Proboscis mammals. Representatives of the order Proboscis and their characteristics. History of proboscideans Information about proboscideans

Distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa. However, the range that was continuous in the past is now broken. The African elephant is not found in most of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Ethiopia; completely disappeared from Northern Somalia. From Sudan to the west, the range boundary now approximately coincides with 12° N. sh., however, certain isolated areas of the range are preserved further north (near Lake Chad, Mali, Mauritania).

Body length reaches 6-7.5 m, shoulder height ( highest point body) - 2.4-3.5 m. Average body weight in females is 2.8 tons, males - 5 tons.

They inhabit a wide variety of landscapes (with the exception of tropical forests and deserts) up to 3660 m above sea level, occasionally found up to 4570 m above sea level. The main requirements for the habitat are the availability of food, the presence of shade and the availability of fresh water, from which elephants, however, can move more than 80 km.

They are active both during the day and at night, but activity decreases during the hottest hours. In areas with high activity, people switch to a nocturnal lifestyle. Based on observations during the day African elephant 13% of the time is spent on rest, 74% on feeding, 11% on transitions and 2% on other activities. Peak feeding occurs in the morning.

Elephants have poor vision (at a distance of no more than 20 m), but they have an excellent sense of smell and hearing. Communication uses a large number of visual signals and touches, as well as a wide repertoire of vocalizations, including the well-known loud trumpet sounds. Research has shown that elephant calls contain infrasound components (14-35 Hz), making them audible over long distances (up to 10 km). In general, the cognitive and perceptual abilities of African elephants are less well studied than those of Asian elephants.

Despite their massive build, elephants are surprisingly agile. They swim well or move along the bottom of a reservoir with only their trunk above the water. They 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 sleep standing up, gathered together in a dense group, only the cubs lie on their sides on the ground. Sleep lasts about 40 minutes.

They feed on plant food: leaves, branches, shoots, bark and roots of trees and shrubs; the proportions of food depend on the habitat and time of year. During the wet season, most of the diet consists of herbaceous plants like papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) and cattail (Typha augustifolia). Old elephants feed mainly on swamp vegetation, which is less nutritious but softer; for this reason, dead elephants are often found in swamps (hence the legend of “elephant cemeteries” where they come to die). Elephants need daily watering and during the dry season they sometimes dig holes in the beds of dry rivers to collect water from aquifers. These watering holes are used not only by elephants, but also by other animals, including buffalos and rhinoceroses. Each day, one elephant consumes from 100 to 300 kg of food (5% of its own weight) and drinks 100-220 liters of water. African elephants also need salt, which is either found on licks or dug out of the ground.

In search of food and water, the African elephant can travel up to 500 km; on average, it covers a distance of about 12 km per day. In the past, the length of seasonal migrations of African elephants reached 300 km. Almost all elephant migrations followed general scheme: at the beginning of the rainy season - from permanent reservoirs, in the dry season - back. Off-season, shorter migrations occurred between water and food sources. The animals followed their usual routes, leaving behind clearly visible trampled paths. Currently, migrations of African elephants are limited due to increased human activity, as well as the concentration of the bulk of the elephant population in protected areas.

Elephants lead a nomadic lifestyle. They travel in stable groups, which in the past reached 400 animals. The herd usually contains 9-12 animals belonging to the same family: an old female (matriarch), her offspring and older daughters with immature cubs. The female matriarch determines the direction of the nomad movement, decides when the herd should feed, rest or swim. She leads the herd until she is 50-60 years old, after which she is succeeded by the oldest female. Sometimes the family also includes one of the matriarch's sisters and her offspring. Males are usually expelled or leave the herd when they reach sexual maturity (9-15 years), after which they lead a solitary lifestyle, sometimes gathering in temporary herds. Males contact matriarchal families only during estrus of one of the females. When a family gets too big, it splits up. Herds can temporarily unite (Serengeti, Tanzania), observations have shown that some families of African elephants have special relationships and spend significant time together. In general, elephants are sociable and do not avoid each other.

Research in Lake Manyara National Park (Tanzania) has shown that individual elephant families stick to certain areas without roaming throughout the park. While not territorial, elephants, however, stick to their feeding areas, which in favorable conditions vary from 15 to 50 km 2. The home ranges of single males are much larger, up to 1500 km 2 . The largest areas are recorded for elephants from Kaokoveld (Namibia), where annual precipitation is only 320 mm: 5800-8700 km 2.

Communication within the herd takes many forms, including vocalizations, touch, and a variety of postures. Collective behavior includes shared care of offspring and protection from predators. Family members are extremely attached to each other. Thus, when elephants from the same family unite after several days of separation, their meeting is accompanied by a welcoming ceremony, which sometimes lasts up to 10 minutes. At the same time, the elephants show great excitement: they emit loud cries, intertwine their trunks and cross their tusks, flap their ears, urinate, etc. If the parting was short, the ceremony is reduced to flapping the ears, trumpet “greetings” and touching the trunk. There are cases when elephants took wounded relatives away from danger, supporting them on their sides. Elephants apparently have some idea of ​​death - judging by their behavior, they, unlike other animals, recognize the corpses and skeletons of their relatives.

Fights in the herd are rare. Elephants demonstrate dominance and aggression by raising their heads and trunks, straightening their ears, digging their feet into the ground, shaking their heads and making demonstrative attacks on the enemy. Fights are usually limited to pushing and crossing tusks; only during fights for a female can males inflict serious and fatal wounds on each other with their tusks. A subordinate position is indicated by lowered head and ears.

Breeding is not associated with a specific season, but most calving occurs in the middle of the rainy season. During dry periods or in crowded habitats, sexual activity decreases and females do not ovulate. Males wander in search of females in estrus, staying with them for no more than a few weeks. Estrus in female elephants lasts about 48 hours, during which time she calls males with cries. Usually, before mating, the male and female are removed from the herd for some time.

Elephants have the longest pregnancy among mammals - 20-22 months. The female brings 1 developed cub, twins are rare (only 1-2% of births). A newborn elephant calf weighs 90-120 kg with a shoulder height of about 1 m, its trunk is short, and there are no tusks. Childbirth takes place at a distance from the rest of the herd, and the giving birth female is often accompanied by a “midwife.” 15-30 minutes after birth, the baby elephant rises to its feet and can follow its mother. Until the age of 4, he needs maternal care; he is also looked after by young immature females 2-11 years old, who thus prepare for the role of mother.

Young females remain in their herd for life, males leave it upon reaching maturity, which usually occurs between 10 and 12 years. Elephants show the greatest diversity in timing of sexual maturity among mammals: the minimum recorded age for females is 7 years. IN unfavorable conditions females reach sexual maturity at 18-19 or even 22 years. The peak of fertility also varies greatly depending on the habitat: from the age of 18-19 years (Luangwa River valley, Zambia) to 31-35 years (Northern Bunyoro, Uganda). Elephants remain fertile until they are 55-60 years old, giving birth to 1-9 cubs throughout their lives. In males, sexual maturity occurs at 10-12 years, but due to competition with older males, they begin to mate only at the age of 25-30 years, reaching a reproductive peak by 40-50 years.

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

African forest elephant

African Forest Elephant

(Loxodonta cyclotis)

Distributed in Central Africa. As its name suggests, the African forest elephant lives in tropical forests Congo River Basin and plays important role in the distribution of seeds of many plants.

The average height of a forest elephant at the withers is 2.4 m. Thus, it is significantly smaller than elephants living in the savannah. Also, the forest elephant has thicker hair. Brown and ears are round in shape. This elephant has stronger and longer tusks, which helps it push through dense forests.

Forest elephants live in small family groups of 2 to 8 individuals, consisting mainly of several females and their offspring. Males are expelled from the group when they reach maturity. Males lead a solitary lifestyle and only during the breeding season do they form groups with other elephants. Forest elephants do not have a clearly defined breeding season, but the peak occurs during rainy seasons. Pregnancy lasts about 22 months, after which 1 baby is born; twins are extremely rare.

Asian elephant

Asian Elephant

(Elephas maximus)

Currently, the range of Indian elephants is highly fragmented; in the wild they are found in the countries of the Indo-Malayan biogeographic region: South and North-East India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, South-West China, Malaysia (mainland and on the island of Borneo), Indonesia (Borneo, Sumatra) and Brunei.

The body length of the Indian elephant is 5.5-6.4 m, the tail is 1.2-1.5 m. They reach a weight of 5.4 tons with a height of 2.5-3.5 meters. Females are smaller than males, weighing on average 2.7 tons.

The Indian elephant is primarily a forest dweller. He prefers light tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests with a dense undergrowth of shrubs and especially bamboo. Previously, in the cool season, elephants went out into the steppes, but now this has become possible only in nature reserves, since outside them the steppe has almost everywhere been turned into agricultural land. In summer, along wooded slopes, elephants climb quite high into the mountains, meeting in the Himalayas at the border of eternal snow, at an altitude of up to 3600 m. Elephants move quite easily through swampy terrain and climb into the mountains.

Like others large mammals, elephants tolerate cold better than heat. They spend the hottest part of the day in the shade, continuously flapping their ears to cool the body and improve heat exchange. They love to take baths, pouring water over themselves and rolling around in dirt and dust; these precautions protect the elephants' skin from drying out, sunburn and insect bites. For their size, elephants are surprisingly agile and agile; they have an excellent sense of balance. If necessary, they check the reliability and hardness of the soil under their feet with blows from their trunk, but thanks to the structure of their feet, they are able to move even through marshy areas. An alarmed elephant can reach speeds of up to 48 km/h; while running, the elephant raises its tail, signaling to its relatives about danger. Elephants are also good swimmers. The elephant spends most of its time searching for food, but the elephant needs at least 4 hours a day to sleep. They do not lie on the ground; the exception is sick elephants and young animals.

Elephants are distinguished by an acute sense of smell, hearing and touch, but their vision is weak - they see poorly at a distance of more than 10 m, somewhat better in shaded places. Elephants' hearing, due to their huge ears that serve as amplifiers, is much superior to humans. Elephants use numerous sounds, postures, and trunk gestures to communicate. Thus, a long trumpet call calls together the flock; a short, sharp, trumpet sound means fear; powerful blows on the ground with the trunk mean irritation and rage. Elephants have an extensive repertoire of calls, roars, grunts, squeals, etc., which signal danger, stress, aggression and greet each other.

Indian elephants are strict vegetarians and spend up to 20 hours a day foraging and feeding. Only during the hottest hours of the day do elephants seek shade to avoid overheating. The amount of food they eat daily ranges from 150 to 300 kg of various vegetation, or 6-8% of the elephant’s body weight. Elephants eat mainly grass; they also eat in some quantities the bark, roots and leaves of various plants, as well as flowers and fruits. Elephants tear off long grass, leaves and shoots with their flexible trunk; if the grass is short, they first loosen and dig up the soil with kicks. The bark from large branches is scraped off with molars, holding the branch with the trunk. Elephants willingly destroy agricultural crops, as a rule, rice, bananas and sugar cane, thus being the largest “pests” of agriculture.

The digestive system of the Indian elephant is quite simple; a capacious cylindrical stomach allows you to “store” food while symbiont bacteria ferment it in the intestines. The total length of the small and large intestines of the Indian elephant reaches 35 m. The digestion process takes about 24 hours; at the same time, only 44-45% of the food is actually absorbed. An elephant requires at least 70-90 (up to 200) liters of water per day, so they never move away from water sources. Like African elephants, they often dig in the ground in search of salt.

Due to the large amount of food they consume, elephants rarely feed in the same place for more than 2-3 days in a row. They are not territorial, but stick to their feeding areas, which reach 15 km 2 for males and 30 km 2 for gregarious females, increasing in size during the dry season.

Indian elephants are social animals. Females always form family groups consisting of a matriarch (the most experienced female), her daughters, sisters and cubs, including immature males. Sometimes there is one old male next to the herd. In the 19th century elephant herds, as a rule, consisted of 30-50 individuals, although there were also herds of up to 100 or more heads. Currently, herds consist primarily of 2-10 females and their offspring. The herd may temporarily break up into smaller groups that maintain contact through characteristic vocalizations containing low-frequency components. Small groups (less than 3 adult females) have been found to be more stable than large ones. Several small herds can form the so-called. clan.

Males usually lead a solitary lifestyle; only young males who have not reached sexual maturity form temporary groups not associated with female groups. Adult males only approach the herd when one of the females is in estrus. At the same time, they arrange mating fights; Most of the time, however, males are quite tolerant of each other, and their feeding territories often overlap. By the age of 15-20 years, males usually reach sexual maturity, after which they annually enter a state known as must (Urdu for "intoxication"). This period is characterized by very high level testosterone and, as a result, aggressive behavior. During must, an odorous black secretion containing pheromones is released from a special skin gland located between the ear and eye. Males even produce copious amounts of urine. In this state they are very excited, dangerous and can even attack a person. The must lasts up to 60 days; all this time, the males practically stop feeding and wander around in search of females in heat. It is curious that in African elephants must is less pronounced and first appears at a later age (from 25 years of age).

Reproduction can occur at any time of the year, regardless of the season. Females are in estrus for only 2-4 days; A complete estrous cycle lasts about 4 months. Males join the herd after mating fights - as a result, only mature dominant males are allowed to breed. Fights sometimes lead to serious injuries to opponents and even death. The winning male drives away other males and remains with the female for about 3 weeks. In the absence of females, young male elephants often exhibit homosexual behavior.

Elephants have the longest pregnancy among mammals; it lasts from 18 to 21.5 months, although the fetus is fully developed by 19 months and then only increases in size. The female brings 1 (rarely 2) cub weighing about 90-100 kg and height (at the shoulders) about 1 m. It has tusks about 5 cm long, which fall out by the age of 2, when milk teeth are replaced by adult ones. During calving, the remaining females surround the woman in labor, forming a protective circle. Soon after giving birth, the female defecates so that the baby remembers the smell of her feces. The baby elephant stands on its feet 2 hours after birth and immediately begins to suckle milk; the female, using her trunk, “sprays” dust and earth onto it, drying the skin and masking its odor from large predators. After a few days, the cub is already able to follow the herd, holding onto the mother’s tail with its trunk or older sister. All lactating females in the herd are involved in feeding the baby elephant. Milk feeding continues until 18-24 months, although the baby elephant begins to eat plant foods after 6-7 months. Elephants also eat their mother's feces - with their help, not only undigested nutrients are transferred to them, but also symbiotic bacteria that help digest cellulose. Mothers continue to care for their offspring for several more years. Young elephants begin to separate from the family group by the age of 6-7 years and are finally expelled by 12-13 years.

In nature, Indian elephants live up to 60-70 years, in captivity - up to 80 years. Adult elephants have no natural enemies; elephant calves can be attacked by tigers.