What is different about the African elephant? What is the difference between an Indian elephant and an African elephant? The difference is in the shape of the ears

August 12 is World Elephant Day. This holiday is designed to draw public attention to the problems of these giants: poaching, diseases and reduction natural environment a habitat. Today there are only just over 700 thousand elephants left in the world, although at the beginning of the last century there were several million.

AiF.ru collected 17 interesting facts from the life of elephants.

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African elephants are larger than Indian ones

There are two types of elephants - Indian and African. Indian elephants live in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and also on the Indochina Peninsula. The African elephant is common in sub-Saharan Africa. Elephants are found in large numbers only in national parks and reserves.

The African elephant is taller than the Indian elephant, its ears are larger, its skin is rougher, its trunk is thinner, and the tusks that males and females have are more developed. The weight of males reaches 5-7.5 tons, females - 3-4 tons.

Indian male elephants weigh 4.5-5 tons, female elephants - 3-4 tons. Females, as a rule, do not have tusks.

A number of zoologists distinguish among African elephants two different species - forest (living in the jungle) and savannah (living in the savanna). The most important difference between these two subspecies is the shape of the ears and the number of toes. The long-eared savannah elephant has four toes on its front legs and only three toes on its hind legs. The forest elephant has one more toe on each foot.

Elephants different types do not interbreed and, accordingly, do not reproduce.

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Elephants fought and harvested

Elephants were often used as weapons and vehicles in war. In addition, elephants helped people in harvesting. And now huge animals are used in agriculture, many of them are involved in the tourism business. And the elephant paths that animals laid in impenetrable jungle, used for road construction.

Female elephants live separately from males

Both African and Indian elephants live in herds. The core of the herd is a family group of 5-15 females and cubs, led by an old and experienced female elephant.

Males form separate herds. An adult male may temporarily join a herd with females that has at least one female elephant ready to conceive.

Elephant is a sacred animal

The elephant is one of the most important symbolic figures of Hinduism and Buddhism. An example is Airavata, the elephant ridden by Indra, the king of the gods and ruler heavenly kingdom in Vedic and Hindu mythology. Buddha himself in one of his incarnations was a white elephant. Some gods of the Hindu pantheon are depicted in the form of an elephant, for example, the god of wisdom Ganesha.

The oldest temple in Chiang Mai, Wat Chiang Man. Thailand. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Elephants suffer from leeches

Elephants can be attacked by land leeches. To get rid of an attached leech, an elephant takes a stick with its trunk and scrapes it over its body. If an elephant cannot even reach the leech with a stick, another elephant also helps him free himself from the bloodsuckers with a stick.

Vision is the weakest sense in elephants; they can only see 20 meters into the distance. But elephants have a very good sense of smell and hearing.

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Ear for music

Elephants have an ear for music and musical memory; they are able to distinguish melodies from three notes.

During an experiment conducted in national park In Kenya, scientists have found that elephants are able to distinguish a man’s voice from a woman’s, the voice of a child from the voice of an adult, and identify a possible threat. The study found that elephants respond differently to human speech and are able to distinguish one language from another.

Elephants flap their ears to lower their body temperature

The ears of elephants are penetrated by numerous blood vessels - capillaries. Blood entering the capillaries gives off heat to environment, thereby creating a mechanism for regulating heat in the body. Big square The surface of the ears allows elephants to effectively get rid of excess heat. Flapping your ears increases the cooling effect.

Elephants greet with their trunks

Individual elephants greet each other by stroking or grasping their trunks. Elephants touch each other's mouths, temporal glands and genitals when meeting or when excited, which allows them to perceive signals based on chemical secretions.

Tactile contact is especially important in communication between a mother elephant and a baby elephant. When moving, the mother constantly touches the baby with her trunk, legs or tail. Older individuals punish younger ones with trunk blows.

Elephants communicate with each other using earth vibrations

Elephants feel the vibrations of the earth and sound waves passing through it. Thus, an individual running or imitating running, stomping its feet, transmits signals to its relatives that can be detected over long distances - more than 30 km.

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Elephants swim well

Despite heavy weight, elephants are surprisingly agile. They swim well or move along the bottom of a reservoir with only their trunk above the water.

Elephants sleep standing up

Elephants sleep standing up, gathered together in a dense group, only the cubs lie on their sides on the ground. Elephants sleep on average 40 minutes, several hours a day.

Elephants are vegetarians

Elephants feed exclusively plant foods: leaves, branches, shoots, bark and roots of trees and shrubs. During the wet season, most of the diet consists of herbaceous plants like papyrus and cattails. Old elephants feed mainly on swamp vegetation, which is less nutritious but softer.

Each day, one elephant consumes from 100 to 300 kg of food (5% of its own weight) and drinks 100-220 liters of water.

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Elephants create artificial ponds themselves

Elephants need daily watering and during the dry season they sometimes dig holes in the beds of dry rivers to collect water from the aquifers of the soil. These watering holes are used not only by elephants, but also by other animals, including buffalos and rhinoceroses.

Elephant pregnancy lasts about two years

Pregnancy in elephants is the longest among mammals and lasts 20-22 months. The female usually brings only one cub; twins occur in exceptional cases (only 1-2%).

A newborn elephant calf weighs 90-120 kg with a height of about 1 m. 15-30 minutes after birth, it rises to its feet and can follow its mother.

Females look after their calves for four years after birth, while milk feeding can last 1.5-5 years.

Childbirth occurs every 2.5-9 years; during her life, an elephant gives birth to 1-9 cubs.

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Elephants are long-lived

African elephants live to be 60-70 years old, continuing to grow slowly throughout their lives. In captivity, their age reaches 80 years.

The lifespan of an elephant is limited by the degree of wear of its molars; when the last teeth fall out, the elephant loses the ability to chew food normally and dies of starvation.

Elephants can be left-handed or right-handed

Elephants, like people, can be “left-handed” or “right-handed,” because they adapt to work with one or another tusk. For this reason, one of the tusks is much shorter than the other, and it wears out quickly.

One third of an elephant's tusk is hidden under the skull. IN modern times There are no individuals with huge tusks, because all such elephants were exterminated by hunters many decades ago, and the length of the tusk is a genetically inherited trait.

Just recently I was convinced that the only thing that could make a difference was the rider. It is logical that an Indian will ride an Asian elephant, and an African, accordingly, will rule an African one. :) But this is not the only difference, which is what my story will be about.

What is the difference between the African and Indian elephant

Surprisingly, representatives of elephants that are so similar at first glance nevertheless have a number of differences, not only external, but also behavioral. So, if you look closely, the first thing that catches your eye is the size - the African is an order of magnitude more massive and taller, moreover, it is the largest land animal. A height of 4 meters is by no means uncommon, while the length reaches 7. At the same time, the mass of an African elephant often exceeds 7 tons, but the Asian elephant is significantly “lighter” - 5 tons maximum. In addition to such an obvious difference, there are other features:

• Ear shape. In the Asian one they are slightly smaller, but are distinctly extended downwards.
• Tusks. Although the females of the African elephant are not as huge as those of the male, the companions of the Asian elephant are completely devoid of such “decoration”. In addition, there is a difference in shape and length - rounded and long in African, and straight and short in Asian.
• Skin and trunk. Inhabitants African savannas covered with a huge number of wrinkles, while the skin has a more whitish color. The Asian body is covered with small hairs, with dark skin color. As for the trunk, the tip of the Asian elephant is crowned with 1 “finger”, and the African elephant with 2.

Behavior and figure

Regarding temperament, asian elephant much friendlier than its African counterpart, and is happy to make contact with people. They can be trained and are even capable of performing simple labor-intensive work, such as dragging a load. His African counterpart, on the contrary, is extremely aggressive, although he can also be tamed, albeit with great difficulty.

The inhabitants of African open spaces are distinguished by a straight back, moreover, sometimes even a little concave. But the representatives Asian species They have a characteristic hump, which gives them a drooping, gloomy appearance.

The elephant is one of the most major representatives fauna that exist on Earth. Previously, there were many varieties of these giants on our planet. Today, the African elephant and the Indian elephant live among us. This type of animal also included mammoths, which became extinct in glacial period, and mastodons, which disappeared before the appearance of people in America, where they lived. The difference between the two remaining species is significant, so it is quite appropriate to make a comparison between the African and Indian elephants.

Features of life

These animals can be found in various areas of the Earth. They live in a herd, in which there can be from ten to thirty small elephants and female elephants. It also necessarily has an adult, authoritative leader.

Each female elephant gives birth on average to about five calves in her lifetime. Family ties the herds are very crowded. Thus, there are groups in which about a hundred individuals are related blood ties. Elephants do not have a specific place of residence. They are on the move all their lives, moving from place to place, eating vegetation and spending the night near a reservoir.

Main Difference

What is the difference between Indian and African elephant? The most important difference between these two species is visible to the naked eye. These are the sizes. The African elephant and the Indian elephant do not naturally occur in the same area. Their habitats are located far from each other, and transporting animals is a labor-intensive process. But if this were real, then one would notice that the African elephant is larger than its counterpart from India.

Indian elephants puberty occurs at 15-20 years of age. In this they are ahead of their relatives from the African continent. For the latter, this period begins at the age of 25 years.

Character traits

The differences between animals are not only in their internal and external structure, but also in their character and temperament. Indian elephants are very friendly and get along well with people. They are easier to tame, which is what people take advantage of, attracting these giants to do hard work (for example, transporting goods). Indian elephants are also easier to train, which is why they often perform in circuses. Animals from the African continent are more aggressive. They are more difficult to tame, but it can be done. Basically, they remain to live in natural conditions. But there are examples of the use of these animals. For example, African elephants took part in Hannibal’s campaigns many centuries ago.

Habitat

The structural features of elephants depend largely on their habitat. Indian elephants are common in parts of India, Burma, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Sumatra, Ceylon and Malacca. Their habitats are dense forests with tall grasses. African elephants are found in many areas of Africa, more specifically in Botswana, Ethiopia, and Namibia. Their habitat is varied. However, these giants cannot be found in the African elephant and the Indian elephant - these are related animals, each of which is interesting in its own way.

The African elephant and the Indian elephant are representatives of different species of the same elephant family. As close relatives, they have much in common, but at the same time their differences are obvious even to a non-specialist: the animals differ not only in appearance, but also in their behavior.

Many people love elephants - both adults and children. These huge and strong animals exude reliability and inner peace. Unfortunately, the once large family of elephants has been practically destroyed, and today only two species remain on earth - the Indian and African elephants. But not everyone knows how to distinguish them from each other.

Surprisingly, these two representatives of the same family - the Indian and African elephants - have such obvious differences that biologists have classified them as separate species. Even in appearance, the animals are very different and this is noticeable even in the photo.

Comparison of African and Indian elephant: sizes

And we will start with the most obvious indicator, which is obvious even to a person far from biology. It is known that there is no larger land inhabitant on Earth than the elephant. Which elephant do you think is bigger - Indian or African? Of course, an African resident is larger than his Asian relative and is the most large mammals on the land. The height of this giant at shoulder level reaches four meters. And the length of the body in some cases exceeds seven meters. The giant's weight is up to seven tons.

Indian elephants, in comparison with their counterparts, look simply “baby”: their height does not exceed three meters, their length is about six meters, and their weight rarely exceeds five tons.

Body outline

Even in the outlines of the body you can see the differences between the Indian elephant and the African elephant. The “African” has a straight or slightly concave back. The “Asian” has a convex one. The Indian elephant has thicker and shorter limbs and therefore looks heavier. The African elephant simply needs long legs, since he eats only the foliage of trees, for which he has to reach quite high, and his fellow from Asia often feeds on some food from the ground.

Skeleton

Now you know the answer to the question of which animal - the Indian or African elephant - is larger, so when you come to the circus or zoo, you can easily determine their species. But these giants also have some peculiarities. internal structure, which are not visible to a person far from biology. The fact is that the African elephant and the Indian elephant have differences in their skeletal structure. The first has twenty-one pairs of ribs, the second only nineteen. The African elephant has thirty-three vertebrae in its tail, while the Asian elephant has twenty-six.

Skin covering

Another indicator by which it is easy to understand how the African elephant and the Indian elephant differ: the skin of the “African” is covered with numerous wrinkles, and the smooth surface of the body of the Asian animal is covered with small hairs. There are also differences in skin color: the Indian giant is much darker than its African counterpart. The first has brown or dark gray skin, while the second has gray skin, sometimes even with a brown tint.

Ears

Representatives of these species differ in the length and shape of the ears. The nature of the “African” endowed him with large, elongated, somewhat rounded ears, while the Asian elephant got smaller ears: they are more elongated and pointed.

Tusks

The male African elephant is endowed with luxurious tusks (in females they are slightly smaller). And the Indian elephant has tusks, but the females are completely devoid of them. The native of Africa has a curved tusk and in males reaches three and a half meters in length. The “Asian” has it much shorter and, moreover, almost straight.

trunks

And even the trunk - characteristic feature These animals - the African and Indian elephants have different structures. In both animals they have processes that are shaped like fingers. True, there are two of them on the trunk of an elephant from Africa, but only one from India.

Indian elephant habitat

Unlike its African counterpart, the Indian elephant is a forest dweller. He loves light forest, especially with a small undergrowth of bamboo thickets. Today favorite place these animals, where they went when the air temperature dropped - the savannah, reserved for Agriculture. IN summer time animals go to the mountains, rise to the Himalayas, to the border where eternal snow lies.

Indian elephants living in natural conditions create family groups that can number up to twenty individuals. The leader in such a group is an old and experienced female. Indian elephants are obedient animals, easy to train and excellent at work. A special saddle is placed on the animal’s back, which can accommodate up to four people.

Where does the African elephant live?

The African giant prefers to settle in the steppes of Africa and Egypt. Representatives of this species live in Ceylon, India, Burma, and Indochina. Animals unite in herds, the number of which can reach fifty individuals.

There are also solitary elephants. As a rule, these are quite aggressive individuals that can pose a danger to other animals. There is a fairly friendly atmosphere in the herd, the elephants take care of their offspring and support each other. Elephants are able to show emotions and quickly remember people, objects, and places.

An African elephant eats up to one hundred and thirty kilograms of food per day (fruits, leaves, tree bark) and spends most of its time searching for food. These giants sleep no more than four hours a day. As a rule, they settle near bodies of water and drink almost two hundred liters of water a day. The African elephant, despite its impressive size, is an excellent swimmer, swimming long distances.

Behavior

The African elephant and the Indian elephant differ in their disposition. Representatives of the Indian species are more friendly towards people, and it is not difficult to tame them. It is them that residents of Asian countries use to perform heavy physical work, for example, when transporting large, heavy items. And in the circus, Indian elephants often demonstrate their skills to us.

The African elephant quite often shows aggression and it takes a lot of effort to train it, although this task cannot be called impossible.

These mammals are distinguished by a language of communication that is completely understandable to humans. When an animal is “not in the mood” or is aggressive, it spreads its ears. For defense, tusks, trunk and powerful legs. When an elephant senses danger or is frightened by something, it squeals and runs away, destroying everything in its path.

Species status

Once upon a time, herds of African elephants reached four hundred individuals. Nowadays, the numbers of all species are rapidly declining and the animals are included in the International Red Book. Both species are on the verge of extinction. Scientists believe that the main reason for this is the destruction of the natural habitat of these giants. They are listed in the Red Book: African in the “Endangered” section, Indian in the “Threatened” section.

No matter how different these huge animals are, we must not forget that they are in dire need of human help. Only he can take measures to save these animals from extinction. Otherwise, one day people will simply lose these smart and powerful helpers.

• Did you know that among elephants there are “right-handed” and “left-handed”? Determining which category an animal belongs to is quite simple: by the length of the tusks. A shorter one indicates belonging to one category or another.
• Ivory is very expensive, so animals die en masse at the hands of poachers. Despite the fact that trade in this material is now prohibited in most countries, up to a hundred animals die annually at the hands of humans.
• Elephants have four molars. Each of them, the size of a brick, weighs two to three kilograms. Molars are replaced six times during a lifetime.
• The trunk, the connection between the nose and the upper lip, with which the elephant breathes, showers, drinks, smells and makes sounds, contains one hundred thousand muscles. With it, the animal lifts objects weighing up to a thousand kilograms and carries them tens of kilometers.

Speaking of elephants (lat. Elephantidae), most of us imagine large gray animals with large ears, long tusks and a trunk, no different from each other. However, these highest degree intelligent and worthy creatures deserve to take a closer look at them.

A long time ago, in the Pleistocene era (2 million - 10 thousand years ago), almost everywhere to the globe ancient representatives of the Proboscis order moved freely - giant elephants, mammoths and mastodons, but by the end of this period only two genera of elephants remained alive, which are today the largest land mammals - African (lat. Loxodonta) and (Asian) (lat. Elephas maximus). African elephants, in turn, are divided into (lat. Loxodonta africana) and (lat. Loxodonta cyclotis).

Despite the seemingly almost one hundred percent similarity in appearance, African and Indian elephants have a lot of differences. African (savannah) elephants are larger than Indian ones - in highest point bodies (at the shoulders) they can reach 3.7 meters, and their weight exceeds 6-7 tons. Indian elephants are smaller than savanna elephants, but larger than forest elephants - they weigh about 5 tons and grow up to 3.5 meters.

The ears of African elephants are very large, their shape resembles the outlines of the “black” continent, and the vein pattern is individual, like human fingerprints. Long, strong tusks adorn the heads of not only males (like Indian elephants), but also females.

An elephant's tusks are nothing more than its incisor teeth. It is also an indispensable tool for protection, searching for water and lifting various objects. Like humans, elephants can be right-handed or left-handed, making the most of their right or left tusk. Each elephant has its own individual shape of the tusk, its size and angle of inclination, which makes it much easier for researchers to “recognize” individual individuals.

In addition to tusks, elephants have four more molars, each of which weighs about 2.3 kilograms and is the size of a brick. During their life, elephants completely replace their entire set of molars six times. As elephants age, their teeth become too sensitive, and they move to the swamps in search of softer vegetation. Here they remain until the end of their lives, becoming the involuntary source of many legends that elderly elephants go to die in some mysterious “valleys of death.”

Probably the most main feature any elephant is its trunk, which is both its nose and upper lip. The elephant's trunk is controlled by more than 40 thousand muscles, so it is equally masterful in lifting a heavy log and a straw. At the end of the trunk of the African elephant there are two finger-like outgrowths adapted for comfortable grip; the Indian elephant has only one such “finger”.

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. However, this does not prevent her from remaining extremely sensitive, sensing the presence of even the smallest insects. To protect themselves from their stinging bites or to cool off, elephants douse themselves with water and roll in the mud or dust.

Both Indian and African elephants live in groups united by family kinship. The herd is led by the oldest and most experienced female, on whose decisions the entire life activity of the group depends - she determines when it is time for lunch, rest or a change of habitat.

The permanent presence of adult males in the herd is completely excluded - they leave the family at the age of 12-13 years, leading a solitary lifestyle or teaming up with similar loners, and visit female elephants only during the mating period, without taking any part in the further raising of the offspring. Groups living in the neighborhood are often also related and greet each other joyfully when meeting on the banks of bodies of water.

The most developed sense in elephants is smell, but sounds play the most important role in their communication. The flapping of ears warns of danger, calling to stand in a circle and protect the smallest and weakest, the stomping of feet and many variations of sounds also carry certain information for those who are at a distance of up to 8 kilometers. And even such an unpleasant phenomenon for humans as rumbling in the stomach is very welcome in the elephant community - everyone who hears it knows that everything around is calm.

To fill its stomach, an adult elephant needs to eat 100 to 200 kilograms of succulent grass, leaves and fruits and drink about 120 liters of water. From the first days of life, newborn elephants are taught by adult females the intricacies of handling the trunk - they are shown how to draw water into it and pour it into the mouth.