Elephants are emblematic in Africa. Often people seem to immediately associate an African Safari with these colossal mammals, and with good reason. One can observe a herd of Elephant for hours – and they will never seize to amaze. They are intelligent, incredibly graceful and surprisingly stealthy. They also have the tendency to disappear within seconds. Now you might think that this is impossible – but it is absolutely astounding how swiftly a 14 000 pound animal can vanish into the bush. Elephants are exceptionally human like – in behavior especially.
Elephants are group animals, they move around in herds, and they are enormously sociable. The herd is often directed by a female or Cow called a Matriarch. She is the leader and is in charge of decision making and overall well-being of the rest of the family, much like we, as humans, have our own Matriarch in every household. The herd will mostly consist of closely related females and their calves. Males tend to leave the herd after puberty and will often form alliances with other males. (Again the similarity to human behavior is uncanny)
They have an incredibly long gestation period of approximately 22 months, usually one calf, weighing about 200 pounds, is born, and cared for by the mother and other cows – they are known as “allomothers” Elephants are most fertile between the ages of 25 and 45 and can reach a staggering age of 60!
Elephants can consume a shocking 300 pounds of vegetation per day. They do not sleep much, as they are constantly on the move to forage for food. Their digestive system is not very efficient and only about 40% of the food is properly digested. They use their trunk to pluck leaves and grass, and their impressive tusks to tear at branches, which can cause enormous damage.
African Elephants are ranked among some of the most intelligent species in the world. They have a very large and highly intricate neocortex, a trait also shared by humans, apes and certain Dolphin species. With a brain that weighs around 11 pounds, elephants have the largest brain of all land mammals; it is similar to that of a human’s brain in terms of structure and complexity. Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors; including those associated with grief, learning, allomothering, mimicry, art, play and a sense of humor, to name but a few.
It is pretty safe to say that these giant animals are more “human like” than we could imagine. In my experience as a guide on safari it is always astonishing and entertaining watching a herd of elephant. The way they communicate without making even the slightest noise, how carefully they wrap their trunk around a branch and pull it down to reach the delicious Marula Fruits at the apex of a tree. The very graceful steps they take when moving around the grassland – almost noiseless. One would assume that an animal of this size would noisily be trampling everything in its path. But elephants truly have the refinement of a ballerina when it comes to moving about. This is why they can disappear so swiftly and unobtrusively. The most entertaining is to observe the little ones or calves. That first moment when they realize that they have a long trunk as a nose, and they are completely unsure of how to operate it. I have witnessed a youngster blowing bubbles underwater and then stand on its own trunk, only to come to the conclusion that it is rather a painful act, even though it took him at least four or five stints to realize this.
I have also seen Elephant crossing railway lines; this is one of the most fascinating encounters I have had the privilege to note. They will place one foot very carefully on the track and feel around with their trunk, then using one giant foot at a time they proceed to cross the entire track in a couple of minutes. Astonishing!
Elephants are truly majestic creatures and once you have had the pleasure to see even one, it becomes very hard not to fall in love with these gentle giants almost immediately.
May the grace of the Gentle Giant be with us in Africa always…
*Justine Ferreira