FINAL ASSIGNMENT REPORT TEXT

ARSIANTI DEWI K.S.N
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ELEPHANT
Elephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms (260 lb). They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years.


Elephant has gray thick skin, thick legs, huge sides and backs, large hanging ears, a small tail, little eyes, long white tusks and above all, elephant has a long nose, the trunk. The trunk, is a fusion of the nose and upper lip, elongated and specialized to become the elephant's most important and versatile appendage. The elephant draws up water by its trunk and can squirt the water all over its body like a shower bath. In fact, the trunk serves the elephant as long arm and hand.


The tusks of an elephant are its second upper incisors. Tusks grow continuously; an adult male's tusks grow about 18 cm (7 in) a year. Tusks are used to dig for water, salt, and roots; to debark trees to eat the bark; to dig into baobab trees to get at the pulp inside; and to move trees and branches when clearing a path. right- or left-tusked. The dominant tusk, called the master tusk, is generally shorter and more rounded at the tip from wear.


Elephants live in a structured social order. The social lives of male and female elephants are very different. The females spend their entire lives in tightly knit family groups made up of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These groups are led by the eldest female, or matriarch. Adult males, on the other hand, live mostly solitary lives.


Larger, long-lived, slow-breeding animals, like the elephant, are more susceptible to overhunting than other animals. They cannot hide, and it takes many years for an elephant to grow and reproduce. At the turn of the 20th century, it is estimated that elephants numbered between 5–10 million, but hunting and habitat destruction had reduced their numbers to 400,000 to 500,000 by the end of the century.