Good evening sir. Have you seen... Hello, zoo visitor, my name is Hippo-Thomas Hyena McRiver, the zoo keeper. Yes, Hello, I just wanted to... Here, you can feed Monica the giraffe for only 100 pounds, a clever, well-behaved, decent, and child-loving giraffe. What? What are you saying, Moni? What did Moni the giraffe tell you that's so funny? She's telling me jokes that go over my head. Hey, we have a lot of options here, you can play with a little monkey, or shower under an elephant's trunk, or sniff the bear. Sir, how can I shower with an elephant's trunk? Then you want sea water not fresh! You look like a seal fan! Please, I'm just looking for Leo...
Oh the fiercest animal in the world! The one who eats meat, birds, and humans! Why didn't you say that you're wild? No, I'm looking for my son, Leo! He's lost since this morning, haven't you seen him? I'm sorry, sir, they found your son by the gate and informed me, I'm very sorry. Thank God. By the way, I'll complain to the manager about you! You're the most annoying, insensitive, and rude person I've ever met! Then we head to the pig farm, the most annoying, insensitive, and rude, and they eat anything, you got some garbage? You're such a fit for a zookeeper! Hello, my dear viewers, welcome to another episode of Al Daheeh! Let's go on a journey to Africa's plains, and Southeast Asia's forests, away from civilization and in the heart of wildlife.
Where an animal lives, that's closer to mythical than real, the largest creature to exist on earth in the last 4000 years, after its ancestor, the Woolly Mammoth, rarely does such a huge animal survive extinction, "Extinction" "The Elephant" - I hope it doesn't see me. -Hey, you Dinosaur! I'm coming for you! It was so rare that the elephant would survive extinction, it's too big. The African elephant has an average weight of 7 tons, and one of them had a record weight of 10.8 toms! The T-Rex dinosaur had the same weight as an elephant! That elephant had a height of 4 metres.
Despite this huge T-Rex-like size, we see elephants as friendly and cute animals. We love their playing around and goofiness. We also portray them as protagonists in animated films, such as Dumbo, Horton, and Babar. Since here in AlDaheeh, we criticize and analyze, is the elephant really nice? is this its real personality? or is it hiding something? Let me restate the question, my friend, if the elephant were a small animal, would it have been okay to have it as a pet? Of course Hmeed, you will answer at the end of the episode for suspense, and make us watch the entire episode. Actually, my friend, I'll tell you that the answer is no, I spoiled it. We can't domesticate an elephant. -Why, Hmeed? I won't spoil it now. The elephants, with their flappy ears, flexible trunk, and flappy skin, are divided into three kinds. Two kinds of them are in Africa, the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant.
Both males and females have tusks, and their ears look like Africa. The third kind is the Asian elephant, where only the male has tusks and has smaller ears. The elephant's ears -if you don't know that they do other things than hearing- can be used as air condition for them, they flap it when it's hot, and put on a show when it gets into the water, and gets out flapping around. As if it's in a slow motion edit. But the getting into water and ear flapping are parts of the air condition function, where it cools the blood in the numerous blood vessels in its ears, which makes it able to cool down his entire body temperature, along with another temperature-preserving quality, the skin. The elephant used to be classified, along with the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, under a class called Pachyderm, the thick-skinned animals. Because the thickness of the elephant's skin is up to 2.5 cm, it has thick skin! Its skin is loose to keep moisture inside its body, and it does not evaporate quickly.
Hmeed, it definitely has thick skin in feelings. I can't let you say that about it! It has a thick but sensitive skin. -You know an elephant? -Yes, I do. -Did you get to know it? -No, not yet. But for real, elephants are sensitive to the sun and touch, and they need to roll in mud and dirt to clean themselves of insects. Also, ultraviolet rays can actually kill elephants.
That's why it rolls in mud and dirt, so it can have a protective coat from the sun, it works as a sunblock and insect repellent. At night, the temperature can drop below zero, which thankfully doesn't affect it. Because their huge size makes them generate more heat than what they lose. In the zoo, if the temperature goes less than -35 degrees, they lock the elephants for safety. Until it's time to clean the sides and they let them out. Then the elephants play in the snow and roll around in it. They look cute so far, why can't we domesticate them? My dear viewer, it's so obvious, with all due respect, are you eating well to be able to handle an elephant's feed? Do you know what it eats? and other than what, do you know how much? Elephants eat around 170 kg of food per day.
-Per what? -Per day! -Per what, Hmeed!? -Per day, my friend! per day! Which equates to approximately two 80kg citizens! Not just that, you need a huge pool, elephants drink 150 liters of water daily. But the good news, my friend, is that their feed is cheap. They eat all kinds of plants; grass, leaves, fruit, and tree barks. It approaches a tree, peel it with its tusks and eat the bark. Nothing barks back, Hmeed? That's where we see the importance of the elephant's tusks. It uses it to dig for food and water, or defend itself or lift things up. It's not born with large tusks, it's born with small tusks, like baby teeth, and when they reach 5 cm in length, they fall out...
Its baby tusk is 5 cm! Then the permanent tusks start growing out. They keep growing throughout its life. These tusks are why hunters kill elephants, because under the outer layer of the tusk, what resides? -What, Hmeed, Bitcoin? No, my friend, it doesn't make sense. There are Ivory residences. Ivory is easy to be carved into, and elephant's ivory has a special form, it shines more than the hippo's, the wild boar's, and the sperm whale's tusks. In the elephant's mouth, next to the tusks there are four molars, no wonder it has been so polite. Two on the top, and two at the bottom. Each molar weighs around 2 kilos, and each one is replaced 6 times throughout its life. The new molar grows backward not forward, unlike the rest of the mammals. The new ones push the old ones out of the mouth, until it reaches the sixth set of teeth, where the elephant is old and aged, and tells its kids "I feel old". That's when he needs to eat soft food, because his teeth are sensitive and worn out.
But Hmeed, where's that soft food? The old elephant goes to swamps, to the aquatic plants, and retires there till it dies. That's what made us think that elephants have a special cemetery where they go to die, an elephant cemetery outside the thriving land. What nourished this belief is that death is a huge thing for elephants. The elephant researcher and animal behavior scientist, Joyce Poole, said that she saw three male elephants helping a dying female elephant, as they tried to get her on her feet using their tusks. In another situation, she saw a mother who gave birth to a dead baby, and stayed there protecting it for two days and tried to wake it up...Two full days by its side without going anywhere.
Until the researcher approached her and gave her some water, and the elephants touched her remorse and tranquility. Elephants also slow down when they come across an elephant skeleton. It approaches the bones to touch them with its torso and bottom of its feet. The elephant researcher, Cynthia Moss, said that elephants throw dirt on these skeletons and cover them with palm fronds. In an experiment, an elephant took double the time to check an elephant's skull than a rhinoceros' or a buffalo's. And it takes 6 times more time to examine the ivory than wood. He understands well what he's looking for. So apparently, elephants have feelings towards their own kind. These behaviors made scientists think, it's obvious that the elephant is different. You just noticed? My friend, they mean personality not looks.
The elephant feels others, and has a quality that's in few animals, which is empathy. When researchers used to strike an elephant with an anesthetic dart, the rest of the elephants would try to pull the dart instead of running. Dr. Joshua Plotnik says when he teamed up with behavior specialist Frans De Waal, in a study on 26 Asian elephants, when an elephant gets a jump scare from a helicopter sound, or a dog or a fight, it raised its ears and tail, and screamed in roar, so the other elephants went up to it, whispered, and felt its head and body with their trunks until it calmed down. The elephant found comfort and you didn't. Next time when you hear a helicopter, flap your ears. This wasn't just among elephants and each other. In India, one of the working elephants, meaning humans, raised them for work, it used to pull heavy tree branches, then throw them into a pit.
The elephant was obedient, gentle, and listened to orders. Until one time, they were at the pit but the elephant wouldn't drop the branch, and kept lifting the branch with its tusks in the air. When the man on the elephant approached the pit, he saw a dog sleeping in it. That's why the elephant didn't put down the branch, to not disturb the dog. It doesn't know what dogs do to us at dawn. When the man dismissed the dog, the elephant put down the branch. Aww, a cute animal. Don't be naive, my friend, don't. Wait, the elephant as much as it's kind like you, it has a dark side like you too. It has hidden secrets that I'll uncover. In some Burma's villages, most farmers have two houses, one on the land where they spend the day, and another on the trees.
Why, Hmeed? For when elephants attack. -Really, Hmeed? -Yes, my friend. These farmers live off what they grow, and every once in a while the elephants come and eat it all, and if they try to resist, the elephants can kill them. Elephants ruin agricultural lands that are worth billions of dollars. Elephants' attack on villages is recurrent, like a fight going on in India between humans and elephants. Elephants kill more than a 100 humans per year. Then how do they dance together in Bollywood movies with the bad blood? There are even reports in the Indian state, Odisha, saying that a woman was out filling up water when an elephant attacked and stepped on her and she died of injuries. At her funeral, the elephants came back and terrorized the village, attacked her corpse and stepped over her again! It looks personal. I'm dying to know what she did. Did she make fun of it or something? About its size or color? "What's wrong, woman!" You were right, Hmeed, we can't domesticate it.
Neither food, drink, or raising works. It's not cheap, practical, or well behaved. Behaviors like this can ruin any image you had of the elephant, is it an intelligent and empathetic animal that we can live by in peace? Or a chaotic monster to fear its strength? Researchers laid their thoughts aside, and started experimenting. They experimented on two elephants. The experiment was originally designed for chimpanzees, where they hang fruits away from them, leaving them with some sticks. Chimpanzees used these sticks as tools to get the food/ But the elephant just looked at the food, and didn't get the stick with its trunk.
Researchers then thought that the elephant is mediocre, it can't use tools. It looks like we overrated it. Imagine overrating the elephant. But the researchers at the time, did not notice something, that they dealt with the elephant based on how we see the world. Elephants don't depend on vision like us and chimpanzees, their sight is weak. They mainly depend on their strong sense of smell. If it held the stick with its trunk, it would've blocked its nose, and it would be as if he's blind. After editing the experiment, they put wooden cubes instead of sticks, and moved them, then stepped on them until it reached the food. You smart boy! You really turned out to be smart. In another experiment, the researchers put food in a device, where it needs two to pull it, if it pulled the rope alone, the food would fall out, but if both pull, they reach the food. The elephant didn't just wait for its fellow to pull the ropes together, but they actually came up with an idea that the researchers didn't think of.
One of them steps on the rope with its legs, so it doesn't fall, and the other one pulls the food. Look, my friend, how sweet and smart the elephants are! Except that elephant that killed the lady, ruined her funeral and stepped on her. Researchers proved to some extent that elephants are smart, but it wasn't enough. We had to prove the elephant's self-awareness, which was difficult to measure until the researchers thought of the mirror test. That test was done on most animals, and most of them dealt with the animal in the mirror, which is themselves- as another person. But as another animal who may or may not want to harm them. They decided to run the same test on elephants. They set up mirrors in front of them, and drew a sign on the elephant's body that he wouldn't know it existed unless he looked in the mirror.
When these elephants faced the mirror, at first they behaved as if it were another elephant, as all animals did. They raised their trunks as a greeting; Hello there! But after a while they started to realize that the elephant is copying their movements, so they tried to climb up the mirror, and in the end they managed to realize that its reflection, and wiped off the marks on their bodies that they didn't. t see until they noticed its their reflection. This wasn't a surprise, because an elephant has the biggest brain in land mammals. Not just because it's the biggest animal, but its brain is large compared to its body. There's an expression called Encephalization Quotient, the EQ, it's the expected brain size in every animal. If it's more than 1 then it's large compared to the animal's size. This EQ in the elephant... was average between 1.3 to 2.3. The elephant's brain is two times larger than what's expected from it. That large brain gives space for more mental abilities and behavioral flexibility. Elephants' behavior is changeable, they don't do things in one specific way. If an elephant pulls out a plant from the ground with dirt and mud, it shakes it off the ground.
But if it's close to a source of water, it washes the plant. You sharp boy! If we look at the elephant's brain, we'll find the hippocampus and cortex cerebri are advanced. The hippocampus is responsible for feelings and long-term memory. The elephant that witnessed drought as a baby, can recognize the signs of drought before it occurs. Because elephants have a phenomenal memory. They remember water springs and far food routes, and they adjust their timings to reach a specific place when the fruit is ripe. They won't go when it's not ripe yet. It people remember it met even after years. It attends their funerals. It knows every individual in its pack. The elephant can recognize 30 of its kind by their smell and looks. It also can recognize the sound of 100 different other elephants. It's an important quality in case it came across enemy elephants. In a circus, there were two elephants who had a duet performance, and then they parted ways.
They saw each other 23 years later, and they were happy to see each other again. Because of this strong memory, old elephants are important in any pack, and packs that have an old mother elephant have a higher survival rate. But that long-term memory and feelings can be a curse as much as a blessing. Because they make elephants one of the few animals that get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. -Elephants? -Yes! PTSD. The other advanced part in the elephant's brain, is the cortex cerebri, that makes them creative in problem-solving. Their recorded situations prove this.
There were little elephants living in a banana farm, and the owners had bells around their necks so they could keep an eye on them. The elephants used to put mud in the bells so it wouldn't ring at night and wake people up. Aww they're worried about people's sleep, Hmeed. Actually they were putting mud in the bells so they could steal the banana without making noise. Another elephant dug a hole with its tusks, reached water, and drank it, then it got a nearby tree bark and chewed it, made it into a giant ball, then plugged the hole with it and covered it with dust. I wasn't here! For when he got thirsty again, he could open it and drink! Elephants use sticks to scratch their backs, remove insects between their legs, or use palm fronds as fly repellents.
This intelligence can't be attributed to the elephant's brain only, and forget its genius tool, the trunk! If something happens to the elephant's trunk, a huge part of the elephant's behavioral intelligence shuts down. As if a part of his mind shut down. This trunk is a mix, between a nose and an upper lip, combined, it had neither bones nor cartilage. It's controlled by over 40 thousand muscles, which are strong enough to knock down a tree if it pushes it. But at the same time, it's swift enough to grab a clover stick. It helps the elephant breathe as it has two nostrils, which it also uses to drink like straws.
One might ask, how an elephant drinks from its nose, won't it choke? No, my friend, it pulls up some water, gets the trunk to his mouth, lifts it up, and... nose is empty, breathe now, water is drank. It also uses the trunk for grabbing, throwing, greeting, touching, and blowing. There was an old legend that says elephants fear mice, because they get into their trunks and clog it. But that's incorrect, because an elephant can get rid of the mouse with one blow. Mice co-exist around elephants everywhere even in a zoo and they're not scared. But what they really fear is bees! Elephants fear that bees will sting them in their trunks, mouths, or eyes. Which, by the way, was a solution for villages that live by elephants, they had bee hives around their lands, and researchers found that this keeps 80% of elephants away. This is because elephants get obsessed with any danger, warn each other, and stay miles away from it. The biologist at Stanford university, Caitlin Rodwell, found that if the elephant is scared, it stomps on the ground.
Not just to warn the ones around him, but also the ones miles away. The stomp of his feet echoes a specific frequency that other elephants understand from the sensitive nerve endings in their feet. Or they call out with their loud voice. Elephants, by the way, are chatty animals, they make noise; snores, roars, screams, cry outs, and gurgles. Gurgles like the cats'. That's weird. But we don't hear most of the elephant's sounds, because they make infrasonic waves, with a frequency between 1-20 Hertz that we can't hear, but they can communicate with it at a distance of up to 10 km.
What they say to each other, or how they pass around information, we don't know. It's even thought that they have their own language with its own rules. Because the linguistic sense of the elephants is advanced. Researches in Amboseli's National Park in Kenya, played sounds of people talking two different languages from two groups, one of them hunted the elephants and ate them, and the other one didn't.
When the elephants heard the eaters, they clustered together, sniffed the air, and acted defensively. One of the Asian elephant learned some korean! Researchers think that it not only simulates sounds like a parrot, but that it learns the words as a form of social communication. Because elephants first grew up among humans , and are shaped by their environment. A newborn elephant doesn't know how to use its trunk, it just swings it around aimlessly. What's this thing? it wonders. It's even breastfed through its mouth not trunk. By the way, a newborn drinks 11 liters of milk a day. It gains one kilogram every day in its first year, and lives in a pack for the first three years of its life, a pack that consists of females and their babies. The head of the pack is the oldest mother among them.
Females keep the young ones safe, and teach them how to be elephants; how to move their four legs in the same direction, how to flap their ears, and the etiquette of using the trunk, and how to greet another elephant. Their habit is that the lower rank elephant puts its trunk in the mouth of the higher one, as a sign of trust from the younger elephant to the older one, because the older one can bite the trunk. It means, "Here take my trunk between your teeth, I know you're a decent old one who won't bite it like kids do".
The older one pays back the respect and removes its trunk. In the pack, the young elephant is the most threatened by hyenas, lions, cheetahs, and crocodiles, so the pack forms a circle of protection around him, and the babies remain in the middle while the adults face the attacker. The only enemy that can take down a big healthy elephant is a man hunter, because elephants are alert.
That's literally, they don't sleep. Think about it, in the forest if an elephant of this size slept, and a predator approaches, when will it get up? Its reaction would be too slow. Here, my friend, the pack makes a deal, they would take turns sleeping, some sleep and others are up protecting them mothers sometimes don't sleep for days, for the safety of the pack. The ones who actually deep sleep are the young ones, the adults sleep a maximum of 2-3 hours a day, and not continuous but throughout the day. But the adult elephants in zoos sleep for about six hours, because there's simply no external threat to worry about, so, they sleep comfortably. When we think about how cute and lovely elephants are, my friend, we imagine a baby elephant playing around, running after birds with his tiny trunk, new to the world, full of curiosity and courage, just like real children, still getting breastfed despite his size. So, why do you think we love elephants this much? Not only because they're nice, which isn't always the case, but also, we like them because we see parts of ourselves in them.
Personally, I always see myself in them during winter, Hmeed. In them, we see happiness, sadness, empathy, self-awareness, aging, birth, maternity, life in groups till retirement, and, finally, death. It's a fascinating creature like no other, or, as the English poet John Donne described it, "Nature's great masterpiece." "The only harmless great thing." I bet India can test that. In the end, don't forget to watch our old videos and new ones, check the sources below, and subscribe if you're on YouTube.
The episode's question is: Do elephants have elbows or knees at the front? Easy question, not a head-scratcher..
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