The largest elephants in the world. Elephant - description, species, where the largest elephant lives

Elephants- the only representatives of the ancient group of proboscideans that have survived to this day. Previously there were 40 species, most of them reproduced until the end of the last ice age 12,500 years ago, there were dwarf elephants, mammoths and dinoteria. Only three have survived to this day - the African savannah elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. We present to you the most Interesting Facts about them.

These are the largest living animals. Their body length reaches 6-7.5 meters, and the average weight is 5 tons. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. This male weighed approximately 11,000 kilograms, with a height of 3.96 meters.

There are about 500,000 in the world African elephants, the Asian population ranges from 35 to 50 thousand.

Asian elephant- the smallest with small ears and tusks. He has two bumps on his forehead. "Asians" hold their heads more vertically than African elephants. They do not have a prominent upper lip, but instead have a single finger-like appendage at the end of their trunk, which they use skillfully. Both species of African elephants have large ears, although the forest elephant has rounder ears with little hair, slightly larger tusks, a rounder forehead, and two finger-like appendages on its trunk. In the forest, the tusks are relatively straight and point downwards, while in the savannah they are beautifully curved.

Elephants are family animals. Females live in a herd, which is considered the most cohesive society of all animals. The female leaves the herd only if she dies or is caught by people. The leader is the most experienced female. Males leave the herd at about 12 years of age and live in temporary "bachelor herds" until they reach maturity and then live alone.

Elephants mating all year round, but the female is capable of conceiving only a few days a year. During this time, males will court her, use various mating games, rub and cuddle with her. If the female likes it, she will react with the same actions.

After conception, the female will be pregnant for 22 months and this is the longest pregnancy of any animal. Some females induce labor using certain plants.

The weight of a newborn elephant calf is about 120 kilograms. Baby elephants are born blind, so they hold onto their mother's tail with their trunk. Some of them suck on their trunk for comfort, just like humans suck thumb. The baby elephant has little developed survival instincts, so his mother and other experienced members of their herd train him. The baby elephant's mother chooses several nannies to care for him, and thus she has time to feed herself in order to produce enough milk.

Elephants have the largest brains of any land animal. His weight is 5 kilograms. Therefore, they can be trained; they learn up to 60 commands. Elephants are believed to have a wide range of behaviors and skills. They feel sad, worried, bored, help their relatives, and also have some abilities in music and drawing.

Only elephants and humans have burial rituals. If one of them is sick, they bring him food and support him while he stands. If the elephant dies, the family tries to revive it with water and food for a while. When it becomes clear that he is dead, the herd falls silent. They often dig a shallow grave and cover the deceased with dirt and branches, and then remain near the grave for several days. If the herd accidentally stumbles upon a lone dead elephant, they also give him such honors. There are known cases when they buried dead people found in this way.

Elephants communicate with each other and with other herds that are far away from them using sounds and stamping their feet. Human ears cannot perceive their sounds because they are too low.

Elephants are herbivores. They sleep only 2-3 hours a day. Because of their size, they have to spend a lot of time searching for food. In fact, their whole life is a continuous search for food - they are busy with this up to 20 hours a day. An elephant eats from 45 to 450 kilos of vegetation per day and drinks from 100 to 300 liters of water.

Due to their large appetite, elephant teeth wear out very quickly and they change not 2 times like in humans, but 6 or 7 times. New teeth grow at the back of the mouth and gradually protrude forward, replacing old, worn ones. When the last teeth wear out, the herd helps feed, but lonely elephants usually die of hunger.

An elephant's heart weighs 20-30 kg and beats at a frequency of 30 times per minute.

The ears of an adult elephant can reach 4 meters in width. They use them as a natural fan, cooling themselves and driving away midges.

The elephant's trunk is truly a miracle of nature; it is actually an extension of the upper lip. This is a very complex tool and elephants use it no worse than we do with our hands. They can grab objects and reach green branches from treetops. The trunk is capable of holding 7.5 liters of water. Having filled it with water, the elephant rolls up its trunk, puts its end into its mouth and blows, the water runs straight down its throat. Trained elephants can draw with their trunks and perform various tasks. The elephant's trunk has more than 40,000 receptors, which is why they have an excellent sense of smell.

First, elephants grow milk tusks, and permanent ones take their place. In adult males they grow at a rate of 18 centimeters per year. They are used for digging and lifting heavy objects and mating games. Poachers kill animals for their ivory, so the average size of tusks is gradually decreasing, since individuals with small “tusks” are not hunted and they reproduce more (their length is a genetically inherited trait.

An interesting fact is that elephants can also be left-handed or right-handed. Because they adapt to work with the right or left tusk. Thus, their tusk is shorter than the other because it wears out faster.

Each elephant foot has 5 toes, but not every toe has a nail. The easiest way to tell the two species of African elephants apart is to count their fingernails. In the African forest elephant and asian elephant there are 5 nails on the forelimbs and 4 nails on the hind limbs. In a large savannah African elephant 4 or sometimes 5 nails on the forelimbs and 3 nails on the hind limbs. An elephant can easily knock down a fairly large tree with one foot.

Elephants are excellent swimmers, but they cannot jump or run. They have two types of gait: walking and brisk walking, which is equivalent to running. Elephants usually move at a speed of 2-6 km/h, but for a short time they can reach speeds of up to 35-40 km/h

Elephants are thick-skinned animals, in the truest sense of the word - in some places the thickness of their skin can reach 3.5-4 centimeters.

Typically, the lifespan of elephants is between 50 and 70 years. The oldest elephant, Lin Wang, from Taiwan, died in 2003 at the age of 86. It was a “fighting” elephant that served Chinese army during the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

The first living elephant in America was a relatively small two-year-old female brought to New York from Calcutta in 1796. Perhaps she turned out to be the one Scientist Elephant, or Little Beth, who was killed in 1822 in Chepachet (Rhode Island) by boys who wanted to test whether elephant skin was really bulletproof.

Jumbo, the world's most famous elephant, was born in equatorial Africa in the vicinity of Lake Chad, from where he was brought as a child in 1862 to Paris Botanical Garden. In 1865 it was sold to the Royal Zoological Gardens in London, where it remained for 18 years until it was shipped to the USA. For three years, Jumbo traveled all over North America By railway in a specially equipped carriage and carried more than a million children on his back. He died in 1885 as a result of a train accident in Canadian province Ontario. His stuffed animal is now at Tufts University in Medford (Massachusetts), and a huge skeleton (the height of the animal at the withers was 3.2 m) is exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History.

Elephants are especially revered animals.

The elephant is revered by many peoples. Buddhism puts it on a par with the dove of peace, and the Hindu god of wisdom Ganesha is an elephant-headed one. In India, all white elephants were considered the property of rajahs and were never used for work, but the greatest honor was given to such animals in Siam. Even the king was forbidden to ride a white elephant. Food was served to him on huge or silver dishes, and his drinking water scented with jasmine. The animal, covered with precious blankets, was carried on a luxuriously decorated platform. African pygmies They believe that elephants are possessed by the souls of their dead leaders.

The elephant's trunk is a fusion of the nose and upper lip, elongated and specialized to become the animal's most important and versatile appendage. African elephants boast two finger-like appendages at the tip of their trunk, while Asian elephants have only one. An elephant's trunk is sensitive enough to lift a single blade of grass from the ground, but still strong enough to uproot a tree. The trunk is also used for drinking. Elephants suck in up to 14 liters of water at a time and then transfer it to their mouths. Animals also use their trunks to spray water onto their bodies while bathing. In addition to this cool shower, the animals spray mud, which dries and acts as sunscreen. During swimming, the trunk acts as a breathing tube.

African elephants currently live in 37 countries in Africa. They are distinguished from Indian elephants in several ways, most notably by having much larger ears. In addition, the African elephant is generally larger than the Indian elephant and has a concave back. In Indian elephants, only males have tusks, while in African elephants all individuals have tusks.

Elephants are herbivores and spend up to 16 hours a day searching for food. Their diets are very variable, depending on the season and habitat. They primarily feed on leaves, bark, and fruits of trees and bushes, but can also eat significant amounts of grass.

Indian elephants do not have tusks, and if they do, they are not visible from the outside. Males have tusks about a meter and a half long.

One third of an elephant's tusk is hidden in the body under the skull. Nowadays there are no elephants with huge tusks, since all individuals with such tusks were killed by hunters centuries ago, and the length of the tusks is a genetically inherited trait. Nowadays you rarely see an elephant with tusks. Which would be even half as much as its predecessors. An elephant's tusks grow throughout its life and are an indicator of its age. Elephants are either “right-handed” or “left-handed” because they adapt to use their right or left tusk. Thus, their tusk is shorter than the other because it wears out faster. Elephants' tusks can be not only of different sizes, but also of different shapes, and can also grow sideways - scientists distinguish elephants by their tusks and the shape of their ears.

An old African elephant sleeps standing up heavy tusks usually placed on tree branches or termite mounds. In captivity, he rests them against a wall or in the openings of a lattice.

Under conditions of detention, they receive 30 kg of hay, 10 kg of carrots and 5-10 kg of bread. In some cases, elephants are given grain, 3-10 kg. They also receive vitamins (A and D), minerals (calcium, salt) and nutritional supplements(selenium). Depending on the air temperature, they drink 100 - 300 liters per day. If an elephant consumes 250 liters daily. This indicates some kind of disease. An elephant suffering from tuberculosis drinks 600 liters a day.

If there is a shortage of food, the herd disperses and the elephants feed alone. The herd may fall apart due to intra-family problems. After the death of the old matriarch, another takes her place.

Elephants live in herds. There are 15-30 female elephants and calves in the herd. Young elephants and usually one old elephant. The leaders are usually old female elephants. Such a herd is one big family, all of them are close relatives. In Africa, herds sometimes gather together up to several hundred and even thousands of elephants. Old elephants often spend their lives alone. And the young sometimes wander - female elephants with female elephants, and elephants with elephants. A herd of young elephants usually travels with a herd of female elephants and their calves. Public relations

Elephants are social animals that greet each other with a special ritual. One of them is the hug, where elephants wrap their trunks around each other. When he sees a baby elephant slipping in the mud, an adult elephant will certainly give him his trunk and put him on the ground. Just like people hold their children's hands. A baby elephant holds on to its mother's trunk. Elephants remain faithful to their herd. They are very sad when newborn elephants or other members of the herd die. Under other circumstances, they are able to rejoice, demonstrating happiness and fun. Elephants can laugh.

Elephants live in a structured social order. Public life males and females are very different. Females spend most of their time in close-knit family groups consisting of mothers, daughters, sisters and aunts. These groups are led by the eldest elephant, or matriarch. Adult males, on the other hand, live mostly solitary lives.

There are up to half a million African elephants in the world; Asian elephants are about 10 times smaller. As you know, elephants are large and very intelligent animals, which have served humans for peaceful and military purposes since ancient times.

Giants

Elephants are the most gigantic land animals on Earth. Their average weight reaches five tons, and their body length is 6-7 meters. In 1956, an elephant weighing 11 tons was killed in Angola.

A female elephant carries a baby for 22 months, the newborn weighs 120 kilograms.

The brain of an elephant weighs 5 kilograms, the heart - 20-30 kilograms. It beats at a frequency of 30 beats per minute.

To feed such a “colossus”, an elephant has to look for food and eat most of the day, at least 20 hours. An elephant eats from 45 to 450 kilograms per day plant food, drinks from 100 to 300 liters of water.

Elephants live 50-70 years. But there are also reporters. War elephant (served in the Chinese army) Lin Wang from Taiwan died in 2003 at the age of 86.

Smarties

Aristotle wrote: “The elephant is an animal that surpasses all others in wit and intelligence.” Elephants really have a very good memory and developed intelligence. Elephants also turned out to be capable of learning human language.

An elephant named Kaushik, living in Asia, has learned to imitate human speech, or rather, five words: annyong (hello), anja (sit), aniya (no), nuo (lie down) and choah (good).

Kaushik not only mindlessly repeats them, but, according to observers, understands their meaning, since these are either commands that he carries out, or words of encouragement and disapproval.

Communication

Elephants usually communicate using infrasound, so for a long time the elephant's tongue remained unsolved. Research by Christian Herbst of the University of Vienna on the larynx of a dead elephant showed that elephants use their vocal cords to communicate.

The “vocabulary” of the elephant language turned out to be quite rich - Herbst recorded about 470 different stable signals that elephants use.

They can use them to communicate with each other over long distances, warn of danger, report births, and use various addresses to members of the herd, depending on their position in the hierarchy.

Trunk

An elephant's trunk is actually an extension of its upper lip. With the help of their trunk, elephants make tactile contact, say hello, can take objects, draw, drink and wash themselves. The trunk of the trunk can simultaneously hold up to eight liters of water. The trunk also has more than 40,000 receptors. Elephants have a very good sense of smell.

Tusks

Elephants, like people, can be left-handed or right-handed. Depending on which tusk the elephant works more, one of them becomes smaller.

Over the past century and a half, the average length of elephant tusks in both Africa and India has been halved.

This is due to the fact that the largest representatives of the population become victims of poachers, and the length of the tusks is a genetically inherited trait.

The tusks of deceased elephants are extremely rare to find. Because of this, for a long time there was an opinion that elephants go to die on mysterious elephant cemeteries. Only in the last century it was discovered that porcupines eat tusks, thus compensating for mineral hunger.

Taming the Elephants

Elephants, although intelligent animals, can also be dangerous. Male elephants periodically go through a state of so-called “must”. At this time, the level of testosterone in the blood of animals is 60 times higher than normal.

In order to achieve balance and obedience in elephants, they begin to be trained from early childhood.

One of the most effective methods like this: a baby elephant’s leg is tied to a tree trunk. Gradually he gets used to the fact that it is impossible to free himself from this state. When the animal grows up, it is enough to tie it to a young tree, and the elephant will not try to free itself.

Funeral rite

Elephants not only high level intelligence, but also sensitive hearts. When someone from an elephant family dies, his relatives lift him up with their trunks, loudly turbulate him, and then roll him to a depression and cover him with branches and throw earth at him. Then the elephants sit silently next to the body for several more days.

There are also cases where elephants also try to bury people, sometimes mistaking sleeping people for dead.

The largest elephant in the world The elephant is considered the largest animal living on earth - it boasts an excellent memory and can distinguish simple songs. In general, it lends itself well to training. Did you know that there is an elephant that can paint an entire picture using its own trunk?

What is the biggest elephant? Massive body, huge ears, long trunk and a couple more tusks, although the latter are not common to everyone. These colossi chose Africa and India as their residence. Elephants often take mud showers - this is how they escape from annoying insects. The mud, when dried, forms a crust, which, like a shell, protects its thick skin. It is officially recorded that the largest elephant weighs 12,000 kg. Usually their weight does not exceed eight thousand kilograms.

There is a great demand for tusks in the jewelry industry - they are used to make original jewelry that is very popular. Poachers during the hunt are not stopped by the fact that elephants are included in the Red Book. In India, elephants are used to facilitate labor - elephants make good vehicle, especially in difficult to pass places. This type of treatment of animals is not practiced on the African peninsula.

Elephants' diet consists of plants; they can chew tree bark. They prefer to eat carrots; they are unlikely to resist an apple. Elephants have a terrible sweet tooth, and are able to stand for as long as they like near the fence of the enclosure in the hope that they will be treated to a sweet delicacy. FROM large quantity sweets, animals not only get fat, but also become addicted to sweets.

Asian elephants

There are three known species of elephants living in Azi - Sri Lankan, Indian, Sumatran. Of the Sri Lankan individuals, the most prominent is the elephant, 3.5 m high and weighing 5.5 tons. He lives on the island after which he is named. Indian elephant not uncommon, you can find it in any Asian country. Weighs no more than 5 tons. The smallest Sumatran is 2.5 m tall and weighs three tons.

African elephant

These are the largest animals on the planet. In nature, there are two types of African elephants - savannah and forest. The first of them can weigh up to eight tons and grow up to four meters, the latter are inferior to them in their parameters - no more than five tons and three meters in height. These are very friendly animals; fights and quarrels rarely occur between relatives. Usually they live in one large herd, take care of the cubs, and do not abandon the sick in trouble. During mating, due to increased testosterone levels, elephants can show aggression, and only during this period can one elephant injure another representative of its genus. Relations with females are tender - having looked after a couple, the elephants move a short distance from the herd and there, far from prying eyes, they indulge in mutual caresses.

Until the baby elephants are five years old, they are under the tireless attention of their mother; upon reaching 15 years old, the elephant becomes adult. In the savannah, young elephants are in danger - lions. One of the largest elephants is capable of eating 100 kg of grass - often these good-natured creatures cause the death of bushes and trees. Due to the destruction of green spaces, shooting of these large animals was allowed. Average age The life of an African giant is 60-70 years. Unlike their Indian relatives, African dogs are much less amenable to training.

Yossi the Elephant

The largest elephant in the world lives in the Safari Zoo, located in Israel. He has reached a very respectable age - he is 32 years old, but continues to grow and can hardly squeeze through the gate leading to the yard - in order to overcome it, the elephant has to crouch - this is the only way he can go for a walk. Experts believe that this kind of exercise only benefits the animal. An elephant named Yossi became the tallest elephant ever to live in captivity. Now his height is 3.7 m. His weight is 6 tons, the elephant’s tail is 1 meter, the trunk is 2.5 meters, ears = 1.2 meters. According to assumptions, the reasons for growth lie in genes. An important factor is nutritious food.

Since ancient times, people have learned to use elephants for heavy work - transporting heavy loads and people. They repeatedly took part in bloody battles. But you should not put an unbearable burden on an elephant - an elephant is not omnipotent and is not capable of lifting a load that is more than a quarter of its weight.

As you know, elephants are the largest land animals on planet Earth. Elephants living in India are considered larger in size than African elephants.

To get a better look at what place the elephant occupies in the animal world, check out our amazing photos and learn some fascinating facts about these big-eared giants.

There is no creature in the world that looks like an elephant: does any animal have such huge ears and such a trunk? Why does this animal need a trunk? For water procedures, for smelling, eating and even communicating. Did you know that elephants are capable of detecting certain audio frequencies, which are available only to them.

Listen to the elephant's voice

Even being at a distance from each other, elephants can use their “locators” - ears.

What else is remarkable about elephants?

It turns out that the average elephant spends at least 16 hours a day eating. How much food can you eat in that amount of time? From 45 to 450 kilograms. As for liquid, an elephant drinks from 100 to 300 liters per day. This is such a “water drinker”!

Elephants, both and are very caring and attentive animals towards each other. They are very worried and mourn if something bad happens to one of the members of the herd. When a little elephant calf is born into an “elephant family,” everyone is ready to help in caring for and raising the baby.

How long do elephants live?

These giants can live up to the age of 70 years. The elephant sleeps very little - only four hours a day. But even this time spent in sleep gives the elephant a charge of vigor and strength for the new day.

About the intelligence of elephants

Elephants are considered one of the most intelligent animals on planet Earth. They have a phenomenal memory: this applies both to events in their lives and to the people who interact with them (for example, in a circus or a zoo).

And now some photos of amazing animals - elephants.

Photos taken from the Internet.

Our world is unique and amazing. It is inhabited by creatures of the most different forms and sizes: from high and low, to small and large. All of them can be classified into a variety of categories.

Let's consider the largest representatives in their class that inhabit our Earth.

The largest elephant in the world

One of the animals of the Safari Park in the city of Romat Gan, the official elephant Yossi, who is the elder of the park, recently earned official international recognition. He was recognized as the most big elephant in the world.

So, a special expert was invited to the Safari Park who carefully measured the elephant. Thus, the weight itself big elephant very impressive, it amounted to about 6 tons. And the height of the largest elephant is 3 meters 70 centimeters. According to the Yediot Ahront newspaper, the length of the elephant's tail reaches 1 meter, the length of the trunk is 2.5 meters, the length of the ears is 1.2 meters, and the tusks protrude half a meter forward.

The elephant's habitat is the entire territory located in the south of the Sahara Desert.

• African elephants are shorter than Indian elephants: the body length of Indian elephants can reach 6 meters 50 centimeters;
• in its natural environment habitat, all adult African elephants have no enemies;
• all elephants are the only animals that cannot swim;
• elephants are the only four-legged animals in which all four legs are equally functional;
• all elephants sleep standing up, only small cubs can sleep on the ground, on their sides;
• elephants run faster than humans, they can reach speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour;
• one ear of an adult African elephant can weigh up to 85 kilograms;
• The daily diet of an African elephant can be up to 200 liters of water and 300 kilograms of tree leaves and hay;
• African elephants are the only animals on Earth that pay a day of remembrance for the dead

The largest whale in the world

The blue whale is the most big whale in the world. It is also called the vomit or blue whale. The body weight of this mammal reaches 150 tons, and its length is 30 meters. Its heart weighs about 1,300 feet (600 kg), making it the largest such organ of any living thing. Also blue whale The volumes of the lungs are also large: they can exceed 3000 liters.

• the weight of a blue whale's tongue can reach about 2.8 tons, which is comparable to the weight of an average-sized Asian elephant;
• individuals blue whales usually stay solitary and rarely gather in flocks;
• Blues reproduce extremely slowly;
• The number of blue whales numbers no more than 10 thousand individuals.

The most big crocodile in the world is Cassius Clay, included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most large reptile who lives in captivity. Northern Australia's most famous resident was caught in wildlife 26 years ago. He was settled with the owner of Green Island Farm in Marineland Melanesia.

The crocodile got its name in honor of the legendary boxer Clay Cassius. The body length of the crocodile is 5 meters 48 centimeters; and the weight is a whole ton.

It should be noted that at the end of May of this year, Cassius Clay turned 110 years old. A twenty-kilogram chicken cake was a gift for his birthday.

The largest bear in the world

The largest bear in the world is considered to be the Kodiak bear, which lives off the southern coast of Alaska on the islands of the archipelago of the same name. Also Kodiak is one of the most large predators in the world that live on land.

These animals moved from Alaska to the Kodiak archipelago about 12 thousand years ago. They are close relatives of the grizzly bear.

The bear reaches 3 meters in length and weighs almost half a ton.