ART PRINT A3 - ZOO Elephant

The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, lives in the jungles of Asia and moves in herds of between 10 and 20 individuals. The herd is usually led by the oldest and most experienced female. The other members of the herd are sisters, daughters, cousins and their young. When the males reach sexual maturity at around 12 years old, they leave the herd and form their own 'male herds'. They only meet the females during mating season, when only the strongest male wins the right to mate.

What is particularly special about the elephant is its trunk, which is about 2 meters long and absolutely indispensable. Because of the animal's short neck, the trunk is used for everything that needs to be picked up. The elephant is, however, not able to drink with the trunk; it collects water and then blows the water into its mouth.

The trunk is a fusion of the upper lip and the nose, which is why it can also be used for smelling. It is very flexible and can be turned in all directions, since it contains no bones but consists of more than 100,000 small muscle bundles that can carry up to 250 kg. The elephant therefore uses its trunk to sniff, feel, grasp, strike and drink.

The elephant's large ears function like a kind of air conditioning, which means that when the animal is hot it simply flaps its ears to cool itself down.

The elephant's primary diet consists of grass, leaves, bark, roots and fruit, and it drinks up to 200 liters of water a day.

A fully grown elephant weighs between 3 and 7.5 tons — however, the African elephant is larger than the Asian.
A wild elephant typically lives between 50 and 60 years.
The elephant is pregnant for 22 months and gives birth to one calf at a time, which weighs about 100 kg.

All art prints in the zoo series are also available in A4