A Detailed Explanation of Elephants' Habits, Characteristics and Patterns of Life

Elephants inhabit a variety of habitats, and are especially fond of jungles, grasslands and river valley areas. They are led by female elephants and like to live in groups, while males occasionally live alone. They feed on plants and have an enormous appetite; a single adult elephant eats around 300 kg per day. Their average lifespan is around 80 years. So, what kind of physical features do elephants have? What are their natural enemies? Let us introduce them below.

I. Physical Features of Elephants

Their main external features are a flexible, muscular long trunk, fan-like large ears and pointed teeth; the trunk has a coiling function and is a powerful tool for elephants to defend themselves and obtain food.

The Asian elephant has a shoulder height of 3.7 to 4.1 m. Its weight is 3 to 5 tonnes; the African elephant has a shoulder height of 4.3 to 4.5 m and a weight of 5.5 to 8 tonnes; the African forest elephant has an average shoulder height of no more than 2.7 m and a weight of 3.5 tonnes. Elephants have large heads, ears as large as fans, and thick limbs like cylinders to support their huge bodies; their knee joints cannot bend and stretch freely. The trunk is almost as long as the body, is cylindrical in shape, and can extend and contract freely; the entire trunk is made up of muscle, with the nostrils opening at the end, and finger-like protrusions at the tip of the trunk that can pick up objects. The trunk is extremely flexible and free-moving, able to pick up objects weighing up to 1 tonne, and also able to pick up food as small as a peanut.

II. Natural Enemies of Elephants

Elephants are at the top of the food chain, and generally speaking, they have no natural enemies. Only lions will attack old solitary elephants; they dare not attack a herd. Their greatest natural enemy is humans!

Because people have reclaimed grasslands and forests, this has created a food crisis for them; because of people's reckless hunting, elephants have been brought to the brink of extinction.

For a healthy adult elephant, apart from the threat from humans, the enemies they face are actually very few. Research shows that elephants only feel fear toward unfamiliar scenes and sounds, and this is the fundamental reason why elephants were once thought to be afraid of mice. In ancient Roman times, elephants were once used as tools of war, and records show that at that time they fled because they feared the squealing of pigs. As a result, this almost sole weakness of elephants was exaggerated by people to its current extent, and mice also became the legendary mortal enemy of elephants.

Elephants are one of the endangered species, and are also a first-class wild protected animal in our country. Protecting elephants lies not only in their importance to the ecology, but because their existence symbolizes the triumph of justice.