Eyewitness II; #107; Elephant

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Elephant: the largest and heaviest land animal on earth, a gentle giant that has influenced history, and to this day plays a sizable role in many cultures and religions. If it's many unusual parts, both physical and historical, could be displayed in an elephant ceremonial garment, or caparison, then this elephant might carry the story of all elephants. They have been gods, symbols of political parties, ancient toys, and beasts of burden in war and peace. According to Rudyard Kipling's story "The Elephant Child", the elephant's trunk was made long by a crocodile, a stretch of the imagination if there ever was one. The fact is the elephant wins the largest nose in the world contest by more than a nose. The closest contenders for the largest schnoz title, the elephant seal and the elephant shrew, come in a poor second to our

mighty pachyderm. But not all pachyderms are elephants. The term refers to rhinos, too, and simply means thick skin. Although elephant skin can be up to one inch thick, it's not their most distinctive feature. As a famous poem observes, "when people call this beast to mind, they marvel more and more, at such a little tale behind, so large a trunk before." The trunk is actually part nose and part upper lip, a mass of 100,000 separate muscles with the power to shake down a meal, And the precision to reap the rewards. In its search for succulent leaves, the trunk can reach higher than the tallest of all animals, the giraffe. Wielding a leafy fan, it can swat away irritating flies. With a six gallon

water capacity, it's a squirt gun that works best when it backfires, and with help from the tusks, the trunk can maneuver massive logs. When it comes to the dexterity and power needed to move a portable temple in India, the elephant has a head start. Elephants belong to a family known as proboscidea, or animals with a trunk. One of the earliest elephant ancestors was the short snouted Moeritherium. Later came Deinotherium, with its backward curved tusks for digging roots. Gomphotherium stood ten feet tall and had a shovel shaped lower jaw and tusk. Mammoths were the closest relatives of modern day elephants, but were driven into extinction by climate changes and hunting.

The first complete mammoth was discovered in 1799 by a Russian fisherman peering into a wall of ice. Mammoths frozen for over forty thousand years have been found in the icebox of Siberia. Some of the most impressive mammoth bones and tusks have come from the homes of ancient peoples. One of the last elephants to go extinct was the pygmy elephant from Sicily. Only reaching three to five feet, the baby pygmy would have been smaller than a sheep. It may explain the legend of the giant roc, a bird said to swoop down and carry elephants away. Only two species of elephant remain today: the African and the Asian. The average Asian elephant tips the scales at about 9000 pounds, give or take a caparison. An 8 year old African female weighs in at 3000 pounds, but a full grown African bull breaks the scales at 15,000 pounds. Another difference between the African

and Asian is in the curve of their backs. The African elephant is saddleback; Asian more humpback. But when it comes to the biggest difference, the ears have it. An African elephant's ears are much larger than an Asian's. In both size and shape, the ear of the African and that of the Asian bear some resemblance to their respective homelands. A lesser known difference, but very significant, is in the grip tips or fingers of the elephant's trunk. The Asian elephant has one triangular finger at the end of its trunk, and grips by pressing this against the broad underside of the trunk. The African elephant has two opposing fingers and because of this additional finger, can pick up anything from a banana to a tiny seed.

It can even turn the pages of its own story book. With such precise fingers, it's no wonder that the Sanskrit word for trunk, "hasta", is the same as for hand, and the Sanskrit term for elephant means "animal with hand". Elephants even greet each other with their trucks, with their own version of a handshake. All elephants, except for female Asian elephants, can grow very large tusks. But the longest tusks on record belong to a mammoth, curving up to 16 feet in length. Tusks are actually an elephant's front teeth which continue to grow throughout life, though they are constantly worn down by activities such as digging. In this case the elephant is digging for mineral salts, an important supplement to an

elephant's diet. Just as people are right or left handed, elephants are right or left tusked, and the shorter of the two indicates which one does the most work. For young elephants, tusk sparring is not only fun but good training for future bouts. When they're adults they'll have to fight other males for territory and females. Trust can be lethal weapons, and some fights between huge tuskers end in death. For the Perahera festival in Sri Lanka, tusks are sheated with gold. The most unusual tooth on display is a relic in a gold box.

The box is said to contain the actual tooth of the Buddha and is the focus of a huge parade with over 100 elephants festooned in elaborate caparisons. The festivities continue long into the night, illuminated by torches and the hundreds of lights and mirrors adorning the elephant caparisons. Tusks grow about seven inches a year throughout an elephant's life and who knows? Maybe one of this African's tusks will surpass the largest elephant tusk on record: 12 feet long and 235 pounds. As well as inspiring awe, such tusks have also inspired greed. But why has elephant ivory, or "white gold", always been so desirable? Ivory is easily carved, durable, pleasing to the touch, and until

recently, readily available for the taking. Although ivory was used to make some of the earliest works of art twenty seven thousand years ago, today's demand threatens the elephants' survived. Despite bans and the burning of illegally poached ivory, many elephants continue to be slaughtered to satisfy the human desire for white gold. Humans have always been the elephants' greatest threat. Even the king of the jungle poses little danger to the combined might of the herd. Every elephant likes to throw its weight around and protect its territory against trespassers. This youngster makes a game of it with some noisy mynah birds. (music) Although an elephant's front teeth get most of the attention, it's their massive molars that put in the longest hours. They have two in the top jaw and two in the lower. With the wear and tear of

almost nonstop eating, they go through six sets of the molars in a lifetime. These voracious vegetarians spend up to three quarters of their day chowing down, making them the biggest eaters on land. Clearing two hundred and twenty to four hundred and fifty pounds of vegetation a day also makes them the biggest weed whackers. Elephants are still the largest single influence in clearing wood land, and creating the open grasslands of Africa. Unfortunately, such monstrous appetites don't differentiate between what grows wild and what people cultivate. If anything, they prefer the tastier human produce, making them multi-ton pests to local farmers. (background sounds, voices) Given the elephants' immense size and strength, it's no wonder it was man's supreme war machine for thousands of years.

Kings rode into battle and directed maneuvers from their state elephants. Some of the greatest military campaigns hinged on the use of these predecessors to the tank. Hannibal took elephants across Spain and over the French Alps in his attempt to conquer Rome. In 326 B.C. Alexander's campaign to reach the eastern sea failed because his troops were terrified of the enemy's elephants. As well as the terror they inspired, they were the perfect platform for archers. As warfare evolved, anti-elephant soldiers used torches and spears to panic the enemy's elephants, turn them, and send them stampeding back into their own troops. The driver of a maddened elephant would then resort to the ancient version of the cyanide pill: a mallet and a spike to be driven into the elephant's backbone.

Fortunately this is only a nightmare of the distant past. With the advent of firearms five hundred years ago, elephants were relegated to the supply lines, and as recently as the Vietnam War, elephants were still being used to move equipment down the Ho Chi Minh trail. It's the elephants foot that makes it such a superior off road vehicle. As well as being equipped with the original non-slip waffle tread, when an elephant's foot lands, it expands to distribute weight, and like a good tire grips more of the road. The elephant actually walks on its toes, cushioned by a great squashy heel pad for added comfort. The largest animal to walk on tiptoe also has a skeleton up to the job. Like a suspension bridge, the elephant's spine supplies the load bearing arch required to support its weight. The legs provide such a sturdy base an elephant can sleep standing up.

Surprisingly, similar bone and tooth structures make the tiny hyrax the elephant's closest cousin. But the hyrax has never been known to enjoy a game of soccer. At elephant festivals in Thailand, elephants love the show off their skills, (crowd noises) (crowd noises) (crowd noises) although they may never win the World Cup. (crowd noises) When Thailand was still Siam the sacred white elephant dominated the country's flag and religious life as well. Worshipped as living gods, they lived in palaces and enjoyed lives of pampered luxury. Baby white elephants were even suckled by human wet nurses.

(voices) When a new temple was to be built, a white elephant was set loose to find the sacred site. In ancient Siam, elephants were also used as executioners. When the king declared, "In with his head", the doomed man was placed under an elephant's foot and crushed. In the wild, elephants rarely kill people. A mother protecting her young can be dangerous, but usually she'll just keep her body between her child and any threat. Being overprotective comes with good cause. A baby elephant spends 22 months in the womb, over a year longer than a human baby. At 200 pounds, they're the biggest babies ever to play in the mud.

A baby's arrival is also important to herd, which helps with babysitting and can offer a push when needed. With an average lifespan of 70 years, an elephant's childhood lasts as long as ours, filled with much to learn, adults to imitate, and lots of time for play. Led by a dominant female, usually an old grandmother known as the matriarch, female elephants herd together in small groups of about 10, including youngest. The matriarch

initiates the daily move from the feeding grounds to the watering hole. As the family travels, the herd can swell as other family groups join the parade. Herds can grow from tens to hundreds in the course of a day. Being the oldest and wisest and one with the longest memory, it is the matriarch who knows best. Obedience to the matriarch is rewarded by her expertise in locating food, salt, and much needed water. Though she has the hefty responsibility of handing down her knowledge to her daughters, like any other elephant, she can't resist the opportunity for a swim. But a good bath is only the beginning of an elephant's need for water, a drop in the bucket compared to the 50 gallons a grown elephant can drink every day. Most elephants live in hot climates where their great bulks are easily overheated.

Water, shade and mud are all used to keep them cool. Even dust provides a kind of sun block. Ears can help, too. They have a thin skin and thick veins. When flapped, air rushes over the veins, which release excess heat like a car radiator. For thousands of years, elephants have been tamed and trained by people but African elephants have never been trained as successfully as their Asian counterparts, few getting past the most difficult part of accepting riders on their backs. Asian elephants, by contrast, are easier to train and take better to being ridden. They can follow commands within weeks, quickly mastering nearly 100 separate instructions, making elephants the most intelligent of all domesticated animals. One of the first things an elephant learns is to hold a rope which this African elephant

can manage easily. Though people have long thought the African elephant too wild to train, it may have more to do with the fact that Africa has never had the same elephant culture as Asia where it continues to thrive today. In many remote areas of southeast Asia, it's still more economical to use elephants than modern machinery. In the West, elephants have paraded into popular culture, from Babar of children's book fame to circus elephants. Some have even played oversized nannies. In the east, with its long history of elephant culture, elephants belong to more ancient traditions. Hindus worship Ganesh, god of students, teachers and exams, and they fear Gajasura, the demon of destruction that can possess any elephant.

A destructive rogue elephant is very much a reality. But there's good reason for it's dangerous behavior. Musth is a glandular condition that affects male elephants or bulls about once a year. During musth they seek out females and they become extremely aggressive. Unpredictable behavior is one reason adult males are not tolerated in female societies. Bulls may form loose herds, but they never approach the social complexity of the female herds. Some males set out on their own, and recently scientists discovered that they keep in touch with the female herd by using sounds well below the human hearing range. Infrasound is generated within the swelling forehead, and is so low that two thirds of elephant communication can't be heard heard by humans. Infrasound creates ripples in the water by its vibrations and can travel over five miles. Though elephant sound is easily measured, their emotions are not.

Observation of their behavior toward elephant remains such as these skulls suggest that they mourn their dead and experience a kind of grief. Such observations have contributed to the romantic notion of elephant graveyards, but graveyard sites are most likely the results of weary and dying elephants seeking the one thing that can support their tremendous weight: water. Over the years the corpses may collect in one area, giving the false impression of a communal death site. Bones aren't the only things that elephants leaving behind. They are nature's greatest producers of fertilizer with the output of a fully grown elephant reaching 300 pounds a day. What is waste to an elephant is just the beginning for many plants, animals and insects. Baboons pick at it for undigested seeds. Francolins find a nest in it, with central heating no less. Dung beetles derive their name from it and they're so devoted to it, a pile of

dung can be more dung beetle than dung, not a bad thing since they take so much of it away. When water and food are scarce, elephants can teach us a lot about recycling our own waste. Providing the stuff of life for many dung dependent species is only one of the many landscaping services elephants perform for their community. Many seeds depend on elephants for dispersal and propagation for the next generation. Everywhere elephants go they transform and reshape the landscape. They pull down trees, break up bushes, carve out rocks with their tusks, create salt licks for all to use, and with their broad feet, cut trails that may be used for thousands of years. The multitude of effects on the habitat has led scientists to describe elephants as

a keystone species, and like the keystone of an arch, if the elephant were removed, then the entire ecosystem of the vast African grasslands could collapse. Elephants are even becoming the keystone of some human economies, such as the tourist industry in Kenya. In providing a solution to human needs, the elephant performs a role it has long played in Buddhism. For in Buddhism the elephant symbolizes the bodhisattva, the one who brings salvation from worldly entanglements by sharing its wisdom. If the elephant does carry the wisdom of the ages, how appropriate then that in China the phrase "to ride an elephant" sounds the same as the word for happiness. (outro music)

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