Essay on Elephant

 

Essay on Elephant

Essay on Elephant – 600 Words/ Elephant Essay -200 Words/ 10 Lines on Elephant, for students and children

Introduction

Elephants are the largest existing land animals and belong to family Elephantidae. Experts currently recognize three species of elephant, the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephant is larger than Asian elephant with larger ears and concave back but the Asian elephant has smaller ears and convex back.

Physical appearance of elephant

Elephant has huge body with a large head, four pillar-shaped legs, two large ears, a long trunk, two small eyes and a small tail. The weight of an African male elephant is 1800kg to 6300kg and female is 2700kg to 3600kg and height is 9.8ft to13ft.The weight of an Asian male elephant is 1800kg to 4500 kg and height is 6.6ft to 11.5ft.

The elephant’s body is made up of 326-351 bones. The skin on the back and head of the elephant is 2.5cm (1 inch) thick but the skin around the mouth, anus and inside the ears is comparatively thin. Calves have hair on their head and back. Elephants have very few sweat glands which are located on the foot, near the cuticles. 60% of the elephant’s weight is borne by the front legs.

Elephant has a long trunk, which is also called proboscis. Trunk is the confluence of the nose and the upper lip. The trunk has no bones but a little fat and up to 150,000 separate muscle nerve run along both sides of the trunk. Elephants use their trunk for breathing, touching, grasping and also producing the sounds. Their sense of smell is very powerful and four times as sensitive as that of a bloodhound dog.

Elephant's tusks are actually the second incisor teeth in the upper jaw which grow continuously at about 17cm, a year. The length of the tusks of the African elephant is 300cm and weight up to 100 pounds (45kg). The largest tusks of an Asian elephant were 302cm long and weighed 39 kg, which is a record.

The weight of an elephant brain is 4.5kg to 5.5kg. The Cerebrum and Cerebellum of the elephant’s brain are well developed.

Elephant live around 60 to 70 years.

Habitat and diet

African elephants are found in sub-Saharan Africa, in the rainforests of Central and West Africa and also live in the Sahel Desert in Mali. Asians can be found in the bushes and rainforests of Nepal, India and Southeast Asia. Due to deforestation, they lose their habitat.

Elephants are herbivorous animals so they eat grass, leaves, roots, fruit and bark and any plant products and can consume 150kg of food and 40L of water in a single day. They sleep 3-4 hours per day.

Behaviour of Elephants

Elephant is a very smart animal. According to the researchers at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, African elephant can distinguish differences in human gender, age, ethnicity by the voice. They can understand the body language of human. Elephant has extraordinary memories. They form close bonds with companions and can recognize them after long time of separation.

After bathing, they blow dusk on themselves with their trunk to protect their sensitive skin from burning, insect bites, moisture lose and from ultraviolet rays of the sun.

They cool themselves by flapping their ears and bathing.

Elephant gives birth one or two calves. All herd members give full attention and protection to the calf. They gather around the calf and hold it with their trunk.

Poaching of Elephants

Poachers hunt elephants for ivory. Ivory is used to make piano keys, billiard balls, combs, ivory box for ornaments etc. In September, 2015 China and United States said that they would complete ban on the ivory because of elephant extinction. Now 440,000 elephants are estimated in the world.

Essay on Elephant-200 words

Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Elephant has huge body, two large ears two small eyes, four fatty legs, a long trunk and two tusks. African elephant is larger than Asian elephant. Among all of the elephant species, African bush elephants are largest.

Elephants live in the forest of Africa, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. They eat grass, leaves, fruits, barks etc. Elephant's tusks are actually their teeth in the upper jaw. Elephants use their trunk for breathing, touching, grasping and also producing the sounds. An Asian elephant has ability to hold about 8.5L of water in its trunk. After bathing, they blow dusk on themselves with their trunk to protect their sensitive skin from burning, insect bites, moisture lose.

Elephant is a very smart and intelligent animal. African elephant can distinguish differences in human gender, age, ethnicity by the voice. Elephant has extraordinary memories.

An Asian elephant named Koshik could say five Korean words yet he did not know the meaning of those words. He was only mimicking sounds as a way to bond with humans.

Poachers hunt elephants for ivory. Now 440,000 elephants are estimated in the world. Elephant live around 60 to 70 years. Lin Wang was a captive male Asian elephant, who lived for 86 years.

10 Lines on Elephants

1.    Three species of elephants are found in the world, the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant.

2.   The length of the tusks of the African elephant is 300cm and weight up to 100 pounds (45kg)

3.   Elephant skin is wrinkled and the African elephant is more wrinkled than the Asian elephant.

4.   The researchers found 15 “hot spots” on the surface of the elephant’s body and on the ears, through which they reduce their body temperature.

5.   Elephant can swim up to 6 hours without touching the bottom and travelled 48km at the speed of up to 2.1km/hr.

6.   Their skull has air cavities which make the inside of the skull like a honey-comb. These cavities reduce the weight of the skull.

7.   The length of the intestines of an elephant may be 19 meters and The weight of elephant’s heart is 12-21kg.

8.   Elephant produce a lots of methane gas. In a single day, an elephant produces a lot of methane gas by which a car could travel about 20 miles.

9.   At first baby elephant doesn’t really know the use of its trunk. It swings its trunk to and fro, steps on it or sucks its trunk just like a human baby sucks its thumb.

10.                     In January, 2012, Chadian invaders killed 650 elephants in Cameroon’s Boda Enjida National Park. It has been called “one of the worst concentrated killings” since the ivory ban.