Elephants: Differeces Between Males and Females By.Tim Langley, 4/1/03
Both male and female elephants are mammals and yes they eat, drink, and sleep the same ways, but there are many differences between the two. One common trait is the size of the elephants. Male elephants are much larger than female elephants. In both African and Asian elephants the male is larger.
All male and female elephants are different over the world. For example, female Asian and African elephants all develop tusks eventually. This is different though for female Indian elephants. Female Indian elephants usually do not develop the tusks. Sometimes you could see a female with tusks, but it is uncommon. Some of the differences between males and females occur inside the body.
Male elephants are internally different with different chemicals inside their body. Like testosterone with humans, male elephants also have an aggressive chemical. When a male elephant is fully matured it goes though "musth". Musth is when the male elephant makes secretions out of their musth glands (giving it the name musth) behind the eye. The male becomes more aggressive and usually mates in this stage. Females do not go through musth.
Females do not mate once in their life. They mate from the time they become sexually active which is about 12 years old. Males on the other hand wait until their mid twenties to mate even though they become active at around 14 years old. Females may mate with the same male more than once, but it is unlikely that they will throughout their lives. Females keep having children until they die or are unable to do so.
Something that male and females both have in common is there long term memory. An elephant can remember things like deaths and children. Like humans elephants mourn over there lost "friends". In the years after the death elephants can still remember them
All elephants walk in herds, but who leads this herd? Surprisingly the females dominate the herd. Because of this all of the daughter elephants usually always stay in the same herd until they die. Daughter elephants are most dependent on their mothers till the age of 16. Males although leave the herd at an age as young as 5 years old. Males go to mate and start a new life.
Since the female is dominant, they must alert the rest of the herd of trouble. When an elephant makes the loud noises it indicates that there is trouble. When elephants actually have to communicate they make infrasonic sounds which humans can not hear. An elephant can communicate to another elephant from almost two miles away!
In all species the male likes to play. This is no different with the male elephant. A male elephant at a young age likes to wrestle with the other elephants. Another common thing to see is a baby elephant sneaking up on a buffalo calf or other small animal. The baby elephant kills the calf all in play.
A very big problem with both elephant sexes is extinction. Due to poachers elephants have been dieing off rapidly. The only thing the poachers want from the elephants are there ivory. Another problem for elephants is the circuses and zoos. Male elephants are normally too aggressive for a circus or zoo so females are usually targeted. Some places even go to the extent of artificial insemination to make offspring. Elephants should be kept out in the wild to life the life they were meant to live. We need to let them rebuild there race normally. An early ancestor of the elephant was the woolly mammoth. The mammoth was wiped out with the dinosaurs. I hope this isn’t the same with the elephants.
I hope that I have informed you with the differences between male and female elephants. Weather it be internal or external there are many different differences.
The lists down below are some quick facts that were covered in my paper. These facts can hopefully give people a little knowledge about elephants without reading the whole paper.
Works Cited
"Elephants." Britannica. 1st ed. New York City: ,
1994.
S.J.R. Adams. "A Life in Chains." . . PETA. 3/19/03
http://www.peta.org/liv/animaltimes/ats2001/chains/lif echains.html>.
"PBS online: Anamalai Getal Giants." Gental Giants.
3/16/03. PBS. 3/20/03
.
Females:
- Begin mating at 12 years old.
- Are one half the size of males
- Can weigh up to 8,000 pounds (African)
Males:
- Reach adulthood when they are 10 o 14 years old.
- Are bigger than females.
- Go through musth.
- Don't mate until their twenties.
- Can weigh up to 13,800 pounds (African)
Mr. Shoff
- For some reason my paragraphs dont indent. I also could not move my works cited down from my paper. If you want I can print you out an easier to read copy of the paper. Thanks.
