Asian elephant, a domestic elephant
Elephants are usually divided into two groups, Asian elephants and African elephants, and domestic elephants belong to Asian elephants, mainly living in Xishuangbanna and the border area between China and Myanmar.
Asian elephants are as tall as 2.5-3.5 meters, with a body length of 5,5 meters, which is the largest animal on land except African elephants, weighing up to 5 tons, even if it is a newborn baby elephant, it can weigh 100 kg and a body length of 1 m, which is also a huge baby.
The most obvious feature of Asian elephants is its long nose, which can be used to absorb water for drinking, showering, and as a weapon to whip other animals. The large ears of Asian elephants fanned around to dissipate heat and drive away mosquitoes and flies. The two long tusks developed from the upper jaws of the Asian elephant male, up to 2 m long and weighing 50-60 kg, are expensive raw materials for handicrafts and have become the reason for their poaching. The Asian elephant is a standing sleeping animal, relying on four thick thighs to support a huge weight, which is really hard.
Asian elephants eat mainly grass, leaves, bananas, wild fruits, etc., and they can even eat hard food. Asian elephants need to drink 60 kg of water a day, which is a one-time drink. Then these huge animals, they walk and eat, can walk dozens of kilometers a day, can walk more than 10,000 kilometers a year.
Asian elephants prefer to shower, mainly to cool off and repel mosquitoes and flies; It should be mentioned that the mud bath, the mud is applied to the cracks of the skin, and when the mud is dry, then shake off, along with the parasites, etc. are also pleased, is not very smart, which is the same as the sand bath of the sparrow introduced in my previous article.
You may not know that although Asian elephants are very bulky, they can swim, and can swim 1500m in 1 hour.
The Asian elephant is a social animal with a population of 5-20 elephants per group. Asian elephants belong to a matriarchal society, there will be a strong mother elephant as the leader, she needs to arrange group life and action; Of course, there will also be one and only one male elephant, and in addition to breeding offspring, it is mainly arranged at the back of the team to arrange guard work.
Asian elephants have poor reproductive capacity, with juvenile elephants not being able to reproduce until they are 15 years old, and they generally go into heat around November. After the mother elephant becomes pregnant, after 21-22 months of pregnancy, a baby elephant can be born. After the baby elephant is born, the mother elephant will use her nose to help the baby elephant stand up, otherwise the huge weight of the baby elephant will compress and damage the lungs of the baby elephant, which is a very serious thing. When baby elephants grow up to be 15 years old, they grow up and need to leave the herd to find their own companions and herds.
There are less than 200 wild Asian elephants in China, and about 10,000-20,000 Asian elephants in all of Asia. In order to protect Asian elephants, China has set up three nature reserves in Xishuangbanna. #亚洲象 #
