ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/left.dwt" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="doctitle" --> <title>Elephant Fact File</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <meta name="description" content="Elephants For Africa Trust - Information on elephant research in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. 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The trunk is a fusion of the upper lip and elongated nose. It weighs up to 140kg and can be a deadly weapon. However, it can also pick up a feather, offer comfort to a distressed calf, push over a tree and hold 12 litres of water. It contains at least 50,000 individual muscle units.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p class="style3"><img src="images/factfile/tusk.png" alt="Tusk" width="127" height="95" hspace="8" vspace="8" align="right" />The tusks are present in both male and female African elephants and are elongated incisor teeth. They first appear at about two years of age and are a mixture of dentine, cartilaginous material and calcium salts. The males tusks can be over 100kg in weight. They have been long sought after by man to carve into ornaments and piano keys amongst other things. Man s greed for ivory has led to a massive decrease in elephant populations throughout the world. In the late 1970 s there were 1.3 million elephants; now there are only an estimated 400-600,000. </p> <p class="style3">&nbsp;</p> <p class="style7">FAMILY LIFE</p> <p class="style7">&nbsp;</p> <p class="style4"><img src="images/factfile/FamilyPic.png" alt="Family" width="198" height="150" hspace="8" vspace="8" />The females and their young live in herds. There tends to be one leader, the  Matriarch who is often the oldest female, mother and grandmother to the rest of the herd members. Being the oldest she has the depth of knowledge that will ensure the survival of herd in times of hardship; taking them to water and food sources beyond their usual range. Whilst the young females will usually stay with the herd, the males leave the herd during adolescence (between the ages of 10 and 19 years) and lead the life of a more solitary  bull elephant.</p> <p class="style4">&nbsp;</p> <p class="style7">COMMUNICATION</p> <p class="style7">&nbsp;</p> <p class="style4">Elephants are highly intelligent, social animals and use a variety of means to communicate amongst themselves over vast distances (up to 14km). Like humans they  talk ; so far 70 different calls have been identified by researchers, from the loud trumpets of panic to the comforting rumbles of reassurance. They also pick up information from smells that their trunks are very sensitive to: a male can tell when a female is in oestrous (ready to mate) from the chemical signs she leaves in her urine and faeces. This combined with the characteristic calls of that time, ensure that all the likely suitors will come to try and win her affections. Recent evidence suggests that they may be able to communicate though seismic waves that pass though the ground and which they pick up though their sensitive feet.</p> <p class="style4">&nbsp;</p> <p class="style4 style5">OTHER INTERESTING FACTS</p> <ul> <li class="style3">Elephant skin is up to 2.5 cm thick in places but, despite this, elephants are very prone to skin parasites and use mud and dust baths to try and get rid of them as well as to cool off.</li> <li class="style3">Daily food intake is 4-7% of bodyweight which, when you are an elephant, equates to an awful lot of food. </li> <li class="style3">A single elephant deposits upwards of 150kg of dung every day.</li> <li class="style3">The ears have lots of blood pumping though them to cool the elephant down.</li> <li class="style3">The more the ears flap the hotter the elephant is.</li> <li class="style3">Elephants are herbivores and therefore only eat grasses, herbs, fruit, plants and trees.</li><img src="images/factfile/water.png" alt="facts" hspace="8" vspace="8" align="right" /> <li class="style3">Their brain weighs 4-6 kg</li> <li class="style3">The life span is very similar to humans; living to between 60 and 70 years.</li> <li class="style3">Females can give birth to as many as 12 offspring and generally start breeding at 15/16 years of age.</li> <li class="style3">The gestation period is 22 months.</li> <li class="style3">Males come into their prime at 30-35 years of age and experience periods of  Musth , which is when they concentrate on finding females. This can last for six months in the dominant males and they will often stop feeding for days at a time during this period.</li> <li class="style3">They can walk up to 195 km per day, although the average is only 25 km.</li> <li class="style3">Speeds of 40mph can be reached.</li> <li class="style3">Elephant have six sets of teeth that grow one set after another, throughout their lives. By the time they reach their 50s, most elephant have started to use their final set. </li> <li class="style3">Elephants once populated the whole of Africa.</li> <li class="style3">There are three species of elephant in the world: <blockquote> <p>o African savanna, <i>Loxodonta africana</i></p> <p>o African forest, <i>Loxodonta cyclotis</i></p> <p>o Asian, <i>Elephas maximus</i></p> </blockquote> </li> <li class="style3">They inhabit 37 African countries and 13 Asian. </li> <li class="style3">Closest relative is the Hyraxes, Aardvarks and Manatees. </li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td> <td width="8"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="8" height="1" /></td> <td class="RightPatch">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="CrvBgBtm"><img src="images/Patch_Left_CrvB.gif" width="13" height="13" align="right" /></td> <td><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="230" height="1" /></td> <td> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="5"><img src="images/Btm_Crv1.gif" width="5" height="13" /></td> <td class="MidBtm"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="13" /></td> <td width="5"><img src="images/Btm_Crv2.gif" width="5" height="13" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> <td width="8"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="8" height="1" /></td> <td class="CrvBgBtm"><img src="images/Patch_Right_CrvB.gif" width="13" height="13" /></td> </tr> </table> </body> <!-- InstanceEnd --></html>