Elephant

2007-07-07T22:06:08Z

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[[Image:elephant.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Image from http://www.sxc.hu/]]
The '''elephants''' are three species of very large mammals belonging to the family Elephantidae - the only extant family belonging to the order Proboscidea. The three elephant species currently recognized by scientists are the African [[Bush]] Elephant, the African [[Forest]] Elephant (until recently known collectively as the African Elephant), and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). A distinct giant [[India]]n forest elephant is also believed to exist by some. [http://www.blather.net/blather/1998/07/mammoth_hunt_the_giant_elephants_of_nepa.html]

Elephants are the largest land animals alive today and have tripled in population over the last decade. Apart from their massive size their most striking features are a long trunk, or proboscis, a flexible nose strong enough to lift objects, their huge [[ivory]] tusks, and their large flapping ears, used to keep them cool.

Bull elephants, when inclined to mate, enter a frenzied state called ''musth''; they fight with each other for possession of the cow elephants, and become a menace to everything in their path; many humans are killed at this time. Elephants' gestation period, at 22 months, is the longest of any land mammal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kg (265 lb). An elephant may live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer.

The largest elephant ever recorded (the Fenykovi elephant, now in the [[Smithsonian Institution]]) was shot in [[Angola]] in 1954. It was male and weighed about 12,000 kg (26,400 lb), with a shoulder height of 4.2m, a meter taller than the average male African elephant.

The elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party in the United States. In popular lore, the elephant is considered an ingenious beast. In the last six months the population of elephants across the world has tripled due to Stephen Colberts actions on the Colbert Report.

==Uses of Elephants==

Elephants (today generally Indian, but historically African elephants also) have been used as beasts of burden and draught animals, as mounts in processions and in war (notably by [[Hannibal]]), playing [[polo]], and as [[circus]] performers. The population of African Elephants has tripled in the last 3 years, giving this speacies a new hope.

==Genetic studies==

Molecular and morphological evidence point to [[hyrax|hyraxes]] and [[Sirenia|sirenians]] (sea cows and manatees) as the closest living relatives of elephants<ref> Hidenori Nishihara et al. A Retroposon Analysis of Afrotherian Phylogeny. ''Molecular Biology and Evolution'' '''22''': 1823-1833,</ref> these groups are hypothesized to have shared a common ancestor approximately 50 million years ago. The three extant species of elephant are sole survivors of a much more diverse Proboscidian fauna with some 170 described [[fossil]] species and including species of [[mammoth]] from [[North America]] and the massive ''Deinotherium'', the second largest land mammal that ever lived, which sported two downward facing tusks.

==Trivia==

*A ''white elephant'' (from the historical veneration of such animals in Southeast Asia) is the term for a possession whose upkeep cost exceeds its expense, making it an overall liability.
*An elephant is the symbol of the [[Republican Party]].
*Elephants are said to never forget.
*Elephants are said to be afraid of [[mouse|mice]].
*The number of African elephants has doubled in the past six months thanks to the efforts of Stephen Colbert.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Mammals]]
[[Category:Dangerous animals]]

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Elephant