Why Elephant Has a Trunk and Ivory - What Functions?

What Is the Elephants? Do you know, Why Elephant Has a Trunk and Ivory? What are the functions of them?

What Is The Elephant Trunk?

The special Characteristic of the elephant is a long proboscis. Elephant's trunk is actually a long nose elephant. Its nostrils were at the end of his trunk. The trunk has fifty thousand (50,000) muscle.

The Function of Elephant Trunk

Elephants use their trunks to put food and water into his mouth, lifting objects and smell the smell of late. Elephants can suck water into your mouth and drink it or pour into their bodies by using a proboscis.

The Function of Elephant Ivory

In addition to the trunk, the hallmark of ivory and elephant ears are large and wide. Ivory elephant a pair of large incisors at the front of the upper jaw, which continued to grow during the life of elephants although not grow too long. Two very pointy elephant ivory and located on both sides of his mouth. This helps keep the ivory elephants themselves. Besides using ivory elephant digging and searching for water.

Elephant Scientific Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Upafilum: Vertebrates
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae

Elephant Species

Elephants are one of the animals that exist in The world. Elephants are mammals (mammals) and is the largest land animal in the world. There are two species of elephant in the world, namely:

1. Asian Elephant or Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus).
2. African elephant (Loxodonta aricana).

Elephant gestation period is 22 months, the longest gestation period compared to other land animals. Calf weight of 120 pounds and in general an elephant can live for about 70 years.

Elephants also been used in warfare as war elephants, which are used to attack the enemy. Elephants are the only mammals in the world that can not jump.

There is also a dwarf or pygmy elephant species with the Latin name is Elephas maximus borneensis, This is the smallest species of elephant, even smaller than the Sumatran elephant. His size is only about 2.5 meters, such as the size of baby elephants, elephant is closely related to the elephant of Borneo. The data show that the DNA in the pygmy elephant is completely different from the Asian elephant and the African elephant, this means that pygmy elephants are new subspecies of elephants. Habitats where they live in the depths of the jungle, the border between East Kalimantan - Indonesia and Malaysia

The Differences between Asian and African Elephants

Asian elephants differ from African elephants. Asian elephants have smaller ears than the African elephant bit, have a flat forehead, and two hump on his head is the highest peak of elephants, compared with the African elephant has only one hump on top of the head. Moreover, the tip of the Asian elephant's trunk has only one lip, while the African elephant has 2 lips on the tip of the proboscis. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks whereas only male Asian elephants have tusks which are clearly visible.

Food of Elephants

Elephants belong to the category of herbivores. Elephants spend 16 hours a day to collect food. The food consists of at least 50% grass, coupled with leaves, twigs, roots, and a little fruit, seeds and flowers. Because elephants only digest 40% of the food he eats, they have to consume large amounts of food. An adult elephant can consume 300 to 600 pounds (140-270 kg) of food per day. Sixty percent of the food left in the stomach and is not digested elephant.