Elephants are truly fascinating animals, besides the obvious trunk and big ears, they have a number of other specialised parts of their bodies that are incredibly interesting!
- Elephants belong to the family Proboscidae.
- Their closest relative is the hyrax a small rodent-like animal from Africa
- Asian elephants are of five strains and they are Indian, Burmese, Ceylonese, Sumatran and Malaysian.
- An elephant’s eye sight is poorer than other senses, it relies very much on its sense of smell. Elephants can recognise people by their sense of smell, even after several years.
- The normal body temperature of the elephant is 96.6 OF, ( 36.9 OC)
- The skull has several sinuses and so the head is not as heavy as it may appear.
- The elephant has only two pairs of teeth, at a time and they are replaced 5 times during its lifetime. The number of ridges on the teeth increase with age . In most animals the teeth erupt from the bottom, but in elephants, they grow and push from the back to the front. The molars are replaced five times, in the lifetime of an Asian elephant.
- An elephant's trunk is formed by the fusion of the upper lip and the nose. Trunk = 6 muscles broken down to 150 bundles of muscle fibers
- The tongue has restricted movement and cannot be protruded out. The food can be hooked if placed on the tongue and pushed back into the mouth.
- There is no nasolacrimal duct, running from the eye to the nose and so water runs out of the eyes constantly.
- A few sweat glands are present on the skin, found at the base of the nails. Since the sweat glands are deficient, the elephant sucks secretions from the mouth and sprays it on its body, with its trunk, to lower the body temperature.
- The skin is very thick and hence is called a Pachyderm. The skin has several folds and wrinkles, which help to remove heat. Though the skin is thick, the elephant will experience pain when injured.
- Elephants have two openings on the roof of their mouth called vomero- nasal openings, which act as scent glands.
- Calf at birth weighs 80-100 kg and 90-100 cms in height.
- The total number of bones in the elephant's body is 282 and the total number of vertebrae is 61. The bones are not very thick and so the likelihood of a fracture is greater.
