Elephant

Species

Current species

The Indian elephant and the African elephant were regarded a long time as the two only species representing the family of Elephantidae at the time modern. Recent genetic studies made it possible to show that the two African subspecies Loxodonta africana africana and Loxodonta africana cyclotis were in fact two species distinct: in Africa, it is thus advisable to distinguish from now on the elephant from savanna Loxodonta africana and the elephant of the forests Loxodonta cyclotis .

Elephantidae living at the present time are thus:

Hierarchical classification of the Elephantidae

Sous-famille Elephantinae

* Tribu Elephantini (Elephant)

* Sous-tribu Primelephantina ^†

* Genre Primelephas ^†

* Sous-tribu Loxodontina

* Genre Loxodonta

* Sous-genre Loxodonta

* Espèce Loxodonta africana (African elephant)

* Sous-espèce Loxodonta africana will adaurora ^†

* Sous-espèce Loxodonta africana africana ( Elephant of savanna of Africa)

* Subspecies Loxodonta africana oxyotis (African elephant of the West)

* Subspecies Loxodonta africana pharaonensis (African elephant of North, of Egypt, Carthaginian or of the Atlas) ^†

* Subspecies Loxodonta africana pumilio (or Loxodonta fransseni )

* Species Loxodonta cyclotis (Elephant of forest of Africa)

* Subgroup Elephantina gold Supergenus Elephadon

* Kind Elephas

* Species Elephas maximus (Indian elephant)

* Subspecies Elephas maximus indicus (Indian Elephant)

* Subspecies Elephas maximus maximus (Elephant of Sri Lanka)

* Subspecies Elephas maximus sumatrensis (Elephant of Sumatra)

* Subspecies Elephas maximus borneensis (Elephant of Borneo)

* Subspecies Elephas maximus rubridens (Chinese Elephant)

* Subspecies? dubious statute for the populations of elephants of Vietnam and Laos

* Sous-espèce Elephas maximus asurus (Elephant of Syria) ^†

* Espèce Elephas beyeri ^†

* Espèce Elephas celebensis ^†

* Espèce Elephas iolensis ^†

* Espèce Elephas will planifrons ^†

* Espèce Elephas platycephalus ^†

* Espèce Elephas recki ^†

* Subspecies Elephas recki atavus ^†

* Subspecies Elephas recki brumpti ^†

* Subspecies Elephas recki ileretensis ^†

* Subspecies Elephas recki illertensis ^†

* Subspecies Elephas recki recki ^†

* Subspecies Elephas recki shungurensis ^†

* Sub-genus Palaeoloxodon ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon antiquus ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon creticus ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon creutzburgi ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon chaniensis ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon cypriotes ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon ekorensis ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon falconeri ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon melitensis ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon namadicus ^†

* Species Elephas Palaeoloxodon naumanni ^†

* Kind Mammuthus ^†

* Species Mammuthus africanavus (African Mammoth) ^†

* Species Mammuthus armeniacus (Armenian Mammoth) ^†

* Species Mammuthus columbi (Mammoth of Colomb) ^†

* Species Mammuthus exilis (dwarf Mammoth) ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus dwarfus (Mammoth of Wrangel Island) ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus imperator (American Mammoth) ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus jeffersonii (Mammoth of Jefferson) ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus lamarmorae (dwarf Mammoth of Sardinia) ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus meridionalis ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus will planifrons ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus primigenius ( Woolly mammoth) ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus will subplanifrons ^†

* Espèce Mammuthus trogontherii (Mammouth of the steppes) ^†

* Tribu Belodontini ^†

* Sous-tribu Belodontina ^†

* Genre Stegotetrabelodon ^†

* Genre Stegodibelodon ^†

Sous-famille Stegodontinae ^†

* Kind Stegodon ^†

* Species Stegodon aurorae ^†

* Species Stegodon elephantoides ^†

* Species Stegodon florensis ^†

* Species Stegodon ganesha ^†

* Species Stegodon insignis ^†

* Species Stegodon orientalis ^†

* Species Stegodon shinshuensis ^†

* Species Stegodon sompoensis ^†

* Species Stegodon sondaarii ^†

* Species Stegodon trigonocephalus ^†

* Species Stegodon zdanski ^†

Subfamily Lophodontinae gold Rhynchotheriinae ^†

* Kind Anancus ^†

* Species Anancus alexeevae ^†

* Species Anancus arvernensis ^†

* Species Anancus kenyensis ^†

* Kind Morrillia ^†

* Tribe Lophodontini (Lophodonty) ^†

* Subgroup Lophodontina ^†

* Kind Tetralophodon ^†

* Kind Paratetralophodon ^†

* Tribe Cuvieroniini ^†

* Kind Stegomastodon ^†

* Species Stegomastodon arizonae ^†

* Species Stegomastodon mirificus ^†

* Species Stegomastodon primitivus ^†

* Kind Cuvieronius ^†

* Species Cuvieronius hyodon ^†

* Species Cuvieronius priestleyi ^†

* Species Cuvieronius tropicus ^†

History

The ancestor of the Mammoth S and the elephants is the Phosphaterium, small Mammifère without horn and as large as a Chien, having lived 60 million years ago.

Physiological characteristics

Cut and longevity

The elephants are the largest terrestrial animals currently living: on average, an adult male African elephant measures more than 3 meters to the Garrot and weighs more than 5 tons. With the birth, the elephant weighs approximately 120 kg. The largest known elephant was announced in Angola in 1974: it was about a male of 12 tons measuring 4,20 m with the garrot, that is to say one meter more than the average of the African elephants.

Dwarf elephants, size of a large pig, also populated the Mediterranean islands during Prehistory ^,; some are announced in Crete until in 5.000 front J. - C., even until in 3.000 front J. - C.

An elephant can live 70 years.

Mislead

The principal characteristic of the elephants, in addition to their mass, is their horn, a lengthened and prehensile nasal body. Being able to weigh more 100 kg, this body with to do everything consists of more: 15000 muscles divided into: 40000 beams circular and longitudinal, which confers to him an exceptional mobility in all the directions.

Defenses and teeth

Generally the elephants have defense S, Dent S very lengthened used by these animals like tool, arms with defense and sexual attribute. Defenses are incisors upper than continuous growth. In the elephants, the dental formula is never complete (2 premolars and 3 molars). The elephant calf has milk premolars which fall when the molars appear, but there are no premolars final. When the third molar appears, it is with the tower of the first to fall. An adult elephant has only 2 molars and, when it becomes very old, there remains to him nothing any more but its third molar.

Reproduction

The Gestation of the cow elephant, longest of all the terrestrial animals, lasts from 20 to 22 month.

The males in musth (rut), whose blood testosterone rate can increase fifty times, agitate the ears and shake the head. Of their penis become green, dégouline a strongly odorous urine.

Communication

The cry of the elephant is the trumpeting.

Recent scientific studies showed that the elephants, like many animals, are sensitive to the Infrason S, even of very weak Fréquence. The utility of the hearing of these let us infrasons remainder however mysterious. It seems that they are able to communicate between them by the acoustic waves of surface transmitted by the ground.

Members

It is current of reading that the elephant is the only mammal to have four knees. Actually, the elephant has true Genou X only with its rear limbs, made up of a Fémur, a Rotule and association Tibia - Fibula. The forelimbs are made up (inter alia) of a Scapula, a Humérus, and association Radius - Ulna (anatomical cf board above).

It is true on the other hand that the forelimb of the elephant presents an articulation to the level of the Poignet, between the base of the tibia and the Métacarpien S, the animal walking on on the end of the fingers. This articulation evokes indeed a knee and is undoubtedly at the origin of this frequent error.

Food

The elephant is herbivorous, it eats a large variety of vegetable elements: grass, plants, sheets, fruits, roots and tubers, barks and even wood. He appreciates for example the wood tender and gorged with sap of the Baobab. The food needs for the elephant are important, especially qualitatively. According to its environment, it devotes most of its time in the search of food (16 to 8 p.m. per day), moving on long distances and selecting the richest food. It can be drawn up on its back legs to catch with its horn the most tender branches up to five or six meters height.

Daily, it is necessary for the elephant between 150 and 180 kilograms of food in dry season, and between 200 and 260 kilograms in rain season. These quantities also vary according to the species and from the attended mediums.

An adult elephant drinks approximately hundred liters of water per day. There can remain three or four days without drinking. It can make use of its horn to take again water in its stomach and to make use of it to refresh the skin.

In spite of forty meters of intestine which it has, its digestion is not very effective. It lasts of one to two days, 40 to 60% of food not being digested. If its food is not sufficiently rich, its tonicity, its mood and its health in general are quickly affected.

The food behavior in general has an significant impact on the medium. The assessment of these consequences varies according to the species (Africa, Asia), of the season, of the Biotope and the density of the population. Thus, the elephant can be regarded as destructor of trees in particular in the Savane, whereas it takes part elsewhere very actively in regeneration in limit of the forest zones. Certain species of trees are dependant on the elephant for their extension: this one, fond of delicacies their fruits, disseminates of them seeds with the excellent compost which its droppings constitute, able to contain up to seed 35%.

Intelligence

In the actual position of knowledge, the elephant is, with the human one, the Dauphin and certain species of large monkeys, one of the rare animal species to make a success of the Test of the mirror of Gallup: when one marks of a spot the face of an elephant in a point which it cannot see directly and which one presents to him a mirror, it passes its horn on the spot, showing thus that it recognized its image and thus which it has conscience of itself ^,.

Predatory and threats of disappearance

Except the man who drives out it since millenia for his consumption, the only predatory ones of the elephants are large the Fauve S, and in particular the Lion S which can occasionally attack the elephant calves. However, with the trade of the Ivory drawn from defenses, the population of the African and Asian elephants was decimated, passing several million individuals at the beginning of the Années 1970 with a few hundreds of thousands 30 years later. So that in 1989, the QUOTE prohibited the trade of the ivory. The hunting of the elephants, from now on considered as protected spaces, since is very regulated.

The elephant and the man

Pet

Used like Draft animal by the human ones, like at the time of battles as a elephant of war, the elephant occupied of many functions, in particular that of executor at the time of executions by elephant. In 14-18, elephants of circus in Europe for example were used to discharge wood in forest (of Mormal, in the North of France), or to plow, or to draw from the coaches in the factories of ammunition.)

The driver of an elephant is called Cornac or Mahout.

Ivory

The Ivoire of defenses of the elephant a long time was used with the realization of works as Article works in Or and ivory is described as Chryséléphantin are (of chrusos , but in Greek).

The word elephant was deformed in Olifant , to indicate a horn out of ivory.

Symbolic system

In the Western Symbolic system like Eastern, the elephant is associated with the memory, the Sagesse, longevity, prosperity, the benevolence, the father. In the African folklore, the elephant holds the role of the father, the chief of the animals.

The East

In the Hindu religion, Ganesh is a god with head of elephant; he is the god of Knowledge and the owner of the students. The rare white elephants are crowned in India, and the elephants domesticated and decorated with the colors with the gods bless the faithful ones of their horn in certain temples.

In India, the elephant evokes the force, the power, the Orage (the round and gray shape of the clouds of rain). Each Hindu god overlaps an animal: Indra, god of the Storms and the Battle, and Agni, god of Fire, moves with back of elephant.

Occident

In the Christian symbolic system, the elephant symbolizes the baptism: the female puts low in the water of a pond at side of which the male assembles the guard to draw aside the dragon, symbol of the Spirit of the Mal.

In the Christian symbolic system, it represents also chastity (ice-cold temperament, it can generate only after having absorbed, as an aphrodisiac, a root of mandrake), constancy, the self-control, the benignity of the princes (it does not have a gall), temperance, circumspection and prudence.

In France, one says somebody who has a good memory that it has “a memory of elephant”. The elephant represents the 4 pillars of the world: it carries the world on its back.

It is also the symbol of the Republican party to the the United States.

Fiction

The elephants are present in many works of fiction:

Films:

Roots of the sky ( The Roots off Heaven ) of John Huston (1958, based on the novel of Romain Gary).

Cartoons:

Babar
Dumbo

Literature:

Roots of the sky of Romain Gary, Price Goncourt in 1956.
the Book of the jungle of Rudyard Kipling (character of Hathi).

See too

elephant|Elephant

Random links: