The Spirit Of Travel

By Robert Muhoho

Dear fellow travellers,

Thank you Robert for sharing your knowledge with us.

The African elephant is the largest land mammal alive. Its Latin name is loxodonta Africana. It may reach a length of six to seven meters; trunk included, and may weigh up to seven tons. Gestation period; 22 months; may have a young every four years. Twins are rare. Longevity; 70 to 85 years.

Size of the African elephant

The African elephant differs from the Indian one in having a bigger head and larger ears, besides a larger overall size. The cow of the Indian elephant has no tusks while the African variety boasts of formidable specimens in both sexes. The known record is a weight of 102.5kg and 3.2m in length.

African elephant trunk

The trunk may be defined as an all purpose hand. It tears off foodstuffs and brings it to the mouth. It sucks, like a huge syringe, a few gallons of water at a time to squirt it through the mouth in the throat. It is used to scratch the body, to smack the young ones when they are not keeping up with the adults on the march, it serves as a blower as the elephant loves to spread over its body soil and dust to clear out the numerous parasites inhabiting the folds of its thick hide.

Scratch my back I scratch yours

The parasites’ problem is diligently solved also by a bird sitting on its back all day to pluck out insects all over the place.

A tree a day keeps African elephant full

The elephant’s diet is quite varied; from the toughest grass to tree barks and even whole baobabs, chewed as if they were liquorice sticks. The whole of it wetted with about fifty gallons of water.

Nature has worked out a few special features for the elephant. Besides having provided the cow with udders between the front legs to avoid the danger of crushing the young ones under its huge feet, it has also seen to it that the molars (the only teeth) in its mouth, be replaced by others growing along side the older ones.

Two teeth need no brush for an African elephant

This happens four times in its life. Moreover, the animal with a hide 2 cm thick has of course refrigeration problems under the hot tropical sun, so it switches on its enormous ears with their close network of veins. On moving the huge fans the blood cools a bit and the pachyderm can bear with temperature, which sends all other animals searching for cover.

The elephant does not have many friends in the animal kingdom, but not many enemies either, apart from some more enterprising or famished lions, who may attempt to grab a baby elephant. The big danger is man, with his age greed for ivory; a source of trouble, far from being eliminated in spite o all protective laws.

The Hyrax

Perhaps you may wonder why in the same article together with the mighty elephant I have put the hyrax (procavia capensis), this short fellow that looks rather like a short-eared rabbit or marmot. This hoofed mammal is the animal most closely related to the huge elephant and rhinoceros.

And with a family tree that dates back some 30 million years! The habitat of these creatures is mainly the Kopjes (a South African term for small rocky hills) where they hide in cavities, protecting themselves from the many enemies they have everywhere and where they bask peacefully. There is furthermore a species called a tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax arboreus) that has a special skill in climbing by means of the long upper incisors, which grip the branches firmly.

Till next time!

Cheers

Barbara

Robert is a travel expert with Landmarksafaris.com. Degreed in tourism management, he has authored more than 1000 articles on Africa Kenya animal vacation travel. Learn more of your experience in the best of all Kenya animal safaris here: http://www.landmarksafaris.com/?refferer=ezinearticles

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