The Asian elephant is a symbol of strength, majesty, diligence and hard work. Its body length is 5-7 meters, shoulder height is 2.5-3 meters, tail length is 1.2- 1.5 meters, and its weight is 3000-5000 kg. The whole body is grayish brown, and there are two big lumps on the left and right sides of the forehead, which are called "wisdom tumors". The highest point is on the top of the head, but its brain is small. The skull is thick. Although the skeleton is covered with pores, it can reduce weight, but the burden on the neck is still very heavy. Arch your back. The limbs are stout, almost perpendicular to the ground, like four pillars, with 5 fingers on the forelimbs and 4 toes on the hind limbs. When trotting, you always lift your front and rear legs at the same side, instead of leaving the ground diagonally at the same time like other mammals. This kind of footwork is called "trotting" and makes it produce a strange swinging action.
Its nose is the longest of all animals. It's actually an extension of its nose and upper lip. Its surface is very smooth, hanging on the ground and constantly swinging. It consists of more than 40,000 muscle fibers and is rich in nerve connections. It is not only sensitive to smell, but also a tool for feeding and absorbing water, and also a powerful weapon for self-defense. There is a finger-like protrusion on the top of the nose. This protuberance is not big, but it is rich in nerve cells, making it extremely sensitive, making the trunk very flexible, able to rotate and bend at will, and having the same function as a human hand. In the zoo, well-trained elephants can lift heavy objects, pull out nails, untie ropes and even pick up embroidery needles on the ground. Interestingly, it can also express friendly feelings or flirt between male and female animals by bending its nose like a human handshake.
The male Asian elephant has a pair of front teeth in his mouth, which grow all his life, but never change. They are called ivory, which is about 2 meters long and weighs 30-40 kilograms. The female's front teeth are too short to protrude from her mouth. Ivory has played a great role as a tool for digging food and a weapon for fighting. Its canine teeth are underdeveloped. There are 6 * * * upper and lower molars, which are large and thick, but they are not born at the same time. Instead, they were divided into six batches, with only four students in each batch, and another batch of "candidate" Shimada Hanzo was behind, and gradually developed when the previous batch was worn out and could no longer be used, so that there could only be 65,438 students on each side and mandible at the same time. When each molar is used, the root can continue to grow for a long time to offset the wear, but the wear is still faster than the growth rate. When the crown is polished, the root will not grow, but will be absorbed, so that the posterior teeth will grow in order and expand forward along the mandible. These six batches of molars can last a lifetime.
Asian elephants also have large ears, the width of which is close to 1 m, which is conducive to collecting sound waves, so their hearing is very keen and they often communicate with each other with infrasound waves. Because there are many wrinkles in the ears, the heat dissipation surface is greatly increased, so it is more like two big cattail fans that regulate body temperature. In hot summer, it can make the blood in the ears flow faster by constantly flapping its two big ears, so as to achieve the purpose of heat dissipation and cooling, and it can also drive away mosquitoes, flies and parasites in the tropical jungle.
Asian elephants are distributed in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries, and are divided into about four subspecies. There are only mainland subspecies in China, which are distributed in Mengla, Jinghong, Jiangcheng, Ximeng, Cangyuan and Yingjiang in southern and western Yunnan. It likes to live in tropical areas with high temperature, humid air, close to water sources and dense vegetation. Generally, it is a gentle slope, valley, grassland or river with spiny bamboo forests or broad-leaved forests below the altitude of 1000 meters. Trees often cover the sky and go straight into the sky, and all kinds of middle and low plants are intertwined and varied. Although its skin is 3 cm thick, its hair is scarce, so it is not only afraid of cold, but also avoids the sun exposure in tropical areas during the day, often avoiding the tree-lined places between valleys, and its foraging time is mostly in the early morning and evening when the temperature is slightly lower. The food is mainly tender branches and leaves of Dendrocalamus latiflorus, Dendrocalamus latiflorus, Rhizoma Curculiginis, Rhizoma Typhonii, Ficus banyan, and wild banana. When eating, first roll up the plants with a long nose, then uproot them from the ground, pat off the soil on the legs or trunk, and then send them to your mouth. Sometimes in the silent forest, the "bang, bang" sound of broken trunks and bamboo branches spreads all over the valley. Its food intake is amazing, and it eats about 100 kg of fresh plants every day, so it needs to occupy dozens of square kilometers in the wild as a place for activities or foraging. In order to eat enough food, elephants often walk from one place to another, eating while walking. Elephants move very fast, running at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour, and can run 400-500 meters at a time. When drinking water, it first sucks water into its nose, then puts it in its mouth, and then drinks it, about 60 kilograms at a time. Although its trachea and esophagus are connected, there is a layer of cartilage on the esophagus behind the nasal cavity. When it absorbs water with its long nose, the water enters the nasal cavity, and the muscles in the throat contract at the same time, so that the cartilage above the esophagus temporarily covers the mouth of the trachea, and the water will enter the esophagus from the nasal cavity, not the trachea, nor the lungs communicating with the trachea. When it puts the water sucked into the nasal cavity into its mouth, this cartilage will automatically reopen to ensure normal breathing.
Asian elephants like bathing very much. They often bathe and play by the river or pond, absorb water with their long noses and clean their bodies. They also like to spread mud all over their bodies to remove parasites and prevent mosquito bites. It is also a good swimmer. It can swim for 5-6 hours continuously and cross wide rivers. Swimming speed is not slow, and the speed can reach 1.6 km per hour.
When Asian elephants are alone in the wild, they are called solitary elephants. They are often extremely grumpy old men. But this kind of situation is rare, usually in groups of three or five, or dozens of people. Each group consists of a family or several families, helping each other and living in harmony. Different from other social animals, the leaders are all adult females, and the other members are arranged in order of age and physical strength. Unfortunately, injured individuals are often caught in the middle and move forward together. If some individuals die, members of the group will cover the corpse layer by layer with fallen or overturned branches and small trees, forming a pile of fallen trees. Leaders play the most important role in the group, directing the daily activities of the whole group, such as action route, time arrangement, foraging place, rest place, etc., and also bear the important responsibility of defending the group. If the leader dies, the group will elect a new leader in a short time and continue to command the group's actions in a unified way.
Asian elephants have no fixed estrus. When mating with females, both males always hide in the secluded deep forest. It is the largest animal on land. It is not afraid of any threats from animals, but it also maintains a high degree of vigilance, even when sleeping, it is standing. The reproductive rate of Asian elephants is low, and they can only reproduce once every 5-6 years. The gestation period is as long as 18-22 months. Females give birth in late autumn and early winter, and each child has only one child. The newborn baby weighs 70- 100 kg, which is about the size of a calf. The nose is not too long and has no teeth. The whole body is brownish red and hairless. A few hours after birth, it can follow the group around. It takes about two years for the young to breastfeed. The age of sexual maturity is 14- 15, and the age of full maturity is 18-24. Asian elephants have a long life span, generally living to 60-70 years old, and some people say that they can live to 100- 130 years old.