What is the information about elephants?

The elephant is a mammal of the family Coleoptera, the largest mammal on land, likes to live in jungles and grasslands, and is a staunch vegetarian with a long life span of up to 80 years and a pregnancy of up to 22 months, giving birth to one child at a time. Due to historical climate and man-made reasons, there are fewer and fewer species in this group. Let's take a look at the information about elephants.

Morphological characteristics of Elephant

The elephant has a shoulder height of more than 3 meters, weighs 2 to 8 tons, has a big head, fan-like ears and thick cylindrical limbs, supports a huge body, and cannot flexion its knee joints freely. Nose length is almost equal to body length, cylindrical, stretch and flexion freely, nostril opening at the end, nose tip has finger-like protuberance, can pick up fine objects. The upper jaw has a pair of developed incisors, which grow for a lifetime. The African elephant incisor can be up to 3.3 meters long. The Asian elephant female long teeth are not exposed. Each side of the upper and lower jaw has 6 buccal teeth, growing in turn from front to back, with high crowns and complex structure. There were 5 toes per foot, but the 1st and 5th toes were underdeveloped. The coat is sparse and the body color is light grayish brown.

The distribution range of elephants

There were 6 families of Coleoptera, of which 5 families were extinct, only 1 family, 2 genera and 3 species (Asian elephant genus and African elephant genus). The three species were Asian elephant, African elephant and African forest elephant respectively. Asian elephants were once widely distributed in the south of the Yangtze River and south-central Henan, South and Southeast Asia in China, but now they are mainly distributed in India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries. There are also small wild populations in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China. African elephants are widely distributed in the whole African continent (except the Sahara Desert), and African forest elephants live in the forests of the central and western part of the continent.

Reproductive characteristics of Elephant

1. African elephant: the African elephant, the largest living terrestrial mammal, is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The breeding period is not fixed. The gestation period is about 22 months. Each litter is sexually mature at the age of 13 to 14 years and has a life span of more than 60 years.

2. Asian elephants: Asian elephants are first-class protected animals in China and are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The breeding period is not fixed, with a gestation period of 20 to 22 months, with a sexual maturity of 9 to 12 years and a lifespan of 70 to 80 years.

The living habits of elephants

1. Social habits: elephants are gregarious animals, with the family as the unit, with the female as the leader. The time of daily activity, the route of action, the place of foraging, and the place of habitat are all under the command of the female elephant, while the adult male elephant is only responsible for protecting the safety of the family. Sometimes several elephant herds gather together and form hundreds of large groups.

2. Food habits: elephants are the largest mammals on land, feeding on young leaves, wild fruits, weeds, wild vegetables, tender bamboos and other plants. Although they are pure vegetarians, they are tall, veritable Hercules and giants in the land animal kingdom, and have long noses and tusks as weapons, so they do not have any natural enemies except humans in nature, and they cannot see things at night. So it's easy to be attacked by lions at night.

The extant species of elephants

1. Grassland elephant: the African elephant lives in the vast tropical forests, jungles and grasslands of Africa. It is the largest living terrestrial mammal. Gregarious, to be led by a male elephant, daily, no settlement, feed on weeds, leaves, bark, twigs, etc., big ears and pointed lower parts, both sexes have long and curved ivory, extremely irritable temperament, will take the initiative to attack other animals.

2. African forest elephants: African forest elephants have round ears, small individuals, generally no more than 2.5 meters high, the tallest is only 2.8 meters, and weigh 3 tons. According to genetic analysis, it is proved that it is not the same species as the African prairie elephant, and it has obviously different genetic characteristics from the African prairie elephant, and its appearance characteristics are also very different. In the past, smaller Japanese elephants were also found in the African rainforest. Now they are considered to be immature individuals of African forest elephants, with larger flesh under their feet, better adapted to the life of water shortage, knowing very well to save water, and will look for water sources in the desert.

3. Asian elephants: Asian elephants are distributed in southern Yunnan Province, China, and found abroad in South and Southeast Asia, living in tropical forests, jungles or grasslands, living in groups, with poor vision (mainly because the elephant's eyelashes are long so it affects eyesight). Sensitive smell and hearing, like water bath when hot, foraging at dawn and dusk, feeding on weeds, leaves, bamboo leaves, wild fruits, etc., shoulder height 2.6 meters 3.3 meters, weight 570 tons.