Elephants

Elephants 

Elephants...... wow, where to start!

Ok ill do bullet points:

• Where can I find them

• Eating habits

          Elephants need to eat 150 kg of vegetation a day. This is made up of grass, leafs,

          bushes, berries and fruit. Elephants will sometimes eat tree bark which contains

          calcium to aid digestion. To make a change from all that vegetation, they will use 

          their tusks to dig up earth to get to salt and minerals. Sometimes a herd of elephants

          have formed caves and hills, searching for these salt licks.

• Tusks

          Elephants tusk are formed from the second upper incisors, and can grow to over

          3 m long in some African elephants. The longest tusk on record was 3 1/2 m (138 in).

          The tusks grow over the elephants lifetime at a rate of about 18 cm a year.

          One third of the tusk is attached to the the skull underneath the skin. the outer part is

          dentine covered in apatite, which is made up of mainly calcium phosphate. This is 

          the bit most wanted by poachers, the ivory.

• Ears 

          African Elephants have the largest ears, on average 1.5 m across.

          But they aren't used for extra hearing, elephants use their ears as massive fans or

          for dominance and threat displays. Asian elephants have smaller ears because their

          habitat is normally cooler.

• Different types

1. African
2. Asian
3. Borneo Pygmy 

• Telling the difference

           One way to tell the difference is to look at the shape of the head.

Asian Elephants have a dipped hump on their head, but African Elephants have a smooth one.

Another difference is their food. Asian elephants generally eat more grass, Whereas African elephants have a more leaf based diet. They also have different shaped trunks, teeth and body shape.

• Extinction rate

          According to recent study’s Elephants

          will be extinct in roughly 12 years,

          due to humans poaching these

          harmless creatures.

                                

	Beginning of 20th century	Now. 2013-2014	In 10 years
African	2 million	450 000 to 700 000	As many as 20% will be killed off
Asian	100 000	35 000 to 40 000	Not recorded
Borneo	Not counted	1500 left in the wild.	Extinct

  

            African are the least threatened species, but there is still an increasing poaching
            rate. Most study’s agree that African elephants will not go extinct as quickly as

            other types yet they are still on the WWF critical animals list.

            Asian elephants are more often used as carriers and way of transport then
            any other type, but they are also the most protected. There are more breeding
            sanctuary’s and safe parks for Asian cows and baby’s then any other species.

            Borneo Pygmy’s are the most endangered of all the elephants.14 have been
            found poisoned since January 2013. One of their main threats beside poaching
            is their habitat being destroyed.

•   Fact file

1. Elephants are the largest land animal
2. The Elephant is the only mammal that can't jump
3. Elephants can be left tusked or right tusked!
4. Elephants have the second best memories for a animal, after dolphins (and humans).
5. Elephants can cry and laugh, just like a human
6. Elephants can swim! They use there trunks as snorkels in deeper water.
7. Elephants can listen through there feet. They pick up sub-sonic rumbles made by other elephants, through vibrations in the ground.
8. Elephants will mourn there dead, standing by the skeletons gentling touching the skull with there trunks.

Elephants are actually very intelligent creatures and there is no reason
to poach them like we do. If you want to do something to help, visit this link
to adopt an Elephant today:

https://support.wwf.org.uk/adopt-an-elephant?_ga=1.74397140.795824284.1390500977

Ta