Developmental Stages

"Elephant Life Cycle." Elephant Life Cycle. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

http://www.andrews-elephants.com/life-cycle.html


       Elephants go through very similar developmental stages as humans do. There’s are broke into three stages; Baby Stage lasting from birth to 5-10 years, Adolescent Stage which lasts from the end of baby stage (determined by the elephant weaning off mother’s breast milk) to about age 17 when the elephant starts to mate or meets complete sexual maturity, lastly the Adult Stage is from age 17 through the entirety of their life. Elephants have the life expectancy of about 70 years. An elephant stays in its mother’s womb for around two years before they give birth! I can’t even imagine carrying a child for that long. They stop having calves at about 50 years old. During their adult stage an elephant would usually leave their matriarchal herd but it’s usually just the males, who then form their own herd (usually small) called a ‘bachelor pod’. A funny fact about elephants is that they also go through a similar menopause that humans go through during Adulthood. They also get some of the same health issues as humans; for example, arthritis and cardiovascular disease. Elephants are definitely a lot like humans and it’s very rare to find an animal that goes through developmental stages as slow as a human.