MEET, AN ELEPHANT!

Today we have a meeting with an elephant - the strongest and largest land mammal on the planet. It will be interesting. 
46 photo Well, let's start? This Chitwan National Park in Nepal, Sauhary neighborhood. Elephant returns home from the jungle with rations "elephant grass" (miscanthus, Eng. Miscanthus) - a popular high cereals with long stiff leaves. This herb it is enough for a couple of days of food (adult elephant eats in a day up to 200 kg of such herbs and drink the same amount of liters of water). Elephants love only fresh, juicy grass, so go into the jungle behind it often has. And all the grass that has remained not eaten, burned. Grass is this quite a lot of smoke when burning. So much so that this is enough to envelop the thick smoke the whole village (which is hundreds of houses), thus protecting it from the voracious mosquitoes, which do not give to live in peace to all inhabitants of the region - both people and animals. As for the " elephant grass ", this remarkable plant reaches a height of 7 meters! Grows dense thickets and covers a huge area of the national park, creating an impenetrable thicket just. The most dangerous thing about them is that you can go and not even notice that in 3-5 meters from you is a wild elephant, rhinoceros or tiger. In such "apartments" domestic elephants live in Sauhare. Roof saves from rain, and the walls are not necessary, because there is quite warm all year round: To elephants wandered off, they are put on the chain: For local residents elephant - is a universal means of transport and loading. In the jungle elephant - is the best transport to which the horse can not be compared.Everywhere passable, capable of lifting and carrying loads without decent carts and safe: no predator in the jungle on an elephant would not dare attack: In Chitwan held elephant running and slonofutbol: In the village Sauhara, the main tourist center in the vicinity of Chitwan, there is a solid "fleet" of elephants, designed for tourists: Because climb on an elephant is not so easy, especially unusual tour, for this purpose there is a special ladders: Some people prefer to climb on the elephants more extreme ways: "Safari" elephant: Let the cookies! The most amazing elephants - a trunk . It is formed from the fusion of the nose and upper lip, and consists of 40,000 muscle, but not in bone comprises audio. Trunk serves as a tool for obtaining food, but not only for this elephant's trunk is needed. It can be used as a powerful weapon, but they do it very carefully, because without it, the Giants can not exist. Adult elephants drink via trunk. They suck him half a bucket of water and send in your mouth or pour body.The strength of the trunk is enormous. Elephant freely raises them to log a ton of weight and carries him through the jungle. At the tip of the trunk from the African elephant has two finger-outgrowth and the Indian - one. With it, the elephant can lift off the ground or match the finest coin: Normal trunk length - about 1.5 meters, weight - 135 kg. Bathing with elephants - another popular tourist attraction in Chitwan: elephant skin is quite sensitive to the scorching sun and insect bites so the elephants love to splash in the water or lie in the dirt or dust, to protect the skin (in this they are like pigs): Elephants swim very well, even at a depth or move to the bottom of the reservoir, holding above the water only trunk. And yet, with good handling is very good-natured animals: decoration elephant and his formidable weapon - the tusks are its teeth, the incisors of the upper jaw. The lower incisors are missing. Tusks of elephants grow all his life, and, given the normal rate of growth, we can assume that in old age they should reach 6 m: But as for the elephant tusks not decoration, and a working tool, they eventually they wear out, break off and cleave . Elephant tusks are known to be a source of valuable material - ivory, and therefore subject to poaching. Workers sometimes specifically reserves saw off elephants tusks (pre-lull them) so they do not become victims of poachers: elephants leg joints are almost as mobile as in racehorses. For example, when moving elephants forelegs bent wrists more than 80 degrees, and ankle hind legs were rigidly fixed. In order to continue driving without dragging the back foot on the ground, elephants are forced to bend it into a bow. This Mottola - 48-year-old female elephant, which has lost 10 back foot by stepping on a land mine on the Myanmar-Thai border. Three years after that Mottola was a permanent bionic prosthesis elephant hospital in Northern Thailand. But the eyes of elephants is relatively small, given its impressive size - slightly larger eye of an adult. This leads many to believe about his poor eyesight. But seeing elephants pretty sharp. In the forest, where the light is not as bright as the eyes pritenit, elephants see much better. It was found that even in sunlight elephant notice the slightest movement at a distance of 45 meters. Elephant - the largest land mammals on the planet! The largest instance of ever recorded in the Book of Records was a male, shot November 7, 1974 in Angola, his weight was 12.24 tons. Another elephant biggest ears of all living beings on Earth. Due to the large area and developed blood supply they help the elephant to get rid of excess heat. Moving ears, elephants fanned them as a fan. Vein pattern on the surface of the ears of an elephant as well as individual as fingerprints in humans. Their skin is quite thick - 2.5 cm. The smallest elephants, about the size of a cow or a large pig, inhabited in the prehistoric period in Crete. Usually elephants are moving at a speed of 2-6 km / h, but for a short time can reach speeds of up to 35-40 km / h: Sleeping elephants standing, gathered together in a tight group. The dream continues about 40 minutes: Elephants are active both day and night, but the activity is reduced during the hottest hours. According to the observations during the day African elephant 13% of the time spent on vacation, 74% - on the breast, 11% - on the transitions and 2% - the rest of the activity: African elephants live to be 60-70 years old, lifelong continuing to rise slowly.