ELEPHANT FACTS
“Do Elephants really starve to death when
old?
No – at least not as you would
traditionally use the word starve. Their teeth do not suddenly fall out
rendering them unable to feed. Were this to happen, death would result within
days. Elephants essentially only have two types of teeth. The tusks are the
modified upper incisors used for procuring food but not feeding. They are the
only teeth in the front of the mouth. They have two sets during their lifetime,
the milk set being lost within the first year of life.
Then there are the so–called cheek–teeth –
the molars (or molars and premolars according to some). An Elephant has six
sets of these teeth in its lifetime. Sometimes a seventh puts in an appearance,
but it is usually underdeveloped and of little use in chewing. Unlike the usual
situation of teeth erupting upward from the jaw, these teeth erupt from the
back of the jaw – effectively moving forward in a track-like motion. As they
reach the front of the jaw, they fragment and fall to the ground in pieces. As
the animal gets older, the skull gets larger as does each set of teeth. The ‘track’ of the jaw is longer than an
individual tooth so that at any one time there may be parts of 2-3 cheek-teeth
in each quadrant of the mouth. Owing to the very diverse and high roughage
content of the Elephant’s diet, the teeth are continuously worn down – more so
in populations where the diet is dominated by woody material. When the last set
of cheek-teeth is in place and it is being worn down with no set to replace it
the food intake becomes less efficient, and over a period of time – a few
months at least – the animal slowly becomes malnourished because it cannot
sustain its bulk. It loses condition, becomes weaker owing to lack of energy,
and slowly deteriorates to the point of either being preyed upon (very unusual),
or becoming susceptible to disease (lowered immune deficiency), or more usually
succumbing to death via stress-induced heart problems.
Their natural lifespan varies considerably
based on a variety of factors, most notably speed of tooth wear which is related
to diet, and the protein content of the available food (higher protein contents
sustain for longer, even with rapid tooth wear). In the wild, their longevity
can be assumed to be from 45-65 years (possibly a little longer as an extreme).”
BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH – TREVOR CARNABY
