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Elephants or pachyderms (meaning thick-skinned) are the largest land mammals living today. There are two different species of Elephant the African and the Asian. All Elephants are herbivores and spend the majority of every day collecting their plant food.

Elephants are social animals and live in large family groups consisting of several generations, at the head of which is the dominant female, although adult males sometimes live alone. The social lives of male and female elephants are very different, with the females being highly involved with caring for the young.

Elephants are excellent mothers and a female will keep her baby close for many years, assisted by other females in the family group. The whole group is involved in child-care and if a baby Elephant is in distress members of the group will comfort it by touching and caressing with their trunks. The social behavior of the group often involves touching other members and entwining trunks.

Elephants are rarely attacked by predators. Occasionally a young elephant or even, very rarely, an adult will be taken by lions or other big cats, but the main threat to Elephants in the wild is man.

The social behavior of the two different species of Elephant is very similar although their physical characteristics are different. The most known and obvious difference is the size of the ears, but also African elephants are equipped with two finger-like projections at the tip of their trunk, while Asian Elephants have only one.

Elephants may communicate with each other within the group by sounds and touching but it is also believed that sound communication between elephants on large distances, through vibrations on the ground, is important in their social lives, and elephants are observed listening by putting trunks on the ground and carefully moving their very sensitive feet.

Learn more about this author, Cathy Linton.
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