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AFRICAN ELEPHANT Facts
Loxodonta Africana
By Daniel James Devine

Some of the best African Elephant Facts I’ve Found:

In the world of elephants, bigger is definitely better, even if it means just looking big. Male African elephants continue to grow throughout their 70 years, and can reach 7½ tons (more than two Hummers).
The elephant’s foot is a spongy pad with four or five toes and toenails. The pad acts like a cushion with each step, absorbing the impact and taking some strain off the leg.
Like the pillars of a palace, an elephant’s legs are positioned directly under it. In contrast, the legs of most other mammals, such as dogs or horses, are in an angular position.
In addition elephant bones are semi-solid, lacking the normal marrow cavity in favor of a perforated bone tissue that provides optimum strength and still allows blood cell production.
Both its legs and skeleton are suited to handle its massive weight, while not sacrificing too much in mobility. An elephant can walk forward and backward, amble at 25 mph, negotiate steep terrain, swim in deep water, and stand on its hind legs with the help of a tree.
Notoriously thick-skinned (1 inch in some places), elephants are grey and rough to the touch, almost resembling stone. However, elephant skin is very sensitive, and they take pains to keep themselves cool and free of pests by wallowing in mud and flinging dust on themselves with their trunks.
The mud is actually very affective at blocking UV radiation and heat, which elephants find much less comfortable than dirt.
Ticks are especially bothersome, and elephants often have favorite scratching trees for noninvasive operations.
Their skinny tails help keep off flies in the hindquarters, but when there is a serious itch, a sit and a rub on the nearest termite mound will do.
Since an elephant head is so large, weighing hundreds of pounds, it is supported with extra muscles along the neck, and the skull has, like bird bones, many tiny air pockets to keep it light.
Large ears not only boast a remarkable sense of hearing—more on that in a moment—but function as air conditioners, cooling the blood of a hot elephant by up to 15 degrees F as it flaps its ears.
Tusks are deeply embedded in the skull and continue to grow throughout an adult’s 60+ year life, although not all Asian elephants have tusks. They are used for friendly sparring, digging, foraging, scraping or pushing trees, as protection for the trunk, and occasionally for fighting. They’re also a nice trunk rest, and, well, what do you do when you have an itch inside your nose?
With estimated muscle counts ranging between 40,000 and 150,000, the trunk of an elephant is the most extraordinary and dexterous nose in creation.
At once both gentle and strong, a trunk is capable of killing a lion—or caressing a frightened elephant calf. It can pick leaves, pull bark off trees, and pick up objects as small as a coin. It can suck up a gallon of water to squirt into a mouth or on a hot back (Elephants do not drink through their trunk, but use it to draw the liquid).
With their trunks elephants throw dust in the air, rub their eyes, greet one another, sound calls, test uncertain ground, smell danger—or a potential mate—and snorkel. African elephants have two lobes on the tips of their trunks (Asians have only one) that act like fingers.
Since elephants spend most of their time eating and drinking, those fingers get a steady workout, grasping seeds, roots, fruit, flowers, leaves, branches, bark, grass, and even thorns to pacify an incurable appetite.
Elephants can consume as much 300 pounds of forage a day, and up to 50 gallons of water. They drink whenever they can since they may have to go for a couple days or more without water during dry spells or while traveling.
Elephants are fast walkers and some herds have been observed to cover 120 miles in one day. However, 15 miles is a closer average for an elephant. More than most of us walk, anyway.
Read more: http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/african-elephant.html#ixzz19x6SgmlL

More Elephant Facts from NJWight

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