African Elephants

African Elephants

First Steps:

Elephants have the longest live born gestation period of any mammal at 22 months. Baby elephants are the largest newborn land mammals as they are around 260 pounds at birth. In the first moments of the young elephant, the mother and other females of the herd will gather around the baby and trumpet. They are born blind, but they are taken care of very well by the herd. The mother will try to assist the baby in standing so it can nurse. Infancy is important for both the calf and the mother as the baby learns to slowly become independent, and the adult learns to be a mother.

Growing up:

They are born blind, but they are taken care of very well by the herd. Baby elephants are born with a low level of survival instinct, so they are very reliant on their mothers and other females of the herd. Babies will follow along right behind the mother, often with their trunk wrapped around the mother’s tail. They learn new skills by observation, and can be praised for accomplishments and scolded when they don’t follow rules and direction. Baby elephants are born with a low level of survival instinct, so they are very reliant on their mothers and other females of the herd. They learn new skills by observation, and can be praised for accomplishments and scolded when they don’t follow rules and direction. This period of infancy is particularly prolonged. Elephants begin weaning from nursing in their first year and can continue this process until they are ten years old. The minimum for absolute dependency of a calf is three to five years. Elephants are incredibly social creatures, and this period of dependency is important for the calf to socially develop and learn from herd members.

Calves have a fairly underdeveloped brain, and are somewhat of a blank slate for learning. They can be compared to human babies and young primates in that much of their brain development occurs outside of the womb. This opens up many opportunities for complex learning, social development, and the formation of a culture. This species does not rely as heavily on instinctual responses as they do learned social behaviors. Calves seem to be constantly busy, always playing and exploring. They aren’t born with the ability to use its trunk, but will learn through experience how to use it to pick up items, drink, scratch and obtain food. It is also worth noting that studies conducted by National Geographic observed that mother elephants would treat male and female elephants differently as they approach adolescence. Females would interact more with the family group, while males became more independent and played with non-family members.

Home:

Elephants have a strict social order that holds together a herd. Adolescent males break off to form small unstable herds, or sometimes join older males. Herd size can grow to the hundreds, and sometimes break off into groups and meet up later. A dominant matriarch elephant leads the herd. Communication in the herd consists of visual, physical, and vocal interactions. The noises elephants make to communicate to each other are too low to be heard by the human ear at around 14-35 Hz.

Touch is one of the most important communications between elephants. Mothers and calves are often seen caressing each other. Scientists believe that it isn’t anthropomorphic to say these interactions are real expressions of love and reassurance. Mothers are fiercely defensive of their young, and often times will instruct their young to travel in the center of a herd, surrounded by all the adults, to avoid attack from predators. If a mother dies or is wounded, another female of the herd will quickly step in to take the roll of a surrogate mother. Elephants are known to mourn their dead, and are very emotional and can even cry during births and deaths.

Power:

Bachelor groups formed by adolescent males are very unstable, and males will constantly fight to try to gain power. This can cause some males to leave these groups and live a solitary life until they can find a willing mate in an established herd. The matriarch is incredibly altruistic and will defend any member of her herd at any cost. Mothers will be the most violent in order to protect their young. Elephants use their tusks to skewer predators and also trample predators.

Courtship:

Males will wave their ears to disperse pheromones, and there is fighting between males to have the right to mate, although males will not often be seriously injured. The strongest males in musth (period of high testosterone) will pursue females who are in oestrus. Courtship will continue for a long time until mating actually happens. During mating, other female elephants will hang around to ensure the female is safe, especially if she is young. Post-mating behaviors include rubbing their bodies on each other, and even wrapping their trunks together. Elephants can stay together for up to a couple weeks until the male leaves to go off on his own again.

Parenthood:

Mother elephants will have completely dependant calves for at least 3 to 5 years. Many members of the herd will parent the calf together and work together to protect it. Bonds between young calfs and maternal figures of the herd are very important and help the calf to learn and develop socially.