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AFRICAN ELEPHANT
IDENTIFICATION: The familiar large (up to 71/2 tons), trunked mammal with enormous ears and tusks in both sexes. DISTRIBUTION: Sub-Saharan Africa; endangered. HABITAT: Varied, including forest, savanna, marsh, semidesert, mountains. STUDY AREAS: Several locations in Africa, induding Uganda and the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe; Kronberg Zoo, Germany; subspecies
ASIATIC ELEPHANT
IDENTIFICATION: Similar to African Elephant, but smaller, with tusks only in males, face and ears often mottled, forehead more convex and back more sloping, ears much smaller, and trunk with two fingerlike tips. DISTRIBUTION: India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, China; endangered. HABITAT: Savanna, forest. STUDY AREAS: Periyar Tiger Reserve, Manakkavala, India; Lahugala, Sri Lanka; Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka; subspecies
Social Organization
Elephants have a complex and highly organized community life. Females usually live in matriarchal herds of up to 50 individuals (loosely organized into family groups) led by an older female and generally containing no permanent adult males. Bulls often form male-only herds of 7–15 individuals (particularly in the African species), but may also be loners. Breeding males associate only temporarily with the female herds and mate with several different females.
Description
Although female homosexual activity has not yet been observed among wild Elephants, in captivity females sometimes masturbate one another with their trunks (the female’s clitoris is nearly 17 inches long when erect or engorged). In addition, both female and male Asiatic Elephants in captivity engage in a variety of same-sex interactions with one another, including mounting activities and touching of the genitals with the trunk. Pregnant females also sometimes participate in these interactions.
Male Elephants also form “companionships,” usually composed of an older bull and an attendant younger male (in contrast, there are no long-lasting heterosexual bonds in these species). In African Elephants, the younger male often helps the older one by guarding him or pulling down branches for him; in other cases, the older bull may help a younger male (or vice versa) who is injured or suffering from blindness or paralysis. The two males are constant companions and generally isolated from other Elephants; occasionally, an older bull will have two younger attendants. Among Asiatic Elephants, such male companionships appear not to be as long-lasting as in African Elephants. Younger attendant males in African Elephants are sometimes reported to have enlarged genitalia.
Nonreproductive and Alternative Heterosexualities
Elephant heterosexual life is frequently characterized by segregation and even antagonism between the sexes. In Asiatic Elephants, males and females often live separate from each other: males only associate with female herds about 25—30 percent of the time, and approximately 60 percent of the herds are not accompanied by males. As described above, Elephant herd structure is matriarchal, and females have even developed alternative parenting and “baby-sitting” arrangements without the contribution of males. Asiatic Elephant mothers often leave their calves in “nursery groups” that the adult females take turns looking after, allowing the other mothers to forage on their own. Female African Elephants often look after and occasionally even suckle other calves in their