Discussion

Elephants

A parable originating on the Indian subcontinent tells of a group of blind men who didn't know what an elephant was. Each touched a different part of the animal, and based on what part they felt, concluded that an elephant was a wall (body), snake (trunk), rope (tail), tree (leg), spear (tusk), or fan (ear). There are various religious interpretations of the story, but all highlight how limited experiences can lead us to come to very different and often wrong conclusions.

An elephant is a pachyderm.

These days, many people equate pachyderms with elephants, but a pachyderm is actually any large mammal with thick skin. Besides elephants, this includes hippopotami, rhinoceros, mammoths, and mastodons. There has been some debate about whether giraffes should be included.

Elephants are the largest land animals. On average, adults are about 10 feet tall, 18 to 24 feet long, and weigh from 4 to 8 tons. The largest elephant ever recorded was 13 feet tall and weighed 12 tons. Jumbo, the famous elephant featured in P. T. Barnum's circus in the 19th century was claimed to be that large. The poster promoting Jumbo below is obviously an exaggeration.

Barnum's famous elephant's name is how the word "jumbo" entered the English language.

It is commonly believed that there are two species of elephants; the Asian elephant and African elephant. An easy way to distinguish between them is the shape of the ears. There is some variation between elephants, but the African elephants' ears, besides being larger, generally resemble the shape of the African continent.

Elephant hearing is especially acute because of the size their ears. They also assist in temperature control.

Genetic studies have revealed that both Asian and African elephants can be divided into several subspecies, each living in separate areas in the wild. The African elephant consists of the African savanna or bush elephant and the African forest elephant. The savanna elephant is the larger of the two and is the largest surviving land animal in the world.

Asian elephants have recently been genetically recognized to be four distinct species. The Wikipedia article on elephants is out of date in this regard. They are the Indian elephant (the most wide-spread), Sumatran elephant, Borneo elephant, and the largest of them, Sri Lanka elephant. 

All elephants are descended from mammoths and mastodons, all of which are extinct. Asian elephants are known to be direct descendants of woolly mammoths. Woolly mammoth tissue has been found preserved in ice in northern Asia. (Stories of human consumption of preserved mammoth meat are myths.) That is the source of the DNA used in genetic studies. The last Woolly mammoth died 4,000 years ago, well before photography was invented. The photo below is from a museum exhibit.

The closest living relatives of elephants are sirenians (dugongs and manatees) 

.. and rock hyraxes.

Superficially, there doesn't seem to be much of a family resemblance, but fossils have been found on the same rock strata as woolly mammoths. They all have two mammary glands and similar teeth and heart structures.

Besides their size, the most visually striking things about elephants are their trunks.

Elephant trunks contain up to 150,000 muscle fibers. These remarkable appendages are used for breathing, sense of smell, touching, grasping, and sound production. Elephants use sound made with their trunks to communicate with each other. An elephant underwater can use its trunk as a snorkel. Elephants can lift over 700 pounds with their trunks.

Another feature is an elephant's tusks. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, but only male Asian elephants have long tusks. Females have none or very short ones. The interior of tusks is made of living tissue, and damage or removal of tusks while an elephant is still alive can be very painful and harmful. Ivory is the outer dentine layer of a tusk. Many elephants are slaughtered annually for the illegal ivory trade.

Female elephants live their entire lives in matriarchal packs. If a herd grows too large for the resources available to sustain them, they split into smaller herds and separate.

Underage children regardless of gender are cared for until they are are old enough to become independent. Mature males live alone or with small bachelor herds. The behavior seen here is natural.

Elephants have been used for commercial purposes; transportation, movement of heavy loads (they can carry up to 7 tons), entertainment (circuses), warfare, etc. One of the most bizarre uses is in the production of Black Ivory Coffee. Elephants living in a reserve in Thailand are fed the ripe fruit of Arabica plants. The fruit travels through the elephants' digestive tracks where digestive juices unlock certain elements. The resulting beans are recovered from their feces (and thoroughly cleaned, one hopes). The end result of further processing is Black Ivory Coffee, one of the most expensive coffees in the world. It is supposed to be one of the most delicious, too, according to people brave enough to try it.

Elephants are among the smartest animals on Earth. They appear to be self-aware, can use tools, have excellent memories, and  seem capable of experiencing profound emotion. Elephants are truly remarkable animals.

Though elephants are not native to Japan, Japanese artists have known about them for some time.

This is an 18th century Japanese lacquer sculpture.

The 19th century netsuke below illustrates the story of the blind men and the elephant.

Itō Jakuchū (1716 – 1800) 

Jakuchū was a mid Edo period painter. Many of his subjects concern traditional Japanese subjects, in particular chickens and other birds. Others of his works show experimentation withy perspective and other modern techniques. This White Elephant 6-fold byōbu was painted in 1797.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849)

The story of the blind men and the elephant was well known in Japan. The netsuke shown above testifies to that. Hokusai provided more evidence in volume 9 (1818) of his multi-volume Manga Sketch series of books with his own version of the story.