|
|
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
Do you want more physical information? Please see the anatomy section! |
|||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
An Introduction to Elephant Impact
The answer to this question partially depends on your preconceived views of "nature". If you see nature as something static and in a particular way then any change no matter how minute will amount to destruction. An interesting statistic found in the book African Elephants: A Celebration of Majesty about this issue; a general estimation shows that Man is clearing more forests in one day that all the elephants in Africa will 'destroy' within one year. Put in perspective, the effect that elephants have on their environment may not be as serious are we have been led to believe. Unfortunately for some, our narrow opinion of seeing elephants as only living bulldozers of destruction is far from the case. As much as 80 percent of what elephants consume is returned to the soil as barely digested highly fertile manure. |
|||||||||||||
The Ecological Impact of the Elephant is Priceless!
|
|||||||||||||
In the tradition of elephant sites, we have provided a breakdown of elephants into two categories for basic physical statistics. Keep in mind that the two "groups" are quite different genetically and the Asian elephant (as noted) is actually more closely related to the extinct mammoth than the African elephant. |
|||||||||||||
|
The Asian elephant, Elephas Maximus, has an enormous domed head with relatively small ears, an arched back and a single finger like protuberance that is located at the tip of the
trunk. An Asian elephant has five toes on the front of the feet and and four on the back. A large bull could typically weighs six tons and is ten feet high at the shoulder. As with gorillas, there is a
large degree of sexual dimorphism between males and females in Asian Elephants where adult females are about half the size of the largest males. The males have tusks and the females have 'tushes', which are
shore second incisors that just stick out beyond the upper lip. However, it is important to note that on occasion females some times have longer tushes than described. The gestation period is between nineteen and
twenty-two months. Periodically, it is noted that male infants typically have a slightly longer term than females. |
||||
|
The African elephant, Loxodonta Africana, have a straight back, enormous ears, and two trunk 'fingers'.
African elephants are named for the peculiar shaped ridges of their molar
teeth; the ridges of an African elephant's teeth are coarser and fewer than those of the Asian elephant. The African elephant has only four toes on the front feet and three on the
back. Interestingly, it has one more vertebra in the lumbar section of the spine. Both sexes have tusks, and they are also larger in size as compared to male and female Asian elephants.
The largest African elephant recorded weighed over nine tons and stood more than twelve feet high at the shoulder. As in Asian elephants, the female African elephant is generally half the size of a fully grown male. Gestation period tends to be slightly longer than in the Asian elephant. |
|
|
|
||||
Elephant Web Design By Elehost Web Design Inc. -- Free Elephant Hosting By ElephantHost.com |