Karthiga's Elephant Report

The Elephant

The elephant is the largest land animal. There is two type of species, the Asian elephant Elephas maximus ( there are four subspecies: Sri Lankan elephant, Indian elephant, Sumatran elephant, and Borneo elephant).Asian elephants are really important to Asian culture for religious festivals, transportation and moving heavy objects. The African elephant Loxodonta  sometimes split s into two species: the forest elephant and the bush elephant.

Diet/Habitat

Elephants are herbivores. Elephants eat several pounds of vegetation daily. Normally, everyday the creatures eat sixteen to eighteen hours or 80% of what they eat. Elephants eat grass, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, leaves and roots. Elephants drink round 210 litres a day. The elephants habitats are in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia: Found in savannahs, grasslands, forests, deserts, swamps and mountains. Asian elephants are found in Sri Lanka. Indian elephants are found in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and China.

Background

Jumbo was an elephant. He was born in 1861 and died on September 15 1885.  Jumbo was a gigantic elephant. He was also a circus elephant. He eventually went to Paris, France and then he was taken to London Zoo in England. He got bought by a man named P.T. Barnum and then transferred to America. The children loved seeing Jumbo at the circus. He died in Canada at a railway station because a locomotive hit him. He was very badly wounded. When he died they made a statue of Jumbo. If you put a coin in Jumbo’s tusks people say it brings good luck with an exam or a sports event and to remember him now.

Also, at the Auckland Zoo we had an amazing asian elephant named Kashin. Sadly he died with arthritis. Burma the elephant grew very sad but now she is happy again because she has made a new  friend named Anjalee.

Characteristics

Female and male african elephants have tusks but only male asian elephants have tusks. Female elephants are called cows and male bulls are called bulls. Their young is called a calf The elephant’s trunk can grow  to about  2 metres long and can weigh up to 140 kg! Zoologists think that the elephant’s trunk is made of 100,000 muscles, but no bones. The elephant’s trunk is able to sense the size, shape and temperature of any object. Elephants have long thin ears and very thick grey skin. As Asian elephants grow older their hair turns pink like how when humans are old they turn grey! The elephant grows 6 sets of teeth.

By Karthiga

Adaptations

The elephant has many adaptations.

Ears- Asian elephants live in warm areas. They have their large ears so they can use

them as a fan to cool them down.

Teeth- Asian elephants need very strong teeth because they are herbivores and eat plants.  In their lifespan they grow 6 sets of teeth.

Trunk-  The trunk has many adaptations. They can use their trunk to cool them down because they can squirt water on their backs or they spray dirt on their thick skin to prevent sunburn. They can also use their trunk to lift massive objects. Finally, they can use their trunk to feed their baby elephants by getting plants or bark off trees.

Tusks- The male Asian elephants can use their tusks by digging waterholes, removing bark from trees, uprooting trees and using them as weapons during a fight.

Communication- Elephants have different ways of communicating. They also grunt, growl and they trumpet too while communicating! Some of the noises can not be heard by us, humans.

The difference between the Asian elephant and the African elephant

As we know there are two species of elephant: The Asian elephant and the African elephant. The normal weight for an Asian elephant is 3,000 - 6,000 kg while the African elephant weighs about 4,000-7,500kg. African elephants heads are more rounded but the Asian elephant’s head is more like a twin-domed head. The ears are a common one: The Asian elephant has smaller ears and the ears looks more like the shape of the country India but with the African elephants their ears are much bigger and their ears looks like the map of Africa. Also African elephants are wrinkler than asian elephants. African elephants have more ribs than Asian elephants. African elephants have about 21 while Asian elephants  have around 20 ribs.  African elephants have larger tusks. The African elephant’s trunk is  harder than the Asian elephants. Also,  both elephants diets is different. Asian elephants eat mostly grass and the African elephant eat mostly leaves.

In conclusion the elephant is an endangered species. People are cutting down their habitat for wood or probably to build more homes. Also, people are killing the Asian elephant for their tusks.  

SAVE THE ELEPHANT!