Elephants and Their Environment

 

 

                   "About Elephants." About Elephants. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2013
                 Link: http://elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/about_elephants.htm

Elephants, in my opinion are a very interesting creature! They are these huge mammals that walk the earth and before doing some research on them, I didn’t know a lot of things I wish I did. For one, elephants eat enormous amount of food every day but their digestive system only takes in 40 percent of it; which means that the other 60 percent that comes out as feces is undigested. And the reason they keep eating and eating is because their food goes through their digestive system so fast that they don’t get all the nutrients unless they keep consuming; this is called hindgut fermentation.

            Elephants are also a lot like humans, believe it or not. They are one of the most expressive mammals other than humans. They show joy, anger, love, compassion and grief, and are capable of complex thoughts and deep feeling. When an elephant dies whether it is a family member, still born baby or other elephants, they can grieve their death. They can live up to 70 years as well, much longer than any household pet. Another thing is that elephants go through similar health problems that humans go through; such as, menopause, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, etc. They can also adapt to many different environments which explains why they live so long in captivity. I believe they should be in their natural environment because of how much an average elephant travel every day and how much interaction they need because of how social they are as animals.