Elephants !

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Congregated at the waterhole, playfully splashing and spouting plumes of water over their wrinkly hides to cool their bodies, or whilst flapping their ears like huge fans as they amble along browsing for food, the majestic African Elephant may seem to have not an enemy in the world.



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All males have tusks, as do most females.
Even at birth, calves have a tiny pair of "milk tusks". At about a year, these are replaced with a permanent pair which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.
Large elephants can attain a mass of about five tons with tusks up three metres in lenght.
They consume huge amounts of food in the form of grass and leaves - often selected from the tops of trees - and depending on availability can digest up to 200 kilograms in a day.
The elephant lacks sweat glands and if it were not for its large ears which constitute about 20 percent of its body surface area it would not be able to cope with the intense heat of the African sun.
The ears are richly supplied with blood vessels and are the ideal avenue for heat loss.
Flapping the ears dissipates body heat, as well as producing a cooling breeze over the skin.
This gentle flapping action has the effect of cooling five to twelve litres of blood flowing through the ears every minute.

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Other methods of keeping cool include spraying the body with water and drinking approximately 150 litres a day, climatic conditions permitting.
In the dry season, elephants may have to travel up to 80 kilometres a day in search of water, which is sucked into the trunk, and then squirted into the mouth.

Highly destructive in their feeding habits, elephant bulls will push down whole trees to reach a few leaves, and will strip the bark from certain species, particularly acacias, sometimes damaging them beyond regeneration.

Male elephants occasionally indulge in serious fighting over a female. Living in a matriarchal society, the females and their young associate in closely-knit groups, combining with other family groups to form the breeding herd.



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A single calf may be born at any time of the year following a 22 month period of gestation and its lifespan will average about 60 years.

These extremely intelligent animals are endowed with a conscious sense of family unit.
The mother, especially, will show great affection for her young, and when danger is imminent  the calf will be hidden under her belly.

Elephants have only man as their enemy, since even the lion will only attack a small calf if it has strayed too far from the herd.



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