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.