Elephant Moment

 01/02/2021

Dad Joke:   Parallel lines have so much in common.  (Pause) It's really too bad they'll never meet.

Category:   More to know than can ever be known.

Today I have had an elephant moment for no particular reason.    Here are some elephant facts.

1)  The Cartaginian General Hannibal Barca took some war elephants from his Spanish base north and east through France and then over the Alps into Italy to attack his enemies the Romans in their home provinces. This was at the turn of the 3rd Century AD.

 His elephants were from the Atlas Mountains in Northwest Africa.   These were relatively small elephants (and gave the name to the war era - the Puny Wars - oh that is a bad, bad pun) and as a species are now considered extinct.  For the record they did not do well crossing the cold Alps and had only minor physiological value in subsequent battles with the Romans. 

2) The Asiatic Elephants I will divide into two classes:  Indian and South East Asian (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia etc.)  The South East Asian elephants are primarily tropical types that are smaller and can be tamed and domesticated for human "beast of burden" use.  (Eric and Maria have ridden this type while in Thailand.)

3)  Indian Elephants - these are on average the largest in height and weight.   Also, the ones invariably seen in Hollywood/Bollywood type movies as well as circuses and zoos.   These elephants are readily tamed and domesticated (to this day) as beasts of burden.  These are also used in war and the Indian and Mid-eastern armies of ancient history had "hundreds" of trained and armored elephants.    The Indian and British rulers during the Raj hunted tigers from the backs of these beasts.   There are provinces and nations of south Asia that still maintain a stable of elephants for royal parades, rites, celebrations etc.  Indian Elephants are distinct in having relatively small ears and two bulbous humps on the top of their skulls.   Couple this with a straight profile from the top of the skull down through the trunk and they are easily distinguishable from their African Cousins.    (It always bothers me, when the African Tarzan Movies have the "King of the Jungle" on the back of an Indian Elephant.   There is a reason for this - see below - and I am being picky about this.)

4) African Elephants are my favorites.   There are only a few cases of ever having tamed an African elephant and they can not be domesticated nor used by man as beasts of burden. Hence, you never see them in movies, as circus extras, and they do not thrive in zoo captivity.  The biggest of the increasingly rare old tuskers can be huge!    All elephants can be long lived with some documented Africans having the life-spans of men.   Unfortunately, the ivory hunters decimated the big one in the 1800's.   Fortunately, today African elephants are increasingly protected in elephant sanctuaries and national parks.   The bad news is when the herds stray from park boundaries and wreak havoc on croplands.    Oh yes, you can spot an African elephant quite easily: large ears that are somewhat shaped like the African continent, absence of the two cranial humps, and a profile of the skull that slopes from the top of the skull downwards along the trunk.  (These are the "tantors" of the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan Books - he wrote 24 of these and all of them are on my bookshelf.)

5) In the Jungles of the Congo there is also a species  of Pygmy elephant.  These are rare, secretive and few in number.  Appropriately I know little about them (oh, another pun!)

(Wryly Added)  Of course, it is of critical importance to know this about elephants since in modern North America, our encounters with Indian or African elephants occur at alarming rates and one does need to know the differences.

Signing Off:    TAB