Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Skeleton belonging to Ahmed on display at Nairobi National Museum. Ahmed (1919–1974) was a Kenyan elephant with unusually large tusks. [1]He spent some of his time in the area of Mount Marsabit, and was the first elephant to be protected under Kenyan presidential decree. [2]
Elephants are one of the most sophisticated tool-using animals on the planet, and that’s thanks to both their big brains and the combination of both tusks and a trunk.
In 2013, over 20,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory. The slaughter of African elephants is driven by the black market value of elephant ivory. The illicit trade in ivory is primarily in Asia where ivory sells for several thousands of dollars per kilogram. [8] Satao's tusks were estimated to weigh more than 100 pounds (45 kg) each.
The dominant, or "master" tusk, is typically more worn down, as it is shorter and blunter. For African elephants, tusks are present in both males and females and are around the same length in both sexes, reaching up to 300 cm (9 ft 10 in), [55] but those of males tend to be more massive. [56] In the Asian species, only the males have large tusks.
Elephants can even recognize a deceased family member’s tusks and show signs of grief when they encounter the bodies or bones of their loved ones. Colors and Shape It’s not just friendly faces ...
An African elephant in Tanzania, with visible tusks. Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with narwhals, chevrotains, musk deer, water deer, muntjac, pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors.
The skull is proportionally short and tall, [3] with the premaxillary bones containing the tusks being flared outwards. The tusks have relatively little curvature, and are proportionally large, [6] and somewhat twisted, with the tusk alveoli (sockets) being divergent from each other at least in Pleistocene species. [3]
This is so cool to watch!