Elephants

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22371, 7 April 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

Elephants

Of all mammals (please note that the word mammal, designates all animals that suckle their young) the elephants are the most remarkable; they are the largest of modern land animals, and are unique in many other v?ays. They differ externally from all other animals by the production of the nose into a long flexible trunk. Their tusks are extraordinary, not

merely on account of their size but because they are not canines’ or eye-teeth, as are the tusks of : most mammals, but are very much - enlarged incisors which continue to : grow throughout the life of the animal, while the huge molars or grinding teeth, though their total number is 24, are never present in the mouth in a greater number

(By John Wilson)

than eight, and then only when replacement is in progress. The huge head with its intelligent-look-ing brow, is designed not to furnish a cranium or protective box for a colossal brain but to support the enormous tusks. The round feet possess five toes on each foot. The toes are joined by skin arid the whole foot is supported .on large flat cushions.

Thousands of years ago there were many different species roaming the primieval forest, but today there remain only two distinct species, the Indian or Asiatic species and the African species. The Asiatic elephant may be easily distinguished by the high forehead, the termination of the trunk in a finger and lip, and by

the comparatively .nail ears. The Indian elephant inhabits not only the country from which it has taken its name, but is found

throughout Ceylon, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Cochin-China, Sumatra, and Borneo. In many districts it is tamed and so highly trained that it is one of the most useful servants known. This species is smaller in every way than its African cousin, large bulls rarely measuring more than . 9ft at the shoulder. This species may also be distinguished by a slight concavity behind the head, which forms a convenient seat for the Mahout, or native driver. White specimens occur in Ceylon and Malay, and are regarded as being sacred in Burma and Siam.

The less familar African elephant is larger in stature and leggier, reaching lift or occasionally more at the shoulder; its ears are bigger and its tusks, the main source of ivory, much more developed. The tusks of a full grown bull weigh on an average about 1801 b. In the case of a large bull, a tusk measuring 10ft 2in in length by 24£ in in girth, and weighing 2281 b being on record. The African elephant includes several distinct races, each of which is confined to a more or less restricted area of the African continent, and is distinguishable by the size and shape of its ears among other features. - The chief races are;—

1, The “Cape,” with enormous ears, in front of which are sharply pointed lappets. 2, The “Round-eared,” of West Africa, in which the ears are large and oval, the lappets half ellipses. 3, The “Sharp-eared,” of the Sudan region, whose ears gre small and semi-circular, with very pointed and angular lappets. 4, The “East African,” mainly from German East Africa, with still smaller ears which are triangular. 5, The “Pigmy,” of Belgian Congo. whose height is 7ft.

6, The “Albert.” of the AlbertNyanza district, distinguished by its unusually short and broad skull. There is much to learn about how elephants are- caught and trained, and what they feed on and the tremendous damage, they. do. to plantations and cultivated areas especially in the Uganda Protectorate. These things will be described in a later article.

Californian Oranges Agricultural history was made in 1873, when a woman in Riverside. California, received two small orange trees from the horticulturist of the United States Department of Agriculture. These were of the Washington navel variety, and had been propagated in the Department’s greenhouses in Washington from small trees received in 1870 from Bahia, Brazil.