ELEPHANT

MY FIRST POST IS ABOUT MY FAVOURITE ANIMAL

Elephants form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal family groups of related females called a herd. The herd is led by the oldest and often largest female in the herd, called a matriarch. Herds consist of 8-100 individuals depending on terrain and family size. When a calf is born, it is raised and protected by the whole matriarchal herd. Males leave the family unit between the ages of 12-15 and may lead solitary lives or live temporarily with other males.

Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years. It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past. They also display signs of grief, joy, anger and play.

Recent discoveries have shown that elephants can communicate over long distances by producing a sub-sonic rumble that can travel over the ground faster than sound through air. Other elephants receive the messages through the sensitive skin on their feet and trunks. It is believed that this is how potential mates and social groups communicate. Defenders of Wildlife is working through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to maintain a ban on the sale of ivory as well as on regulations that govern worldwide elephant protection.

Of these two species, African elephants are divided into two subspecies (savannah and forest), while the Asian elephant is divided into four subspecies (Sri Lankan, Indian, Sumatran and Borneo). Asian elephants have been very important to Asian culture for thousands of years – they have been domesticated and are used for religious festivals, transportation and to move heavy objects.

DIET : Grasses, leaves, bamboo, bark, roots. Elephants are also known to eat crops like banana and sugarcane which are grown by farmers. Adult elephants eat 300-400 lbs of food per day.

Kerala has more than nine hundred elephants in captivity. Most of them are owned by temples and individuals. They are used for religious ceremonies in and around the temples, and a few elephants work at timber yards.

Gajarajan Guruvayur Kesavan (death: December 2, 1976) is perhaps the most famous and celebrated captive elephant in Kerala, southern India. Kesavan was donated to the Guruvayur Hindu temple by the royal family of Nilambur in 1916. It is a common Hindu custom in Kerala to donate elephants to the deity of the temple as an offering, Guruvayur temple have a very good facilities to maintain all of these elephants now totaling 60 in number at Punnathurkotta.

Standing over 3.2 meters tall, Kesavan was known for his devout behavior. Kesavan died on Guruvayur Ekadasi, considered a very auspicious day. It fasted for the entire day and dropped down facing the direction of the temple with his trunk raised as a mark of prostration. The anniversary of its death is still celebrated in Guruvauyur. Many elephants line up before the statue and the chief elephant garlands it. Kesavan was conferred the unique title "Gajarajan" (Elephant King), by the Guruvayoor Devaswom.

The Guruvayoor Devaswom erected a life-size statue of Keshavan in its precincts as tribute to the services he rendered to the presiding deity of the temple. Its tusks, along with a majestic portrait of the elephant, can be still seen adorning the entrance to the main temple enclosure.

Aranmula Raghunathan (death: year 2000) was a legendary figure.

Sorry friends this is not his best photo, this was clicked when he was old.

According to the Experts he is the most beautiful elephant Kerala has ever witnessed.
He was an elephant of Sri parthasarathi temple, aranmula, Pathanamthitta.

His Best feature was his trunk and tusk. Many experts say that Raghunathan had the lengthiest trunk, and his tusk was so wide, long and heavy that they had to cut it in half .He was the king of an era. In his prime time he ruled the whole area of Thiruvithamkoor. He was the 2nd ever elephant to get the Gajarajappattam (king of elephants). He got it in 1997.