Feeding Ecology, Mating System,
Gestation Period and Child Spacing in Elephants
Conservation
of threated biological species is now a work of endeavor to most of
conservationist globally. Despite the efforts taken by conservers at regional
and international level, many societies of the world are still resilient and
hindering conservation efforts. Were not in the position that can admittedly
allow us to pose our blames to any group of people whom in one way or more are
contributing in destroying our conservation efforts to secure these valuable
natural resources. For that reason the
fountain of understanding must first spring in minds of people to make them
support these efforts. I believe that
with these papers you may grasp inspiration or gain enthusiasm which will
apparently pave a way for transformation as well as building positive attitude
toward conservation of biodiversities in your compounds.
Dear
friend for this paper I would like to expose you to several aspects regarding
elephants behavioral ecology, these includes; feeding ecology, daily ranging, mating
system, gestation period and child spacing.
Gestation period and Child spacing
Gestation
period in elephants takes
about two years and the child spacing or inter-birth intervals usually lasting
to 4 or 5 years. Very often elephants give birth during the wet season where birth
coincides with resource need. Calves are born 85 cm and weigh to about
120 kg. Mostly elephant’s give birth to one young, rarely twins also occurs.
Daily
range
The average distance covered by an animal in
a day ranges from 10 to20 km, but ecologists have literary proved that
elephant can also move to about (90–180 km).
Mating system
Elephants are polygynous breeders, and copulations are most
frequent during the peak of the wet season. Adult males and females come
together for reproduction; mostly bulls appear to associate with family groups
if an oestrous cow is present. Adult males enter a state of increased
testosterone known as musth.
The age in which elephant enters musth
varies from 15 to 35 years. Elephant with the age less than 25years seldomly enter into
musth but this become intense with age above 25. Young bulls appear to enter
musth during the dry season, while older bulls go through it during the wet
season. A cow in oestrus releases
chemical signals (pheromones) in her
urine and vaginal secretions to signal her readiness to mate. A bull will
follow a potential mate and assess her condition with the flehmen response by collecting a chemical sample with his
trunk and bring it to the vemeronasal.
The oestrous cycle of a cow lasts 14–16 weeks with a 4–6-week follicular phase and
an 8–10-week luteal phase. Elephants have two ovulatory surge. The first (or
anovulatory) surge could signal to males that the female is in oestrus by
changing her scent, but ovulation does not occur until the second (or
ovulatory) surge. Bulls engage in a behaviour known as mate-guarding, where they follow
oestrous females and defend them from other males. Most mate-guarding is done
by musth males, and females actively seek to be guarded by them, particularly
older ones. Thus these bulls have more reproductive success. Musth
appears to signal to females the condition of the male, as weak or injured
males do not have normal musths. During copulation, the male lays his
trunk over the female's back. The penis is very mobile, being able to move
independently of the pelvis. Prior to mounting, it curves forward and
upward. Copulation lasts about 45 seconds and does not involve ejaculatory
pause. Homosexual is frequent in both sexes, elephants can also masturbate.
Feeding ecology
Elephants are herbivorous and
will eat leaves, twigs, fruit, bark, grass and roots. They are born with
sterile intestines and require bacteria obtained from their mother's feces to
digest vegetation. African elephants are mostly browsers while Asian elephants are
mainly grazers. They can consume as much as 150 kg of food and
40 L of water in a day. Elephants tend to stay near water sources. For
elephants nutrition constraints are pronounced as the dry season progresses
(Okello et all.,2015) thus increasing
their home range due to scarcity of
resources, during this period (dry season) resources may also be localized. Most often
during the dry season elephants tend to concentrate their foraging activities in
areas close to water ( Chamaille Jammes et al., 2007). Conceivably elephants
have poor digestion efficiency with relatively high throughput rate where most
digestion takes place in the capacious hind gut (Okello et all.,2015) hence
known as wasteful feeders (Kerley et
al., 2008). Major feeding takes place in the morning, afternoon and
night. At midday, elephants rest under trees and may doze off while standing. . Sleeping occurs at night while the animal
is lying down. Elephants average 3–4 hours of sleep per day.
Thanks
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