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As the drought scorches the already parched African plain, drying up the tiny waterholes, a small band of elephants trudges on toward the closest river, 40 miles to the south. The youngest lags behind and finally stops. For two days, as he grows weaker from thirst, his mother stands over him, shading him from the sun. When the youngster eventually dies, his mother tries to pull him up with her trunk. Mourning her loss, she hangs her head low and moans, with tears flowing from her eyes.
Researchers have long known that elephants show signs of deep sorrow over the death of close family or herd members. Famed elephant researcher Joyce Poole, writing about one mother elephant she saw standing vigil over her stillborn baby, noted that "every part of her spelled grief." Both males and females, young and old, have been seen in distress, trying to rouse a dead elephant.
When a mother elephant loses a child, she is the last to leave the scene, and does so only when her own life is in danger. For years afterward, she will repeatedly return to the very spot where the bones of her dead baby remain, standing over them in silence.
In terms of the way they care for their young, elephants have more in common with primates and humans than they do with species in their own order. Bonds are strong not only between mother and child, but within the entire clan, known as a cow-calf group. A matriarch, usually the eldest cow, leads the group. While traveling, members of the group, which may number up to 24, always remain within 50 yards of the matriarch. This close-knit extended family is so protective that when hunters start shooting, separated members actually run toward the gunfire rather than away from it.
Master showman P.T. Barnum called his prized possession "the Lord of Beasts, the Greatest Elephant on Earth." Jumbo stood 11 feet tall and weighed 7 tons. His massive trunk could reach up 26 feet--high enough to take treats from people in third-story windows as his keepers paraded him along city streets. His name became part of the English language, a synonym for gigantic. And when he died in 1885, a wave of grief swept across Britain and America.
Barnum had an unerring nose for finding the hottest acts for his circus, and he was a master at drumming up free publicity. But even he never could have dreamed what a sweet deal it would be when he bought Jumbo, a 20-year-old African elephant, from Britain's Royal Zoological Society for $10,000. Jumbo had been a favorite attraction at the London zoo for years, where thousands of people had enjoyed rides on his back. The sale of such a natural treasure created national outrage. Even Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, who had often ridden on him, joined the protest and tried to block the sale. But the courts sided with Barnum and, in 1882, Jumbo was on his way to New York.
Jumbo was the greatest single acquisition ever purchased by the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The center of every performance, he drew more than 20 million people in three years. At the height of his popularity, however, his career was cut short. In 1885, Jumbo was killed by a speeding freight train in Ontario, Canada. Barnum, shameless publicist that he was, reported to the press that Jumbo sacrificed his own life to save that of Tom Thumb, a baby elephant. After a brief nationwide tour, Jumbo's bones were sent to New York's American Museum of Natural History, where they are on display.
Marching proudly into the Big Top, elephants hold on to each other's tails. They lift up beautiful circus performers effortlessly with their massive trunks. They sit up and beg. They stand over their trainer with a foot held on his head, as faint-hearted spectators swoon in the peanut gallery. Elephants certainly know how to put on a good show, but are they smart? What's going on in their enormous heads?
According to researcher Joyce Poole, the answer to those questions is a no brainer: elephants are not only smart, but extremely intelligent. During her years studying wild elephants in Africa, she often saw examples of tool use. "I have watched an elephant pick up a stick in its trunk and use it to remove a tick from between its forelegs," she wrote. "I also have seen elephants pick up a palm frond or similar piece of vegetation and use it as a fly swatter." Even more remarkably, she says elephants have been known to drop large rocks and logs on electric fences to knock them to the ground, shorting them out.
If the size of an animal's brain in relation to its body is any indicator of intelligence, then elephants are in the same league as primates and porpoises. The temporal lobes of their cerebrums--the memory center in humans--bulge out from the sides of their brains. Elephants are renowned for their impressive memories. The explanation may lie in the fact that, at birth, their brains are only 35 percent developed, compared to most animals, whose brains are 90 percent developed at birth. This leaves ample room for growth, and virtually ensures a keen long-term memory.
An elephant is full of surprises. It may weigh up to 8 tons, but due to the fact that its weight is distributed evenly among its four squishy footpads, it leaves behind relatively dainty footprints. It may lumber along at 2 mph, and then suddenly outrun even the fastest human sprinter at 24 mph. Its skin is 1 1/2 inches thick, yet so fragile that zookeepers must scrub it daily to keep it well conditioned. Its tusks--essentially overgrown teeth made of dentin just like our own--are sharp enough to puncture sheet metal, but used only for peaceful pursuits, such as drilling for water.
But of all pachyderm paradoxes, perhaps none is greater than an elephant's trunk. One of nature's true marvels, it is strong enough to uproot a tree, yet delicate enough to pluck a single blade of grass. It is large enough to hold 3 gallons of water at a time, yet sensitive enough to smell an approaching friend or enemy hundreds of yards away.
Comprised of 40,000 muscles, an elephant's trunk is actually a combination of a nose and an upper lip, elongated to jumbo proportions. Since elephants have poor eyesight, the trunk is their primary sensory and exploratory organ. They use it to find and eat food, drink water, scratch, threaten, caress, push, pull, lift, and communicate. When they go for a swim, the trunk even serves as a snorkel.
African elephants have two small projections, or "fingers," on the tip of their trunks (Asian elephants have only one). This is the most sensitive area of the trunk, and these fingers can be used to pick up small objects. In many ways, an elephant's trunk is the most important part of its entire gargantuan body. Without it, the animal would never stand a chance of reaching its 60-year lifespan.
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Copyright © 2001-, Terry Muse Revised: April 2, 2002 URL: http://crafts_and_kids.tripod.com/ http://geocities.com/mounthollynj http://seaside_park_nj.tripod.com http://westlake_village_md.tripod.com Contact: Terry J. Muse |
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