Elephants

While in Borneo I managed to miss a large herd of elephants by only a short time, I discovered  they had left a trail of trampled vegetation, broken branches and puddles from their deep foot- prints, alas they were too far gone for us to have any hope of seeing them.

Known as a pygmy elephant it has a shorter than it's cousin the Asian elephant and supposedly very passive.

They trample through the forest in herds of 10 to as many as 50 or more following the ripening fruit trees which produce fruit all year round.

We met a group of elephant researchers that were measuring footprints and collecting data. We discovered they hadn't seen an elephant for three weeks  though the previous night they could hear them in the forest but didn't venture in  because it was to dark and too many leeches.  I taught what a "bunch of pansies after traveling all that way " ah well.

Elephants are social animals and live in small herds for protection from predators. Each elephant family is led by the dominant female, or matriarch. When threatened, the members of the herd will surround the calves to protect them from danger, and the matriarch will either confront the danger or the group will retreat into a tight unit.

Their trunks are used in many ways, to pick up and examine objects, to smell, as a snorkel when in a deep pool or river, to pull foliage from trees and to suck up water and squirt it into their mouth. Elephants can drink up to 50 gallons of water and eat 250 kg of vegetation a day.

Their huge ears are very important not only for hearing but also as huge fans to fan cool air to cool down their bodies.

The female or cow start to have their first young at about 14 years of age they remain pregnant for about 22 months. The average cow will have 4-6 young in a lifetime.

The young elephant (calf) take milk from their mother until they are ten years old and stay with her into their mid teens. The average life expectancy for an elephant is about 70 years.