Sexes
Bulls and cows look similar due to the fact that bulls have internal testes. Once animals get older, bulls are easily discernable from cows by their significantly larger body size. Cows have an angled forehead if viewed from the side.
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Their backs are curved and two obvious, large teats sit between their front legs. Bulls have rounded foreheads, straight backs and a conspicuous penis when relaxed. They are also generally alone or in small herds while cows reside in breeding herds. Both sexes have temporal glands on the sides of their foreheads. Bulls secrete from these profusely during musth but cows and juveniles only have moisture here when under stress. Elephants may collect scent from these glands with the end of the trunk during greeting ceremonies.
Diet
These herbivores eat a wide variety of plant material daily amounting to about 5% of their body weight. This translates into a whopping 300 kg (660 lb) of food intake for a large bull.
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They feed all day and night, digesting their food rapidly to make space for more, ensuring enough nutrients are able to stream through their systems to nourish their large bodies, especially during drier times. Only about 40% of what elephants eat is actually digested and bulls produce about 150 kg (330 lb) of dung per day through which many creatures sort to utilise the undigested material. Elephants are geophagic, chewing soil to supplement dietary mineral deficiencies. They are very adaptable, altering their diet to accommodate availability or overcoming adversity by traveling long distances. They have a catholic diet and make use of grass, herbs, sedges, aquatic plants, bulbs, tubers, roots, fruits, flowers, bark, wood, pods, seeds, leaves and entire branches.
ecology
Elephants alter habitats and drive ecosystems through their destructive habits and use of woody plants. They push over trees for access to foliage or in social displays, and debark them for water and nutrients.
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The fallen trees are then browsed by shorter herbivores or the resultant microhabitats are occupied by small creatures like rodents or birds. Nutrients are recycled through decay, fires or by termites. Elephants also provide water to myriad animals by digging holes in dry riverbeds or creating depressions by wallowing that subsequently form pans that collect rainwater. The seed coats of many plant species are scarified in elephants’ stomachs enhancing the germination of these plants.
Daily routine
Elephants are creatures of habit feeding constantly but resting in the shade when it gets too hot or after a drink or mud bath. They forage through the night but will rest in between bouts of feeding.
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They indulge in mud or dust baths to regulate temperature and to protect their skin from the sun or to smother parasites. They then rub their bodies against rocks or trees to remove the mud – and encased parasites – once dry. Large elephants lean against a supporting object to sleep standing up, smaller ones lie on their sides.
Water
Elephants rely heavily on water and need to drink daily to aid the digestion of their roughage-rich diets. Over 100 litres (22 gallons) may be drunk in a day, often at one sitting. Clean water is preferred.
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Elephants will travel long distances to access water, may dig for it underground and are known to be possessive during times of shortage, chasing off other species. Elephants take regular baths, spraying or immersing themselves, and they enjoy swimming, which cools them off. Bulls may engage in play fighting and mounting in water as part of establishing dominance.
VOCALISING
Elephants communicate in various ways. Trumpeting and screaming are loud vocalisations inferring anger or excitement but more commonly they make rumbled sounds.
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Some rumbles are audible, most are infrasonic and at low wavelengths. Elephants many kilometres away can perceive the infrasonic rumbles of their conspecifics. While spread out and feeding, this kind of communication helps the herd stay together and alerts them of disturbances enabling them to slip away quietly. If alarmed, the calves retreat to the middle of the herd and the largest elephants make a barrier with their bodies, charging predators if need be. Elephants are deeply aggrieved by the death of one of their kind and they smell, pick up and carry around tusks or the bones of their dead.
Social structure
Herds are made up of related cows with their successive offspring and are led by the oldest cow, or matriarch, who has the most experience. Bulls leave the herd at puberty (about 12 years old) and live alone or in small groups.
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Bull elephants develop local hierarchies through ritualised play fighting which enables them to subsequently recognise one other’s strength. This process begins when they are young and continues until the age of about 40. Old bulls may be accompanied by a few younger ones that learn from him. Large herds may segregate, with smaller groups of closely related animals forming new herds. These kinship groups maintain contact with one another and all the herds in an area that are distantly related constitute a clan. Clans frequent particular home ranges typically allied to bulls’ ranges.
Musth
Bulls experience a reproductive condition called musth. – which is an elevated testosterone level that results in enhanced aggression and that makes them travel long distances while they emit infrasonic calls to attract cows.
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Strong-smelling urine stains the inside of the bull’s back legs, and temporal gland secretions mark his temples. Only musth bulls get to mate with cows and competition is eliminated when older bulls challenge and suppress musth in younger or less fit individuals. Young bulls only come into musth for short periods while it may last for months in older ones.
Mating
Bulls get their first a chance to mate at between 25-35 years old, despite the onset of puberty at 12 years old. Cows can conceive from 8 years. Only equally matched bull elephants will fight seriously for access to an oestrus cow. Mating is stressful.
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Due to the large size difference between younger or smaller cows and the mature bull elephant that will ultimately mate with them, the trauma of having the weight upon their backs causes much angst. Often other cows will crowd around in support.
Young
Herd life centres around rearing the calves. Babies are seldom more than a metre or so from an adult and are constantly reassured by touch.Tiny babies travel under their mothers’ belly, between her legs, for safety, shade and assistance.
Growing up
These are long-lived animals and continued lifelong learning occurs and is passed between generations. Elephants are highly social animals, with a complex society and a rigid discipline system to keep order and prevent injury to one another.
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They rally readily to aid their sick or wounded. Elephants learn how to behave through mimicking the adults. Females practice motherhood by nannying the calves from a relatively early age, aiding them in feeding or navigation, and protecting them. Young bulls engage in head butting and play mounting to establish rank and develop their skills for winning dominance later on.
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There’s mystery behind that grey visage; an ancient life-force, delicate, mighty, awesome, enchanted…[Peter Matthiessen]
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