What are the characteristics of elephants?

Elephants are the largest land-dwelling gregarious mammals in the world, usually in families. Sometimes several elephants gather together to form hundreds of elephants. Elephants are mainly characterized by long trunk, big ears, big ivory, thick thighs, round body, small tail and so on. Let's take a look at these characteristics of elephants.

Long nose

The most conspicuous part of the elephant is its huge nose, which is also one of its most important organs, like a water pipe, which can hang to the ground in the shape of a cylinder, stretch and bend freely, usually curl, the nose is deep, can be opened and closed, the tip of the nose has a finger-like protuberance, can pick up fine objects, food and drinking water are all from the nose entrance, all the strength is on the nose.

Big ears

An elephant has two big ears, and the greatest effect of the ear for the elephant is to dissipate heat, even above the sense of hearing. Elephants' ears are not only big, but also thin, full of blood vessels. When blood flows through here, it is easy to radiate heat, especially to fan up, and it is easier to quickly lower the temperature of the blood in the ear, which can lower the blood temperature by 5 degrees Celsius. The cooled blood circulates in the body, helping to lower the temperature of the whole body. Of course, elephant ears also have many other functions, such as inciting them to ward off mosquitoes, and even demonstrating with their ears wide open when they encounter an enemy situation. they can usually hear any movement on the prairie and can also be used to drive away flies.

Big ivory

The upper jaw of an elephant has a pair of developed incisors and grows all its life. The incisors of African elephants can be up to 3.3 meters long, while the tusks of Asian females are not exposed. Ivory is a tool for male elephants to show off. The longer the tusks are, the more attractive they are to the female elephants and the more powerful they are to other male elephants. The trunk is easy to get hurt, so elephants usually fight with ivory. At the same time, it is also a tool for elephants to feed. Elephants push down trees with solid ivory, help their trunks pull shrubs, and can also be used to peel off the bark.

Thick thigh

The elephant's limbs are as thick as a column, supporting a huge body, knee joints can not be freely flexion, no fingernails but claws. Move your left foot when you walk and land with your arms when you lie down. The so-called elephant leg usually comes from this, which describes the leg as the same as an elephant.

Round body

The elephant is the largest mammal on land. The Asian elephant is 2.0 to 3.7 meters tall and weighs 2 million 7.5 tons. The African elephant is 3.0 to 4.0 meters tall and weighs 3 million tons. The average shoulder height of African forest elephants is no more than 2.6 meters and weighs 2 million tons.

Little tail

The last feature of an elephant is that it has a small tail relative to the body, which is hairy, long, sparse and a little stiff. It is used to extend the "sphere of influence" of the tail and drive away harassing flies more effectively.