Page 92 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - South Africa

90  WILD SOUTH AFRIC A

African Bush Elephant
The world’s largest land animal, the African elephant is one of the most enduringly
exciting creatures encountered on safari, not only for its imposing bulk, but also for
its complex social behaviour. Elephants are notable for two unique adaptations –
a long trunk that combines immense strength with the
sensitivity to isolate and tear out a single blade of
grass, and outsized tusks that grow throughout its life,
sometimes reaching lengths in excess of 3 m (10 ft).
Bloody combat
between male
elephants is rare, since
breeding rights are
generally established
within the community
through mock fights
which involve trunk-
locking and tusk-
clashing.
Family and Breeding
Elephants are intensely sociable creatures.
Females and youngsters move around in close-knit
matriarchal clans. Females typically come into oestrus
between one and five years after giving birth. Once
impregnated, they give birth about 22 months later.
Unlike their female kin, males are generally booted
out of their birth group in their early teens, after which
they roam around singly or form bachelor herds, often
tailing the larger breeding herds with which they
share a territory. Males periodically come into musth,
a sexually-related state characterized by a
fifty-fold increase in testosterone levels. Such
elephants are unpredictable and best treated
with caution by other elephants and humans alike.

Adult females maintain a vigilant watch
over their young until they are old enough to deter predators.
A female gives birth to a 100-kg (220-lb) calf every 5 to 10 years.
Each calf thus represents a major genetic investment for the
matriarchal herd, and is raised communally. Matriarchal herds
comprise up to four generations of sisters, daughters and grand-
daughters, dominated by the oldest female.

What You Might See
Elephants are interactive, and great
entertainers. Their tusks are versatile
tools, used to dig for salt or water, to
tear bark, and even for self-defence. The
trunk is employed to place food in the
mouth and suck up water, and may be
wielded threat eningly in displays of Ears flap continuously
dominance. When an elephant raises its in hot weather to cool Faced with a potential threat,
trunk in your direction, trumpeting and circulating blood below a herd “periscopes” – moves its
stamping its feet, it is best to retreat. the thin skin. trunks around to investigate.

IUCN status VU: Vulnerable

090-091_EW_South_Africa.indd 90 25/05/17 2:45 pm