World Elephant Day: Spotlight on gentle giants and their fight for survival

Hyderabad: On World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12, it is important to understand these gentle beasts and threats against their survival in the wild and among humans, which sometimes leads to drastic and potentially fatal conflicts.

Types of elephants

There are three distinct species of elephants—the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).

The African savannah elephant is the largest land mammal, with the Asian elephant coming in second.

The African forest elephant is the smallest of the elephant species. They are all generally similar in appearance. While males are larger than females, they continue to grow throughout their lives.

Here is a detailed geographical distribution of elephants:

African Elephants: Elephants once could be found across Africa. By the Middle Ages, the species became extinct in Northern Africa due to the ivory trade.

Controlled hunting, a drop in the price of ivory and the development of wildlife preserves following World War I saw the population of elephants increase once again within Africa.

In the 1970s, the increase in the price of ivory restarted the poaching of elephants. The population, estimated to be at about 1.3 million in the early 1970s, dropped by more than half by 1995.

Asian Elephants: The Asian Elephant once reigned the Tigris-Euphrates region in Western Asia, east through Iran and south of the Himalayas, throughout south and southeast Asia, including the islands of Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Borneo, and into mainland China northwards at least as far as the Yangtze River.

It is estimated that at the turn of the century, there were more than 100,000 elephants in Asia. The surviving population of Asian elephants is estimated between 30,000 to 50,000.

Now, elephants have disappeared entirely from western Asia, Iran and most of China.

They are currently found in the following regions and countries, although they are usually restricted to hilly and mountainous areas: India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia, Andaman Islands, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Borneo.

Decrease in elephant population in the wild

Sadly, the population of elephant species continues to decline in the wild.

In India, encroachment of forests, habitat loss through human population growth and infrastructure development, and poaching pose major threats.

Conflicts between elephants and humans have become increasingly frequent due to human population growth, causing a decrease in suitable habitat for elephants.

Many elephant habitats have been converted to farmland. Human attempts to protect their lands and livelihoods have led to injuries and fatalities on both sides.

Many elephants in India meet with accidents while crossing train tracks or highways.

Some organisations in India do stellar work in elephant conservation and care, by rescuing and rehabilitating injured, blind and old elephants. One such organisation is the Wildlife SOS.

Social animals

Female elephants are social animals, spending much of their time rearing calves.

Male elephants leave the family as they enter their teenage years. Males, once separated from their original group, will form loose associations with other bulls.

The elephant’s physical characteristics are fascinating in many ways. Here’s a basic breakdown:

Trunks: All species of elephants have a trunk, an elongated nose combined with an upper lip. The elephant uses its trunk to breathe, explore its environment, communicate, pick up, push, carry, drink water or give itself a shower of water, mud or dirt.

Feet: The feet of all species of elephants are round with a large circumference about the legs. The elephant’s weight rests on a pad, which cushions the toes. This pad grows continuously and is worn down by the natural movement of the elephant.

Ears: The African Elephant usually lives in a hotter, sunnier climate than the Asian elephant and needs larger ears to aid in thermoregulation.

Although ears help to regulate body temperature in both species, they are more effective in African elephants in that regard because the ears are larger.

Flapping the ears helps to cool an elephant in two ways: it acts as a fan and moves air over the rest of the elephant’s body, and cools the blood as it circulates through the veins in the ears.

An elephant may also spray water on its ears, which also cools the blood before it returns to the rest of the body.

Large ears also trap more sound waves than smaller ones. The ears of an African elephant are enormous.

Each ear is about six feet from top to bottom and five feet across. When an elephant is angry or feels threatened, it may respond by spreading its ears wide and facing whatever it may perceive as a threat.

Skin: The skin on an elephant can weigh over 900 kg.

Elephant skin lacks moisture, so it must be loose, especially around the joints, to provide the necessary flexibility for motion.

The skin of the African elephant is more wrinkled than that of the Asian elephant. The wrinkles in an elephant’s skin help to retain moisture, keeping the skin in good condition.

An elephant’s natural colour is greyish black, but an elephant usually appears to be the same colour as the soil where the elephant lives. This is because elephants take frequent mud baths or dust with soil to protect against insects, to control body temperature, to condition and moisturise the skin and to protect against sunburn.

Tusks and teeth: In addition to their tusks, which are modified incisors, an elephant has four molars, with a molar located in each jaw. An African elephant will go through six sets of molars in a lifetime. Later in life, a single molar can be 10-12 inches long and weigh around 3.5 kilos.

There is no real tooth socket. There are only four molars in use in an elephant’s mouth at any time, but an elephant may go through six sets of molars in its lifetime. The final set grows when the animal is in its early forties and lasts for the rest of its life.