The continent is home to many amazing animals, such as the five-centimeter-long Gabonese sizzle viper, the spotted hyena that pulls out its anus to prey, and the African elephant, a social animal of a large, matrilineal clan. Contrary to common sense, the african elephant population consists of a single sex. Simply put, the population of African elephants is either composed entirely of adult male elephants or entirely adult female elephants, and there is no mixed hermaphroditic situation at all.
So, how do elephant herds of a single sex pass on incense? What else do male African elephants need to do besides being responsible for mating? Why is it that the newly adult male African elephant is miserable?
Spotted hyenas pulling out an elephant
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > magical African elephant</h1>
The African elephant is one of two surviving species of elephants on Earth, the other being the Asian elephant. African elephants are the largest terrestrial mammals, weighing 90 kilograms at birth. Adult African elephants weigh four or five tons, and even the heaviest weighs 10 tons. African elephants are not only heavy, but also not too tall to be underestimated. Adult African elephants are as tall as 3.5 meters, and the tallest is even 4.1 meters.
African elephants are not only very large, but their elephant ears are also enormous. The elephant ear of the African elephant can be said to be its business card, and it is also the biggest difference from the Asian elephant. Its ears are up to 60 centimeters long, like a large fan. The ears of the Asian elephant are as small as a folding fan compared to it.
The body size of an African elephant (left) versus an Asian elephant (right).
African elephants evolved such large elephant ears because they dissipate heat on the hot African continent. Its huge elephant ear can prolong the time it takes for blood to flow through the elephant ear throughout the body, which can cool the blood. At the same time, elephant ears can also fan the wind like fans, and elephants cool down through this pair of large ears.
The sheer size of African elephants causes them to have an unusually good appetite, eating more than 90 kilograms of food a day. African elephants are plant-eating animals, they like to eat grass and leaves, but also like tropical fruits such as pineapples, coconuts, and even run to steal food crops grown by humans in order to satisfy their appetites.
African elephants drinking water
African elephants seem to be docile herbivores, but even docile rabbits can bite people, and African elephants are no exception. In the face of carnivores and attacks, African elephants will launch a fierce counterattack. After spotting a approaching carnivore, it will whip its enemies like a whip with its long nose. An elephant trunk has a full 100,000 muscles, and there are basically no animals that can withstand the whipping of the elephant trunk.
In addition to finding misbehaving predators, male elephants in estrus are also dangerous. In order to protect themselves and other members of the tribe, the female elephant patriarch will even drive the newly adult male elephant out of the tribe. Speaking of which, we have to talk about the unique composition of the elephant tribe.
Male African elephant
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > how peculiar is the social activity of African elephants? </h1>
African elephants are social animals, and the population generally consists of 20-30 elephants, with an older and more experienced elephant as the patriarch. In addition, the social activities of African elephants are very peculiar, how peculiar are they?
(1) Single-sex ethnic groups
African elephants are typical of matriarchal clan societies, with the supreme tribal ruler being an older female elephant who manages the herd and distributes the tribe's food. The main members of the herd are female elephants. If a member of the tribe succeeds in giving birth to a cub, it is temporarily allowed to live in the tribe and is raised by all female elephants.
African elephant tribe
When the male cub reaches adulthood, it is driven out of the tribe. The reason for driving it out of the tribe was first and foremost to prevent inbreeding, and the leaders of the African elephant clan and even many long-grown elephants knew how to avoid inbreeding. In addition, elephants in estrus will become very grumpy if they can't ask for it, and may even attack and even kill members of the clan. At the same time, African elephants are the dominant tribe of female elephants, and male elephants only have the right to breed and have no status in the tribe.
Female elephant clan members do not have a place for male adult elephants, and many male elephants wander around after being driven out of the tribe. Lacking survival skills, these "outcasts" join a tribe made up entirely of male elephants. These tribes are willing to take in the abandoned child and will give it a deserved position. The tribe of male elephants also has a respected patriarch who leads the entire tribe and teaches the members of the tribe many useful knowledge and survival skills.
A huge African elephant
However, the African elephant leader has become the preferred hunting object of mankind because of its large size and distinctive appearance. After the death of an African elephant leader, many elephant tribes are leaderless because they do not have a suitable leader. Allen of the University of Exeter and the charity African Elephants in the United Kingdom is very sad about this phenomenon. He said:
The elderly male and female elephant patriarchs provide a wealth of experience and leadership to the elephant herd. Older male elephants have extensive experience in knowing how to use the environment and find key resources and are more likely to become leaders of male elephant herds. Without these older, experienced male elephants, it would not only have a catastrophic impact on male elephant herds, but would also interfere with the transmission of information between elephants' generations.
Male African elephant hunted
(2) Male African elephant courtship is very difficult
Male African elephants leave their tribe when the time is right to find a suitable mating partner among the tribe of female elephants. Because they are matrilineal clan societies, female African elephants have the initiative in choosing a mate. Only older and stronger male African elephants are their favorites, and "little farts" who have been driven out of the tribe and weaned for a long time do not look up to them.
African elephants practice a "monogamous" system, with a male elephant having only one mating partner. As a result, there are often cases where two prime-age elephants compete for a mate, and the decision on who gets the right to choose a spouse first is through a direct and brutal way, that is, a duel.
Dueling African elephants
African elephants attack each other with their long trunks or tusks, wrestling with their strong limbs. If anyone loses the attack first, it automatically withdraws from courtship. Although the courtship of African elephants may seem barbaric, they generally do not kill their opponents. However, even if the winner is produced, it will still have to pass the female African elephant.
Female African elephants are very picky, and it is not the elephant that wins the duel that can be included in the population. When the male African elephant duels, the female African elephant watches from the side, picking a suitable mate by the way. Female African elephants will determine whether the winner is a strong and powerful object by means of their movements during duels and the way they attack. If it is found that neither side of the duel is suitable, even if the winner is created, the pursued object will not agree. At this time, the winner can only walk away with the wounded ash.
African elephant with cubs
What makes the male African elephant uncomfortable is that it has only mating rights and no custody. It is driven from the clan after mating and is not allowed to return to the clan for life. Its children are raised by their "mates" and all female African elephants, and if they are female cubs, they become members of the tribe. Because African elephants can only give birth to one cub per litter, the gestation period is about 23 months. After the male African elephant has completed insemination, he will not see his spouse or the child he gives birth to at all.
This peculiar way of reproducing African elephants is very similar to that of ancient humans. Human beings have also experienced a matrilineal clan society, and until now there are still tribal civilization races in the world that retain the tradition of matriarchal clan society, and the Mosuo tribe of our country and the Iroquois tribe of Indians are all matriarchal clan societies.
Women of the Iroquois tribe
(3) Male adult African elephants will meet rhinos
Since female African elephants do not like young people in estrus who have just been weaned and driven out of the population, how can these baby elephants vent their desires? Scientists who study natural life in Africa have captured a startling scene in which African elephants sneak up on rhinos from behind and get involved with them.
These fiery African elephants are directly strong regardless of the sex of the rhinoceros. Rhinos naturally can't prevent shocks because they can't see what's behind them. At the same time, the physical strength and size of African elephants are far stronger than rhinos, and rhinos cannot resist at all. Many rhinos are directly invaded to death by African elephants, and to be honest, this method of death is really laughable.
An African elephant ready to "get close" to rhinos
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
The African elephant is indeed a magical animal, but it has reached the point of extinction due to the beautiful tusks on its head that have been hunted by humans. At the same time, the social structure of matriarchal clans is also unreasonable, and the newly adult male African elephants and rhinos are direct victims of this system.
In order to protect endangered African elephants, but also to give African elephants a healthier living environment, practitioners responsible for related work should reasonably intervene in the way African elephants live.