THE BIG FIVE. Day 2: The African Elephant

The massive African elephant has much more to it than meets the eye. These massive animals have so much compassion for other animals, and they are one of the most intelligent animals as well.

The History

Since the beginning of human history elephants have been a major factor in people’s lives all across the world. Due to their size and enormous strength, they have been used by people in the construction industry, all the way through to military instruments of destruction.
What a thought, being a soldier in the medieval times, and an elephant with armor and spikes running towards you.

Luckily for the elephants, and a few hundreds of people, modern times have relieved the elephant of most of its duties. There are still places and some industries that use these animals.

The earliest findings of elephants being used by humans date back to 400 B.C. The Asian elephant was used for agricultural use on farms at that time.
The late 16th century AD was the time when elephants were used for war in ASIA. Their sheer size and fearsome appearance was enough to have enemy troops retreating, or being trampled on by 7 tons of elephant effective either way.

The only remaining industry that make use of the elephant are the entertainment industries. Circus’s and zoo’s are the most popular places to see an elephant these days, as not many people have access to game reserves or places where elephants live wild.

The African Elephant

In South Africa elephants are quite common to most people. When visiting most nature reserves in and around South Africa you are sure to see a herd of elephants during your stay.
While visiting the Kruger National Park, I was fortunate enough to see elephants every day.

Even though an elephant has shown itself to be a very compassionate animal, by helping other animals, or by returning every year to the place where another elephant had died, to grieve.
There have been so many accounts of game rangers seeing an elephant cow, revisiting the place she lost her calf to death.
There have also been numerous accounts of elephants helping other animals by chasing away predators, or helping a buffalo that is stuck in mud.

What an impressive creature this elephant is, a male elephant can be 5m Tall and weigh a whopping 7 tonnes.
Two ivory tusks that can reach a length of 3.5m and weigh 97kg. The above was the biggest ever recorded tusks found.

Those massive flapping ears make quite the impression when charging at a threat, bellowing through its trunk and running at up to 30 km/h.

An elephant’s trunk is capable of uprooting small trees and carrying big logs, impressive for a 3meter long nose. The elephant trunk has no bones or cartilage, only muscle. The whole trunk is controlled by 2 major muscles and approximately 200 smaller muscles.
An elephant is able to pick up a feather from the ground without damaging the feather. Research has also found that the elephant’s sense of smell is about 300 times better than any dog.

Elephant species differ across the world. Their ears are a perfect example of this. The African elephant’s is much larger reaching sizes up to 1.8m by 1.1m. The size of the Asian elephants are by average 60 cm by 30 cm in comparison.

At birth, an elephant calf already weighs 91 kilograms and stand about 1 meter tall. They can stand and walk within an hour of birth.
The mother of the calf nurses it for up to 2 years. I guess because it is such a big new-born it needs quite allot of feeding. I went and researched how much exactly a new-born elephant calf drinks.
The answer was staggering, elephant calves drink about 12 liters of milk a day.

Why is the African Elephant part of the big 5

Renowned for its aggressive behavior if endangered or when feeling threatened, the African elephant made its place on the BIG FIVE list by being a very hard target for hunters trying to hunt an elephant for a trophy.
In 1998, 22 hunters were killed by elephants.
Elephants will also attack humans in retaliation, for destroying their habitat and even walking through their territory.
An elephant in full charge is capable of killing a rhino or a hippo.

African Elephant is a remarkable mammal, complex and emotional.
These animals are long ground daily against property developments and illegal poaching. The African elephant’s population is at a sharp decline because of the Black Market trade in Ivory.
I hope that measures can be implemented to save the lives of these impressive animals and to protect them from becoming extinct. I can not imagine a world without elephants.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

All photography are my own.

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