An Elephant's World

Once upon a time - well, actually, about 50 million years ago now - the evolution of the modern day elephants began in northern Africa (in what we now call Egypt) with the appearance of the first trunked mammals (we call them proboscideans). Today, there remain savanna elephants and forest elephants in Africa, and their smaller cousin, the Asian elephant.

Historically, African elephants lived in areas south of the Sahara. Today they are restricted to forest, bush and savanna in parks and other protected areas, as people have moved into their former range to farm and to build places to live (check out the map on the AFRICAN ELEPHANT COLLECTIBLE CARD.

The Asian elephant's story is similar - their historic range was more extensive but their habitat was also lost and fragmented (split up). Today the few remaining Asian elephants inhabit forested areas and the grass and scrub lands that border these pockets of forest in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

In the elephant family, females rule! Elephants live in a social hierarchy (social order or rank) dominated by older females. Adult females (cows) and female calves spend their entire lives together! They travel together in social units led by the matriarch - a single old and experienced female. Males leave the herd when they become sexually mature in their teens and live alone or in small bachelor herds. Kin or bond groups are herds of related families that remain fairly close to one another. They may come together to form clans of 200 or more animals for short periods.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO TELL AFRICAN AND ASIAN ELEPHANTS APART?

· The African elephant is larger than the Asian elephant and has larger, fan-like ears up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) long! African elephants also have a concave curvature along their backs, and both males and females grow tusks.

· Asian elephants are generally smaller in size, have a rounded back and smoother trunk with two fingerlike projections (lips) on the tip instead of one. Female Asian elephants don't grow tusks but smaller blunt protrusion called tushes!

Elephants are extremely intelligent animals. They communicate with each other by touch and smell, but also through different vocalizations. Elephants may also have the ability to warn each other of approaching dangers over long distances by stomping or rumbling, creating seismic waves (vibrations) in the ground which can travel nearly 20 miles!

Since older elephants are targeted for their ivory, you can imagine how losing the matriarch disrupts and weakens the entire family!

The elephant's sense of community and family is strong and compelling - they mourn over their dead and have been seen sitting weeklong vigils by their bodies. Elephants are known to caress the teeth of a skull's lower jaw with their trunk, as they often do in a greeting. Some have been seen revisiting the bones of their dead for years afterward.

Whether it is their sheer size and power, their sense of family, their unique trunk, flapping ears and ivory tusks, or their well known loud trumpeting calls, elephants fascinate people!