Essay, continued

 

Who has no natural predators? The elephant.

These gentle, loyal, family-oriented, strong, wise and useful animals are my kind of "people." They have been a helpmate to man since recorded history makes mention of them. They took Hannibal over the Alps. They aided Alexander’s attempt to conquer the known world. They moved the stuff of civilizations. They were some of the very first "tour buses." However elephants did not need to prove useful to man to prove useful to the world.

(I choose not to address poaching and habitat loss. It is too heart-breaking.)

It’s true that elephants may trample brush underfoot and eat tons of their environment, but it is also true that they blaze trails for other wild animals and man to follow and bring plant life to new locations in their dung. There are, in fact, seeds that will not germinate unless they have passed through an elephant! Elephants pushing trees to the ground open a forest canopy for life-giving light to make it’s way to seedlings on the forest floor. Elephants dig down to the water level in dry riverbed locations, bringing life-giving water to other animals and plant life. It is said that knowledge of waterholes is ancestral lore, passed to each new generation.

They say that elephants never forget. This is probably due to the size of their craniums. The temporal lobe (the seat of memory) of the elephant is somewhat bigger and more convoluted than that of man. It would be wonderful if I could remember everything I want to recall. I am grateful however, sometimes, for the things that I have been able to forget.

Elephants remember each other for generations. Elephants that know each other or perhaps grew up together greet each other in an elaborate ceremony when they see each other again. It’s not anything like putting on a big dinner when your old uncle comes to town.

Humans ultimately die alone, but elephants attend each other beyond their passing. Observers tell of rituals of tender care and sympathy before, during and after death. Elephants will visit the bones of their dead, gently feeling the remains in remembrance. It’s hard to watch this and not feel vicarious grief.

And when members of an elephant family become separated the animals become anxious and call out to each other. I guess that makes the elephants better than me where it comes to keeping up with the relations. Their complex bonds are essential to survival and remembering who you can trust is a survival tool for any living being.

Every family herd of elephants is led by a venerable female, a matriarch, who keeps her family together. She knows whether to circle the wagons or to light out for the territories when threatened.

Elephants frolic when it’s safe, abandoning decorum to splash each other at the waterhole. These are my kind of people. I generally like to stay warm and dry but if you wanna splash around, don’t expect any mercy once I change into my playclothes.

Elephants live in herds without bulls on a day-to-day basis, but when one of the girls is in heat, bull are tolerated on the outskirts of the herd as they compete for her favor.

Once male elephants reach maturity, they are more or less on their own. They may opt to form a loose pack with other bulls, but there just isn’t the same organization going on. They spar for dominance among their peers and older bulls guide, teach and protect the up-and-comers. It is said that elephants not only remember each other but also each other’s social standing when they meet, so they need not vie for position again and again. But they will fight for hours, maybe even a day or two, and sometimes to death. (Men!)

African bulls come into "musth" in their 20s. That’s about 16 to a human boy, I would guess. This is the time when they want to bandy about and strut their stuff. They start stinking up the place with smelly urine to leave their mark. I’ve cleaned some young men’s rooms in my day and some bathrooms as well, and I can tell you… but I won’t....

The bull checks the females for readiness to mate through special organs in his mouth. He puts his trunk on her and breathes her in. If she is receptive, she invites him to follow her. She makes the choice. The male will stay with her until "esterus" ends, trying to protect her from other bulls. She may choose subsequent mates, thereby insuring that the big kahuna elephant, the strongest stud, is her baby’s daddy. Then she goes back into the company of the women who will help her raise her child. The poor gal gestates that sucker for 22 months. And you thought nine was a pisser! Almost two years! Dang!!! That might just be a major reason why males aren’t tolerated nor do they mate for life. Think about it....

Now, frankly, I personally don’t care for all this mating foolishness. I’m just not that kind of elephant. I’m happy in my crowd of girls with anoccasional visit from the dudes for their sake, but that’s just me. This is MY essay, after all.

Did I mention that the female elephant is ready to mate for only two days in four years?  Ahhh.  Imagine the freedom.

Maybe one of the best things about the elephant from a human perspective is that wrinkles are not only beautiful to another elephant but essential in helping them stay cool. Water and mud linger in the wrinkles and help them stay cool as the water evaporates. Elephants can tolerate temperature extremes but even elephants have to keep from getting too hot. Their ears act as radiators, cooling the blood which flows back into their bodies. The deeper and more plentiful the wrinkles, they cooler you are. Take that, Oil of Olay!

And what life wasn't enriched by playing in dirt and mud?  Imagine if it was socially acceptable for all ages!

Think of all the time and money you’d save if you were allowed to embrace your wrinkles like an aging male movie star. Hmph.

Elephants eat 3/4ths of their lives, devouring about 50 tons a year each. They turn forests into grasslands and waterholes into swamps. They change their world almost as much as we do. (I didn’t say everything about them was good.) I don’t eat as often as an elephant. I usually only eat twice a day, but I probably spend a lot of time thinking about food.

Elephant teeth continually generate until they reach their 60s. They chew and wear down their teeth but more teeth push forward to replace the worn teeth. Finally, when the last teeth wear down, the elephant can no longer eat as much and death is not far off.

Now elephants are an untapped resource. One elephant "pooties" enough methane by-product from it’s digestion processes in a day to fuel 20 miles of car travel! All the more reason to keep them around. Alternative energy on both ends!

Now let’s get to the really good part of the elephant: the trunk. Strong and sensitive, this is a fascinating device. Able to lift 450 pounds without fuss, able to drag much more weight, it reaches plants that other animals cannot with it’s telescoping action (that includes giraffes!) With it, an elephant is able to siphon 56 gallons of water in 4&1/2 minutes. It possesses a keener sense of smell than a dog and is as dexterous as a human hand. And elephant can pick lint from it’s eye or a single seed from the ground.

The trunk is a siphon, a hose and a bucket. Elephants pull water into their schnozzles and lift it to their mouths and let the water into their throats. Taking in water through the sinuses must be 1,000 times more uncomfortable to them than it is to us. Eesh!

The trunk is more useful than a Swiss Army knife. It has no bones, but rather is controlled by some 100,000 muscles which allow it to bend in any direction. It takes a long time to perfect trunk control though. Imagine stepping on your own nose! I guess it helps keep the baby elephants busy.

Elephants can reach higher than giraffes into the trees, shake fruit to the ground, dig roots and tubers with their tusks and gather grasses in the depths of the swamp. Even when food is scarce, they have a means of surviving. With their amazing trunks they can dig to where water is only seeping and will patiently wait for their trunks to fill before drinking.

Like humans, elephants mature sexually in their teens. However while females can mother effectively, with support, from their teens, males of the genus aren’t likely to achieve fatherhood until they reach their 30s. And even then, they aren’t sticking around. Who needs ‘em? They’re smelly, anyway. But at least they were thoughtful enough to time their amorous attentions to a birth time when there is abundant food.

Raising a child is better when you do not do it alone. A calf finding itself in some dangerous or chaotic situation only need to cry out to have a herd attend it and bring it to safety. There was a time in human history when families stayed close together and the entire family provided your lessons on life.

So here were are: Elephants essentially have no one bothering them, live in interdependent, matriarchical and very caring family groups and provide many services to their habitat and the creatures that share it. They eat, sleep, exercise and frolic all in a day. They regulate their own temperature and do not sweat. The females support each other and don't desert their loved ones unless the survival of the herd depends upon it. They don't have jobs, don't need cars, eat whatever they can find and owe nothing to VISA. What could be better?

Maybe one of the best things about elephants is that being huge is not only desirous but a sign of good health. A skinny elephant is a very bad thing.

Have another piece of pie, honey.

Jambo! http://journals.aol.com/judithheartsong/newbeginning/entries/1556