| Source Information |
[Data from Loxodonta
but not necessarily Loxodonta
cyclotis - Forest Elephant]
- Adult elephants spend up to 18 hours a day feeding. (B10.49.w21)
- In response to sudden rainfall, elephants may travel rapidly: e.g.
up to 30 km (19 miles) to an area where an isolated shower has taken
place, in order to use the lush grass which will then grow. (B285.w3)
- In forests, elephants may travel long distances to find rare trees
which are fruiting. (B285.w3)
- When elephants utilise dangerous feeding areas (e.g. farmlands),
they tend to use them only at night. (B285.w3)
- Elephants may strip bark from trees to feed on in the dry season. (B285.w3)
- Elephants may knock trees down to get at twigs and leaves in the dry
season. (B285.w3)
- Elephants may raid crops to feed. (B285.w3)
- Elephants in Queen Elizabeth Park spend three quarters of their time
on feeding, those in Murchison Falls and in the Sengwe area spent
about 12 to 14 hours per day feeding. (B384.9.w9)
- Elephants in Sengwe took in on average 2.5 trunkfuls of food per
minute, with bulls taking in food at a slightly higher rate than did
cows. Feeding was fastest in the wet season, slower in the cold season
and slowest in the hot season. The rate of feeding was similar whether
they were grazing or browsing. In Queen Elizabeth Park a feeding rate
of nearly six trunkfuls per minute was observed. (B384.9.w9)
- The mean ingestion rate is approximately 72 g dry weight of food per
minute. (B384.9.w9)
- To eat roots of tussock grasses, the tussock is kicked free with the
foot then the root bases bitten off with the stems and leaves often
left uneaten. (B384.9.w9)
- In soft sands (Kalahari sands), elephants dig to reach roots up to
one metre down; in shallow soil areas with a hard surface this is not
possible. (B384.9.w9)
- Long grass is eaten by curling the trunk around it and pulling. (B384.9.w9)
- For short grass, the elephant uproots grass by kicking it, sweeps
the uprooted grasses into a pile with the trunk, picks it up, rubs it
against the foreleg or bounces it on the ground, then eats it. (B384.9.w9)
- African elephants strip bark using a sideways pulling motion, in
which the bark is dragged over the anterior tooth ridges. (B384.9.w9)
- African elephants use a lateral pulling motion to strip bark,
pulling it over the tooth ridges. (J325.125.w1)
- For some species (monkeybread and Detarium microcarpum), a
length of branch is rolled in the mouth and chewed on, then dropped
once the bark has been chewed off. (B384.9.w9)
- Thorns of the thorny yellow-fever tree are flattened between a tusk
and the trunk base. (B384.9.w9)
- To expose small roots and tubers, elephants scrape at the soil with
a forefoot; for larger roots and tubers the tusks may be used to dig
up and fragment the item which is then picked up using the trunk. (B453.2.w2)
- Herbs, grasses and small bushes may be uprooted whole and banged
against a forefoot or the trunk base to knock off soil before they are
eaten. (B453.2.w2)
- Small branches may be torn off a tree and broken into pieces using
the trunk before being eaten. (B453.2.w2)
- African elephants, unlike Elephas maximus - Asian Elephants,
apparently do not combine the use of the trunk and a foreleg to break
branches. (B453.2.w2)
- Individual small items such as buds and berries may be selected
using the trunk and eaten. (B453.2.w2)
- To eat bark, one tusk is used to gouge the tree trunk and lever off
strips of bark, which are then torn off with the trunk and eaten. (B453.2.w2)
- Trees may be shaken to release fruits. (B453.2.w2)
- Whole trees may be uprooted by pushing, bringing fruit, leaves,
roots and bark into reach. (B453.2.w2)
- Once food is in the mouth, it is manipulated by the tongue into
position between the occlusal surfaces of the molars for grinding to
fine shreds. (B453.2.w2)
- When food items contain long fibres, the remainder of the item may
be stripped off and the fibrous parts rolled into a bundle and dropped
from the mouth. (B453.2.w2)
- Elephants with tongue or tusk injury tend to feed on soft
vegetation: grasses, herbs etc. rather than items which need
additional manipulation and breakage before being chewed, such as
wood, bark and roots. (B453.2.w2)
- Feeding rates, measured as number of trunkfuls of food eaten per
unit time (usually per minute), may vary considerably between males
and females, in different habitats, and at different times of day. (B451.5.w5)
- Factors affecting feeding rate may include degree of hunger
(e.g. rapid eating on first rising after resting at night), and
the amount of preparation required prior to ingestion of the food:
this tends to be less for feeding on grass than for feeding in
forests with food items needing to be searched for. (B451.5.w5)
- In a study in Uganda, a maximum of 14 per minute was recorded
for a male feeding on bush vegetation near a lake, while females
in grassland varied from 3.5/minute in the morning (0800 - 0900
hrs) to 8.5/minute in the evening (1900 - 2000 hrs) with an
overall rate of 5.9 per minute. (B451.5.w5)
- A study in Rhodesia found an overall rate of about 2.4 trunkfuls
per minute for females and 2.7 for males. (B451.5.w5)
- A study in the Serengeti found rates of 2.4 trunkfuls per minute
for feeding on trees, 5.3 per minute for feeding on grass. (B451.5.w5)
- The trunk is used to gather and break or pull off vegetation which
is then placed into the mouth. (B387.w4)
- Elephants are not very selective feeders. (B387.w4)
- Elephants eat bark, and may ring-bark large trees. (B387.w4)
- Elephants knock down trees and smash bushes. (B387.w4)
- Much of the time, elephants gather food at low level. In one study
75% of feeding activity was at ground level and in another 85% was at
elephant elbow height or lower. More of the time feeding at higher
levels may occur during the dry season when browse becomes a more
important component of the diet. (B387.w4)
- It is not clear whether elephants knock trees down primarily to gain
food or whether they are knocked down by male elephants in excitement
or as a reaction to a social situation, with the provision of food as
only a subsidiary feature. (B387.w4)
- The feet and tusks may be used in coordination with the trunk to
gather food. (B387.w4)
- A grass tussock held with the trunk may be kicked to remove
soil. (B387.w4)
- Feet and tusks are used to break up earth and get at roots or at
salty soil. (B387.w4)
- Feet and tusks may be used to break up tree trunks to loosen
bark. (B387.w4)
- Feet and the trunk may be used to dig water holes. (B387.w4)
- Elephants may find it tiring to stretch upwards with the trunk
to gather food for prolonged periods. (B387.w4)
- To gather fruits, a tree may be butted to loosen the fruits,
allowing them to be picked off the ground. (B387.w4)
- Elephants are attracted to fallen, fermenting fruits of Sclerocarya.
(B387.w4)
- Incoordinated behaviour has been reported following consumption
of ripe fruit by elephants. (B387.w4)
- Feeding may take ten to 18 hours per 24 hour period. (B387.w4)
- The time spent feeding may vary seasonally. (B387.w4)
- Large gatherings may occur temporarily at a good food source, for
example when stands of Borassus palms are fruiting during the dry
season. (B387.w4)
Drinking:
- Elephants look for water to drink usually daily, and otherwise at
longest every few days. Water is sucked up with the trunk then squirted into the mouth. (B147)
- Elephants can drink their daily requirement of 80 - 160 L (20 - 40
US gallons) of water in less than five minutes. (B285.w3)
- Elephants suck water into the trunk using the chest and diaphragm
muscles; they can suck up six litres at one time. (B384.3.w3)
- Elephants may dig, using trunks and tusks, holes in dry riverbeds to
find water during the dry season. (B285.w3)
- In general, elephants drink once daily. They sometimes drink as
often as three times daily, and have also been recorded, in conditions
with water freely available, to go three days between drinks. (B384.4.w4)
- In arid areas elephants are known to drink as infrequently as
every third day (in desert in Mali) or every fourth day (in
Namibia's Skeleton Coast). (B384.4.w4)
- Survival for fourteen days without drinking (when trapped in a
fenced area) has been recorded. (B384.4.w4)
- Most of the elephants broke out of the area after 14 days,
and two of the remaining animals also escaped. Just two young
(two- or three-year-old) elephants died, on days 15 and 17. (B451.6.w6)
- Elephants draw water into the trunk to a level just distal to the
internal nostrils, then roll the trunk under, place the trunk tip just
inside the mouth and empty the water into the mouth. (B453.2.w2)
- Calves drink from their mother using their mouth; the trunk is
not involved. (B453.2.w2)
- Calves can kneel and drink water using the mouth directly if
required. (B453.2.w2)
- Adults, if the trunk is injured or paralysed, may wade into
water to enable them to drink directly using their mouth. (B453.2.w2)
- An elephant may drink as much as 100 L (22 gallons) of water at one
time and up to 50 gallons (for a large bull) in a day. (B453.2.w2)
- A single trunkful of water may be 4.0 - 10.0 L. (B453.2.w2)
- Fresh flowing water is preferred for drinking. Foul water is only
used if clean water is not available, e.g. in drought conditions. (B453.2.w2)
- In drought, elephants dig holes in the dry sandy river beds to reach
water, drinking as the holes fill. (B453.2.w2)
- When arriving at clean, fresh water, first the elephants drink, with
the lead cow entering the water first, with her calves, then the others
drinking on either side. Afterwards, they bathe. (B453.9.w9)
- In arid areas, elephants may not drink for several days. (B451.6.w6)
- In a study in Uganda, elephants drank about 1.3 times a day, including
seven of 15 days when they drank once, three days when they did not
drink, and at many as three times a day on three days. (B451.6.w6)
- Elephants have been seen to drink from a muddy wallow despite the
presence of clean lake water just metres away. (B451.6.w6)
- About four litres of water at a time is drawn up into the trunk
(raising the water to a height of about two metres); the elephant then
squirts the water into its throat. (B387.w4)
- Water holes, dug using the feet and trunk, may require hours of
digging in bad droughts. (B387.w4)
- Difficult or dangerous journeys may be required to reach water in some
areas, e.g. an 18 km journey in one area of central Tanzania. Elephants
on the Galana routinely drink at night in the dry season. (B387.w4)
Salt licks:
- Dry salt may be loosened using the forefoot and tusk, then small
quantities are sucked up into the trunk and blown into the mouth. (B453.2.w2)
- At boggy salt licks, the salty soil may be dug using the tusks,
stirred into the water then drunk. (B453.2.w2)
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