THEIR HISTORY
In antiquity , mythology and religion
RAKAN ALSAAB , 455327
Elephants are the largest land animals. Many
species of whales and some sharks are larger.
There are three species: the African elephant,
which ranges across much of sub-Sahara Africa;
the forest elephant which lives in rain forests in
Africa and the Asian elephant, which is found in
South Asia, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
Scientists decided to make the forest elephant a
separate species in the 2002 based on genetic
differences.
Elephants are sometimes referred to as
"pachyderms" (meaning "thick skinned"). A
male elephant is called a bull. A female is called
a cow. Young are called calves. A group is called
a herd.
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY OF ELEPHANTS
The ancestor of elephants, mammoths and mastodons was a pig-size animal
with an upper lip like a tapir that lived about 55 million years ago. As these
creatures evolved their heads got small and their upper lip became longer and
more flexible until it became a trunk.
More than 250 species of elephants and elephant-like creatures have roamed
the earth in the past. Ancestors of the elephant include the Moeritherum (a piglike
animal that lived 40 million to 30 million years ago), the Piomia (a pig-like
animal with a long snout that lived 37 million to 28 million years
ago), Deinotherium (an elephant-like animal with downward-hooking tusks that
lived 24 million to 1.8 million years ago), the Primelephas (an animal that looked
like a modern elephant and lived from 6.2 million to 5 million years ago).
Asian elephants are found in 13 countries The WWF estimates that there are
only between 34,000 and 51,000 Asian elephants worldwide, including 12,000
to 16,000 animals that have either been domesticated in Asia or are in zoos
around the world. By contrast, there are an estimated 550,000 elephants in
Africa today (2003).
ASIAN ELEPHANT
RANGE AND NUMBERS
Asian elephants have an arched back,
two watermelon-size humps on their
forehead, relatively small tusks, four
toes on their front feet, smoother skin,
relatively small ears that fold forward
and are shaped like India, and a single
finger-like protuberance at the tip of
their trunk. Only males have tusks.
Adult male Asian elephants weigh up to
four tons and stand 9 to 10½ feet tall at
the shoulder, and females weigh as
much 3.3 tons. The largest Asian
elephant was an animal found in Nepal
named Tula hatti ("the great elephant")
that stood 11 feet at the shoulder and
had a foot print that measured 22
inches across. Their mellow
temperament allows them to be trained
for entertainment in circuses and heavy
labor such as lifting logs onto trucks
and pulling them through the forest.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASIAN
ELEPHANTS AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS
African elephants have darker skin,
large tusks, a smooth forehead, a dip
in their back, five toes on their front
feet, large ears that fold backward
over the shoulder, and two finger-like
protuberances at the tip of their
trunk. Both male and females have
tusks.
Adult male African elephants weigh
up to six tons and stand 11 feet tall
at the shoulder, and females weigh as
much four tons. Bush elephants live
in most countries south of the
Saharan and forest elephants live
Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast and
other central and west African
nations. African elephants are more
difficult to tame than Asian
elephants although some have been
trained for circus and as mounts for
tourists in southern Africa.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASIAN
ELEPHANTS AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS
On average an Asian elephants lives to be
around 40 or 50. Their life cycle closely
parallels that of humans. They reach sexual
maturity at the age of 11 to 14, reach full
growth at around 30, and die around 50 or 60
in captivity (they die sooner in the wild which
is a less forgiving environment for old
elephants). Scientists measure their age by
measuring the size of their footprints.
The oldest verified age of a mammal other
than human is 78 years, by a female Asian
elephant that died in a zoo in Santa Clara,
California in July 1975. Whales are believed to
live longer but it is difficult to verify their age
ELEPHANT AGE
Interestingly the number heartbeats on the life of
an elephant is approximately equal to the number
heartbeats on the life of a shrew. An elephant's
heart beats about 20 times a minute while the
heart of a shrew, which lives only one or two
years, is around 600 beats a second.
Elephants live longer in wild than zoos according
to a study published in Science in December
2008. Randolph E. Schmid of AP wrote:
“Researchers compared the life spans of
elephants in European zoos with those living in
Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others
working on a timber enterprise in Myanmar.
Animals in the wild or in natural working
conditions had life spans twice that or more of
their relatives in zoos. [Source: Randolph E.
Schmid, AP, December 11, 2008]
ELEPHANT AGE
A running elephant reach speeds of
25 miles per hour (compared to 70
mph for a cheetah and 27.9 mph for
the world's fastest human). A
charging elephant can reportedly
maintain a 35 miles per hour pace for
120 yards.
A trotting elephant can maintain
speeds exceeding 18 miles-per-hour
for more than a kilometer. Elephants
move 15 to 20 miles a day. The
movement keeps their nails trimmed.
Captive animals have to have their
nails filed.
ELEPHANT CHARACTERISTICS
Elephants have wrinkled inch-thick
skin but lack sweat glands. To keep
cool elephants they flap their well
veined ears and seek water for relief.
When severely overheated elephants
may draw water from their throats or
stomachs and spray their ears..
ELEPHANT CHARACTERISTICS
elephants play a major role in our world today, except it is in an extremely negative
light. The ivory trade is slowly eradicating the elephant population, and there is
very little that can be done to stop it. Although a ban was enforced by CITES in
1989, the market for illegal ivory continues to thrive.
In China, certain shops are given special permission to sell ivory goods with the
right documents, however, these documents are easy to forge. From 2011 to 2012,
more than 50,000 elephants were killed on the African continent. This crisis is
significant not only to environmentalists, but also to the tribes and people to
whom these animals are sacred. In the past decade or so, more than 13,000 people
have lost their lives trying to protect elephants in Kenya alone. Traders like Victor
Gordon and the work they do are threatening to completely erase the presence of
elephants in the world, destroying centuries of history and culture.
ELEPHANTS IN ANTIQUITY
Ever since the initial, military use of elephants by King Porus, the taming of
elephants has become widely accepted as a doctrine of Indian culture. They
were used for logging, transport, and served as entertainment at royal
functions.
In India, the Asian Elephant is the living embodiment of Ganesha, the Hindu
god of wisdom and prosperity and patron of the arts and sciences. Ganesha's
physical appearance is significant because the Hindu people believe that he
represents the unity of the Small Being, or the man, with the Great Being, or
the elephant; the union of the individual soul with the divine.
ELEPHANTS IN ANTIQUITY
The following elephants or
elephant-like figures occur in
mythology and religion:
Airavata, elephant ridden by
the Hindu god Indra
Erawan, Thai version of
Airavata
Ganesh, elephant-headed
Hindu deity
Malini, elephant-headed
goddess associated with the
birth of Ganesha
Vinayaki, elephant-headed
Hindu goddess
MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION
Airavata (Sanskrit: ऐरावत "belonging to
Iravati") is a white elephant who carries
the Hindu god Indra. It is also called
'abhra-Matanga', meaning "elephant of
the clouds"; 'Naga-malla', meaning "the
fighting elephant"; and 'Arkasodara',
meaning "brother of the sun“.
'Abhramu' is the elephant wife of
Airaavatha is also the third son of
Kashyap and Kadru. In the Mahabharata
he is listed as a great serpent.
AIRAVATA
Ganesha (Sanskrit: गणेश, IAST: Gaṇeśa;
About this soundlisten (help·info)), also
known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, or by
numerous other names, is one of the bestknown
and most worshipped deities in the
Hindu pantheon. His image is found
throughout India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji,
Thailand, Mauritius, Bali (Indonesia) and
Bangladesh. Hindu denominations
worship him regardless of affiliations.
Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused
and extends to Jains and Buddhists.
GANESHA
Vināyakī is an elephant-headed Hindu
goddess. Her mythology and
iconography are not clearly defined.
Little is told about her in Hindu
scriptures and very few images of this
deity exist.
Due to her elephantine features, the
goddess is generally associated with the
elephant-headed god of wisdom,
Ganesha. She does not have a
consistent name and is known by
various names — Stri Ganesha
("female Ganesha.”), Vainayaki,
Gajananā ("elephant-faced"),
Vighneshvari ("Mistress of obstacles")
and Ganeshani, all of them being
feminine forms of Ganesha’s epithets
Vinayaka, Gajanana, Vighneshvara and
Ganesha itself. These identifications
have resulted in her being assumed as
the shakti — feminine form of
Ganesha.
VINAYAKI
Books: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Elephants by S.K. Elfringham (Smithmark
Publishers, 1997), Elephants" Majestic Creatures of the Wild edited by Jeheskei Shosani
(Rodale Press, 1992); Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants by Katy Payner
(Simon & Schuster, 1998).
-Douglas Chadwick, National Geographic, May 1991 [←]; Katharine Payne,
National Geographic, August 1989; Oria Douglas-Hamilton, National Geographic,
- Elephants in Antiquity - Emma Mylie
-Eric Dinerstein, Smithsonian,
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
Sources: