Elephant. Get closer to the elephant

Dear steemit friend:
This time I will share knowledge about elephant traits

In general, elephants today are known as the largest animals living on Earth. In the world, there are two main species of elephants known, namely African elephants (Latin name: Loxodonta africana) and Asian elephants (Latin name: Elephas maximus). Both elephant species live on different continents or continents, and each species has a sub-species. Here is the classification of the Elephant:

Elephant ClassificationKingdom: AnimaliaSubkingdom: BilateriaPhylum: ChordataSubfilum: VertebrataClass: MammalsSubclass: TheriaOrder: ProboscideaFamily: ElephantidaeGenus: Loxodonta (African Elephant); Elephas (Asian Elephant)Species: africana (African elephant living in savanna); cyclotis (African elephants living in the forest); maximus (Asian elephant)Elephants are large animals that have a variety of unique physical characteristics that make it easy to recognize. Here are some of the Elephant's Special Features:

The size of an elephant
African elephants are bigger than Asian elephants. The weight of African elephants ranges from 2268 to 6350 kilograms with a height of 4 meters, while the Asian elephant's weights range from 2041 to 4990 kilograms with a height of 3 meters.

The elephant has a trunk

The trunk on the elephant is an extension of the upper lip and nose. The elephant's trunk has various functions that are vital to the life of an elephant. The trunks are used by elephants to grip, breathe, to eat (put food into the mouth), drink, to clean from dust, to sniff, to lift, communicate, protection and as a means of sensing.

To support its vital functions, the elephant's trunk is estimated to be completed by 100,000 muscles and tendons. It makes the elephant's trunk not only to be very flexible, but also powerful. The elephant's trunk can be elongated, tense (contracting), and can be moved in any direction according to the will of the elephant.

Large elephant ears

The size of an elephant's ear can reach one-sixth of its size and has a major function in the cooling process. In the elephant ears contain blood vessel tissue with a very small size and so extensive. The warm blood stream while circulating in the tissue will cool down as a result of environmental influences outside the elephant body. This can happen because the skin layer on the elephant's ears is very thin, so the contact between the blood with a cooler outside environment temperature can occur.

The blood that has cooled is then flowed back to the rest of the body, so that the elephant's body temperature will decrease.Seeing that function, the ears of elephants whose habitat closer to the equator will be greater than elephants whose habitat lives farther from the equator. The closer the habitat to the equator, the more heat that must be removed from the body of the elephant, the elephant will have a wider ear shape.

elephant ivory

Any species of elephant, be it male or female, will have ivory. Male elephant tusks are larger (50-79 kg) than female elephant ivory (18-20 kg), and African elephants have larger ivory than Asian elephants. The heaviest weighing ivory weighs weighs up to 100 kg.

Elephantiasis

Elephant foot frame has its own uniqueness. Based on the image below, it can be seen that the elephant's legs have skeletal skeletal bones with large fat pads and there is a connective tissue on the heel of elephantiasis.

With a skewed skeleton that means it can be said that elephants walk by tiptoe by distributing their large body weight evenly to the cushion of fat and / or to the connective tissue that is on the heel. The elephant leg structure thus makes it able to pass through various fields, whether it is uneven ground or swampy soil.

Elephant skin

The elephant's skin is generally gray, its appearance looks like wrinkles. When compared between African and Asian elephants, African elephant skin is more wrinkled than Asian elephant skin. The skin of the elephant's wrinkles aims to keep the elephant's body cold (or not too hot).Wrinkles that exist on the skin can capture moisture in the air so it can work in cooling the body temperature of the elephant. Not only wrinkles, but elephant skin is also thick, thickness can reach 3.8 cm or about 1.5 inches. The thick skin can protect the elephants from cold temperatures.

Elephant eyes

The elephant has very small eyes on its large body. This animal has no eyesight that is too good, but on the other hand this animal has a very good sense of smell.

Hair on elephant body

The hair on the elephant body looks rare and thin, and spread unevenly in the body. Only on certain parts of the elephant hair is concentrated, for example on the part around the eyes, ears, chin, and tail. Young elephants have more hair than adult elephants.