The difference between African and Asian elephants
The most obvious difference between theAfrican and the Asian elephant is the size of their ears - those of the Africanare larger and shaped like the outline of Africa while those of the Asian aresmaller and shaped like the outline of India. The African species has atwo-fingered tip to the trunk while the Asian elephant has one ‘finger’. Bothmale and female African elephants have tusks, the males' usually longer. Asian elephant males have tusks which are more curved and thicker thanthose of the African species while female Asians have very small tusks or none atall. The skin is both lighter and less hairy in an African elephant.
 |
 |
| African Elephant | Asian Elephant |
Difference in appearence between Male and Female African elephants
The female’s head profile inside view is angular while in the male it is round. Males are heavier and taller, reaching up to 4m, and can weigh up to 6 tons while females reach about 2.6m and weigh approximately 3 tons. Males have larger tusks compared to the females who have smalltusks, or no tusks at all.
Interesting facts about the internal organs of an African elephant:
- The brain of an adult weighs between4.5 kg and 5 kg
- Temporal lobes, known to function asmemory centres in humans, are large
- The heart of an elephant weighsbetween 12 and 21 kg
- The combined length of the small andlarge intestine may reach 35 m
- On average it takes 24 hours to digest a meal
- Elephants only digest 44% of their food intake
 |
 |
| Male African Elephant | Female African Elephant |
 |
The Skin The thickness of the skin varies from 1.5 to 2.5cm, thinner in areas like the inside of the ears, around the mouth and anus and thicker on areas like the back and various places on the head. Despite the thickness of the skin, it is very sensitive. An elephant has no sweat glands, mud trapped in the folds of the skin along with the flapping of its ears help to keep the elephant cool. The overall colour of the skin is grey, although it often seems brown or even reddish from wallowing in mudholes of coloured soil. The mud acts as a sunscreen, protecting against insect bites and moisture loss. |
 |
Big Ears African elephants have the biggest ears in the world, measuring up to 2m from top to bottom. They do not have bigger ears for better hearing however - their ears are bigger because it is hotter on the open tropical plains, and the ears are designed to lose heat. Inside the huge earflap there is a network of large blood vessels, flapping the ears regularly cools an elephant in several ways: each flap acts like a fan, blowing air over the body surface, as well as cooling the air around the blood vessels in the ear. |
 |
The Tusks Just as humans are right or left handed so too are elephants left or right-tusked. The tusk that is used more often is called the ‘master-tusk’ and is shorter and more rounded. The heaviest recorded tusk weighed 117kg and the longest single tusk measured a record 3.26m. |
 |
More than just a long nose The trunk is made up of the nose, upper lip and muscles of the elephant’s face joined together and lengthened to form a unique fifth limb. There are no bones down the middle which is why an elephant can move its trunk in any direction. A normal limb, like an arm, is moved by muscles pulling against jointed bones, where the fleshy trunk works by muscles pulling against other muscles. The two nostril tubes are surrounded by more than 100 000 muscle units. An African elephant has two triangular ‘fingers’ at the tip of the trunk which they use to pick up small objects. They are capable of very precise movements, and can pick up items as small as a single seed. Once an elephant is weaned, everything it eats or drinks is placed in the mouth using the trunk; it is unlikely to survive if anything serious should happen to its trunk. |
 |
Walking on tiptoe Most are surprised at how silently an elephant moves through the bush. There is little sound because a built in shock absorber, made of fatty fibrous tissue, cushions the impact of the foot on the ground. An elephant’s weight rests on the tip of each toe and the fibrous cushion under the ‘heel’. Elephants are very good climbers of steep hills, mountains and, on occasion, even cliffs. |
