How to distinguish a female elephant from an elephant. How is the African elephant different from the Indian elephant? The difference between elephants is their trunks

It's hard to believe, but 2 representatives from the elephant family - African elephant and its brother, the Indian elephant, have such obvious differences that biologists even attributed these animals to different species. There are many differences even in their appearance– they catch everyone’s eye, even if you look only at the photographs of these elephants.

Size difference

Everyone knows that on our planet there is no land inhabitant larger than an elephant. There is also a lesser-known fact - the African elephant is larger in size than its Indian (Asian) relative, that is, it is the most large mammals on land.

African elephant height

Its height at shoulder level can reach as much as 4 meters! And the body length is from 6 to 7 meters, sometimes a little more. The body weight of this giant is up to 7000 kg. The Asian elephant is smaller - it grows up to 3 m in height, up to 6 meters in length, and its weight rarely exceeds 5000 kg.

Elephant ears have different shapes and lengths. The African elephant has large, elongated, rounded hearing organs. Asian ears are smaller, more extended towards the ground, and pointed.

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Not only the male, but also the female African elephant has luxurious tusks (of course, the “girls” have smaller ones). Female Asian elephants have no tusks at all, and sometimes the males don’t have them either (the people of India called these elephants “makhna”). The elephant tusk from Africa is very long (up to 3.5 meters) and strongly curved. The Asian elephant tusk is shorter and almost straight.

Body surface

Elephant skin from Africa covered a large number wrinkles. The surface of the Asian elephant's body is covered with small hairs. There are also differences in skin color - asian elephant darker(dark gray, brown), African - gray with a slight brown tint.

Body outline

Elephants are not similar to each other even in the outline of their bodies - an elephant from Africa has a straight back, sometimes slightly concave. The back of the Asian elephant is clearly convex. The limbs of an elephant from India are thicker and shorter, so it looks heavier. The African elephant needs long legs - it eats only the foliage of trees, which it reaches high for. Its counterpart from India also eats some food from the ground, and not just leaves and branches from the tree.

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The difference between elephants is their trunks

The trunks of these animals are also designed differently - they have processes that are shaped like fingers. Only on the trunk of the African elephant there are 2 of them, while the Asian elephant has only 1.

It's hard to believe, but two representatives of the elephant family - the African elephant and its fellow Indian elephant - have such obvious differences that biologists even attributed these animals to different species. Many differences are observed even in their appearance - they are striking to everyone, even if you look only at the photographs of these elephants. The difference in size and large mammals on land Everyone knows that on our planet there is no land inhabitant larger than an elephant. There are also less known fact- the African elephant is larger than its Indian (Asian) relative, that is, it is the largest mammal on land. The height of the African elephant Its height at shoulder level can reach as much as 4 meters! And the length of the body is from 6 to 7 meters, sometimes a little more. The body weight of this giant is up to 7000 kg. The Asian elephant is smaller - it grows up to 3 m tall, up to 6 meters in length, and its weight rarely exceeds 5000 kg.

The difference is in the shape of the ears

Elephant ears have different shapes and lengths. The African elephant has large, elongated, rounded hearing organs. Asian ears are smaller, more extended towards the ground, and pointed.

The difference is in the tusks

Not only the male, but also the female African elephant has luxurious tusks (of course, the “girls” have smaller ones). Female Asian elephants have no tusks at all, and sometimes the males don’t have them either (the people of India called these elephants “makhna”). The elephant tusk from Africa is very long (up to 3.5 meters) and strongly curved. The Asian elephant's tusk is shorter and almost straight.

Body surface

The skin of an African elephant is covered with a lot of wrinkles. The surface of the Asian elephant's body is covered with small hairs. There are also differences in skin color - the Asian elephant is darker (dark gray, brown), the African elephant is gray with a slight brown tint.

Body outline

Elephants are not similar to each other even in body outline - an elephant from Africa has a straight back, sometimes slightly concave. The back of the Asian elephant is clearly convex. The limbs of an elephant from India are thicker and shorter, so it looks heavier. The African elephant needs long legs - it eats only the foliage of trees, behind which it reaches high. Its counterpart from India also eats some food from the ground, and not just leaves and branches from the tree.

The difference between elephants is their trunks

The trunks of these animals are also designed differently - they have processes that are shaped like fingers. Only on the trunk of the African elephant there are 2 of them, while the Asian elephant has only 1.

In the structure of the skeleton

There are also differences in the skeletal structure of these animals. The African elephant has 21 pairs of ribs, the Asian elephant has only 19. The African elephant has 33 vertebrae in the tail, while its relative has only 26. The permanent teeth of these mammals also have their own characteristics. African elephants become adults at about 25 years old, Indian elephants - already at 15-20 years old.

Difference in behavior

Giants are also distinguished by their disposition - the Indian elephant is more friendly when communicating with people, it is not difficult to make them tame. Residents of Asian countries use these elephants for various heavy physical work- when transporting large items, for example. The audience at the circus is also entertained by these elephants. An elephant from Africa shows aggression much more often and you need to try hard to make it tame, although it is possible to make them domesticated. There is evidence that African elephants took part in the military raid on Rome by the commander Hannibal. All representatives of elephants live in herds. Asian elephants gather in a group of 15-20 individuals, usually led by an elderly female. Herds African elephants at some time they could include up to 400 individuals. Unfortunately, the number of all elephants is greatly reduced; these days these animals are protected by the Red Book.

Both African and Indian elephants belong to the elephant family, but are various types. This family belonged to mammoths, extinct in the last ice age, as well as mastodons that lived in America and disappeared shortly before people arrived there. These are the reasons why most of the differences between these species are noticeable to the naked eye.

It's no secret that the elephant is largest land-dwelling terrestrial creature. To be more precise, the largest elephant on the planet is the African elephant (Loxodonta africana), about four meters tall at the shoulders. The length of the torso of such an animal fluctuates between marks 6 - 7.5 meters. Weight of an average individual - 7 tons.

Indian or Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are inferior to the record holder in all respects:

• Height up to three meters.
• The body size is up to six and a half meters.
• The average male weighs 5 tons.

Scientists believe that the African elephant is a descendant of mastodons, and the ancestors of Indian elephants are mammoths.

External differences

In African elephants ears larger size than that of Asian elephants. In the first species of animals, this part of the body grows up to one and a half meters long and has a round shape. Ears Asian species elongated and slightly sharp at the bottom.

Nature has awarded both males and females with tusks. African species. In "girls", however, they are usually smaller. For Asian elephants, the opposite is true: only the “boys” grow tusks, and even then not one hundred percent. Indians call tusked elephants makhna. The African elephant species has longer tusks (up to 3.5 meters) and curved shape. In the Asian species of elephants they are shorter and almost straight.

African elephant skin covered countless wrinkles and folds. The Indian, on the contrary, has modest hair. Also, these two species differ in color: African elephants are gray-brown, Indian elephants can have a color palette from deep gray to brown.

Constitution and eating habits

The back of African elephants is almost straight, slightly concave, with an increase in the sacral region. Asian elephants, on the contrary, have a convex spine. Relatively modest in size, the Asian savannah giant visually looks more massive than African, since its limbs are short and thick, unlike the limbs of representatives of other species. The structure of the legs can be easily explained by the differences in the feeding behavior of Indian and African elephants: the former eat exclusively branches and leaves, but do not disdain to nibble grass; the latter, on the contrary, eat only leaves from tree branches.

Trunk – distinguishing feature elephants as a species. It's not really a nose, but rather an upper lip fused to the nose. With the help of its trunk, the elephant breathes, gets food, drinks, takes a bath, and so on. The structure of this organ is also different in the species under consideration. The end of the African elephant's trunk is equipped with a pair of finger-like processes, while the Indian elephant has only one such process (at the top).

The differences between African and Asian elephants extend to their foot structure. Indian elephants have five hooves on their front legs and four on their hind legs. Africans have five hooves on their front limbs (sometimes four), and three on their hind limbs.

Internal structure and behavioral features

The differences in the structure of the organs and systems of African and Asian elephants are as follows: in the former - 42 ribs, for the second - 38 , the former have thirty-three vertebrae in the tail, while the latter have only twenty-six. There are also differences in the structure of the molars.

African elephants become sexually mature 25 years old. Indians develop much faster: they are ready to produce offspring already in 15 – 20 years.

When it comes to temperament, the Asian elephants win. From a people's point of view. Why? Because they behave more friendly, they are easier to train. Asian elephants in their homeland (in southeast Asia) help people transport heavy loads and perform other difficult physical work. All over the world, Indian elephants work in circuses. African elephants, on the contrary, are much more aggressive and less responsive to humans. But training them is theoretically possible: it is known that African elephants took part in Hannibal’s campaign against Rome in the 3rd century BC.

Where do they live?

The Asian species today is distributed in Eastern, Northeastern and Southern India, East Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Ceylon, Malacca and Sumatra. They live in a variety of areas from savannahs overgrown with tall grass to dense jungles. The herd usually numbers from 15 to three dozen individuals. Chapter - wise old female.

The African elephant lives throughout Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Original habitat African giants Savannah was continuous, but today it is replete with lacunae: this type animals no longer live in the vast majority of territories South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Ethiopia; in northern Somalia there is none at all. The African elephant can live in a wide variety of landscapes, except desert and semi-desert. These impressively sized elephants live in herds. Previously, the herd could contain up to four hundred individuals.

Elephants of both species produce approximately five cubs. Very strong in herds family ties. A group of elephants may consist of hundreds of individuals related by blood. Elephants are nomadic animals; they do not have certain territory habitat. Elephant herds spend their entire lives on the move: looking for food, which they need in huge quantities every day, and spending the night near water bodies.

That's all for today known to science Elephant species are under threat of complete extinction, so they are listed in the Red Book.

Speaking of elephants (lat. Elephantidae), most of us imagine large gray animals with large ears, long tusks and a trunk, no different from each other. However, these highly intelligent and worthy creatures deserve to take a closer look.

A long time ago, during the Pleistocene era (2 million - 10 thousand years ago), almost everywhere to the globe Ancient representatives of the order Proboscis - giant elephants, mammoths and mastodons - moved freely, but by the end of this period only two genera of elephants remained alive, which today are the largest land mammals - African (lat. Loxodonta) and (Asian) (lat. Elephas maximus). African elephants, in turn, are divided into (lat. Loxodonta africana) and (lat. Loxodonta cyclotis).

Despite the seemingly almost one hundred percent external resemblance, African and Indian elephants have a lot of differences. African (savannah) elephants are larger than Indian ones - at the highest point of the body (at the shoulders) they can reach 3.7 meters, and their weight exceeds 6-7 tons. Indian elephants are smaller than savanna elephants, but larger than forest elephants - they weigh about 5 tons and grow up to 3.5 meters.

The ears of African elephants are very large, their shape resembles the outlines of the “black” continent, and the vein pattern is individual, like human fingerprints. Long, strong tusks adorn the heads of not only males (like Indian elephants), but also females.

An elephant's tusks are nothing more than its incisor teeth. It is also an indispensable tool for protection, searching for water and lifting various objects. Like humans, elephants can be right-handed or left-handed, making the most of their right or left tusk. Each elephant has its own individual shape of the tusk, its size and angle of inclination, which makes it much easier for researchers to “recognize” individual individuals.

In addition to tusks, elephants have four more molars, each of which weighs about 2.3 kilograms and is the size of a brick. During their life, elephants completely replace their entire set of molars six times. As elephants age, their teeth become too sensitive, and they move to the swamps in search of softer vegetation. Here they remain until the end of their lives, becoming the involuntary source of many legends that elderly elephants go to die in some mysterious “valleys of death.”

Probably the most main feature any elephant is its trunk, which is both its nose and upper lip. The elephant's trunk is controlled by more than 40 thousand muscles, so it is equally masterful in lifting a heavy log and a straw. At the end of the trunk of the African elephant there are two finger-like outgrowths adapted for comfortable grip; the Indian elephant has only one such “finger”.

Elephants are thick-skinned animals, in the truest sense of the word - in some places the thickness of their skin can reach 3.5-4 centimeters. However, this does not prevent her from remaining extremely sensitive, sensing the presence of even the most small insects. To protect themselves from their stinging bites or to cool off, elephants douse themselves with water and roll in the mud or dust.

Both Indian and African elephants live in groups united by family kinship. The herd is led by the oldest and most experienced female, on whose decisions the entire life activity of the group depends - she determines when it is time for lunch, rest or a change of habitat.

The permanent presence of adult males in the herd is completely excluded - they leave the family at the age of 12-13 years, leading a solitary lifestyle or teaming up with similar loners, and visit female elephants only during the mating period, without taking any part in the further raising of the offspring. Groups living in the neighborhood are often also related and greet each other joyfully when meeting on the banks of bodies of water.

Elephants' most developed sense is smell, but sounds play the most important role in their communication. The flapping of ears warns of danger, calling to stand in a circle and protect the smallest and weakest, the stomping of feet and many variations of sounds also carry certain information for those who are at a distance of up to 8 kilometers. And even such an unpleasant phenomenon for humans as rumbling in the stomach is very welcome in the elephant community - everyone who hears it knows that everything around is calm.

To fill its stomach, an adult elephant needs to eat 100 to 200 kilograms of succulent grass, leaves and fruits and drink about 120 liters of water. From the first days of life, newborn elephants are taught by adult females the intricacies of handling the trunk - they are shown how to draw water into it and pour it into the mouth.

African elephant and Indian elephant are representatives different types one family of elephants. As close relatives, they have much in common, but at the same time their differences are obvious even to a non-specialist: the animals differ not only in appearance, but also in their behavior.

Many people love elephants - both adults and children. These huge and strong animals exude reliability and inner peace. Unfortunately, the once large family of elephants has been practically destroyed, and today only two species remain on earth - the Indian and African elephants. But not everyone knows how to distinguish them from each other.

Surprisingly, these two representatives of the same family - the Indian and African elephants - have such obvious differences that biologists have classified them as separate species. Even in appearance, the animals are very different and this is noticeable even in the photo.

Comparison of African and Indian elephant: sizes

And we will start with the most obvious indicator, which is obvious even to a person far from biology. It is known that there is no larger land inhabitant on Earth than the elephant. Which elephant do you think is bigger - Indian or African? Of course, an African resident is larger than his Asian relative and is the most large mammals on land. The height of this giant at shoulder level reaches four meters. And the length of the body in some cases exceeds seven meters. The giant's weight is up to seven tons.

Indian elephants, in comparison with their counterparts, look simply “baby”: their height does not exceed three meters, their length is about six meters, and their weight rarely exceeds five tons.

Body outline

Even in the outlines of the body you can see the differences between the Indian elephant and the African elephant. The “African” has a straight or slightly concave back. The “Asian” has a convex one. The Indian elephant has thicker and shorter limbs and therefore looks heavier. The African elephant simply needs long legs, since it eats only the foliage of trees, for which it has to reach quite high, and its counterpart from Asia often feeds on some food from the ground.

Skeleton

Now you know the answer to the question of which animal - the Indian or African elephant - is larger, so when you come to the circus or zoo, you can easily determine their species. But these giants also have some peculiarities. internal structure, which are not visible to a person far from biology. The fact is that the African elephant and the Indian elephant have differences in their skeletal structure. The first has twenty-one pairs of ribs, the second has only nineteen. The African elephant has thirty-three vertebrae in its tail, while the Asian elephant has twenty-six.

Skin

Another indicator by which it is easy to understand how the African elephant and the Indian elephant differ: the skin of the “African” is covered with numerous wrinkles, and the smooth surface of the body of the Asian animal is covered with small hairs. There are also differences in skin color: the Indian giant is much darker than its African counterpart. The first has brown or dark gray skin, while the second has gray skin, sometimes even with a brown tint.

Ears

Representatives of these species differ in the length and shape of the ears. The nature of the “African” endowed him with large, elongated, somewhat rounded ears, while the Asian elephant got smaller ears: they are more elongated and pointed.

Tusks

The male African elephant is endowed with luxurious tusks (in females they are slightly smaller). And the Indian elephant has tusks, but the females are completely devoid of them. The native of Africa has a curved tusk and in males reaches three and a half meters in length. The “Asian” has it much shorter and, moreover, almost straight.

trunks

And even the trunk - characteristic feature These animals - the African and Indian elephants have different structures. In both animals they have processes that are shaped like fingers. True, there are two of them on the trunk of an elephant from Africa, but only one from India.

Indian elephant habitat

Unlike its African counterpart, the Indian elephant is a forest dweller. He loves light forest, especially with a small undergrowth of bamboo thickets. Today favorite place these animals, where they went when the air temperature dropped - the savannah, reserved for agriculture. IN summer time animals go to the mountains, rise to the Himalayas, to the border where eternal snow lies.

Indian elephants living in natural conditions create family groups, which can number up to twenty individuals. The leader in such a group is an old and experienced female. Indian elephants are obedient animals, easy to train and excellent at work. A special saddle is placed on the animal’s back, which can accommodate up to four people.

Where does the African elephant live?

The African giant prefers to settle in the steppes of Africa and Egypt. Representatives of this species live in Ceylon, India, Burma, and Indochina. Animals unite in herds, the number of which can reach fifty individuals.

There are also solitary elephants. As a rule, these are quite aggressive individuals that can pose a danger to other animals. There is a fairly friendly atmosphere in the herd, the elephants take care of their offspring and support each other. Elephants are able to show emotions and quickly remember people, objects, and places.

An African elephant eats up to one hundred and thirty kilograms of food per day (fruits, leaves, tree bark) and spends most of its time searching for food. These giants sleep no more than four hours a day. As a rule, they settle near bodies of water and drink almost two hundred liters of water a day. The African elephant, despite its impressive size, is an excellent swimmer, swimming long distances.

Behavior

The African elephant and the Indian elephant differ in their disposition. Representatives of the Indian species are more friendly towards people, and it is not difficult to tame them. It is them that residents of Asian countries use to perform heavy physical work, for example, when transporting large, heavy items. And in the circus, Indian elephants often demonstrate their skills to us.

The African elephant quite often shows aggression and it takes a lot of effort to train it, although this task cannot be called impossible.

These mammals are distinguished by a language of communication that is completely understandable to humans. When an animal is “not in the mood” or is aggressive, it spreads its ears. For defense, tusks, trunk and powerful legs are used. When an elephant senses danger or is frightened by something, it squeals and runs away, destroying everything in its path.

Species status

Once upon a time, herds of African elephants reached four hundred individuals. Nowadays, the numbers of all species are rapidly declining and the animals are included in the International Red Book. Both species are on the verge of extinction. Scientists believe that the main reason for this is the destruction natural environment habitat of these giants. They are listed in the Red Book: African in the “Endangered” section, Indian in the “Threatened” section.

No matter how different these huge animals are, we must not forget that they are in dire need of human help. Only he can take measures to save these animals from extinction. Otherwise, one day people will simply lose these smart and powerful helpers.

• Did you know that among elephants there are “right-handed” and “left-handed”? Determining which category an animal belongs to is quite simple: by the length of the tusks. A shorter one indicates belonging to one category or another.
• Ivory is very expensive, so animals die en masse at the hands of poachers. Despite the fact that trade in this material is now prohibited in most countries, up to a hundred animals die annually at the hands of humans.
• Elephants have four molars. Each of them, the size of a brick, weighs two to three kilograms. Molars are replaced six times during a lifetime.
• The trunk, the connection between the nose and the upper lip, with which the elephant breathes, showers, drinks, smells and makes sounds, contains one hundred thousand muscles. With it, the animal lifts objects weighing up to a thousand kilograms and carries them tens of kilometers.