The brain of an elephant is the largest brain among all land mammals that live on our planet. It is located at the back of the head and occupies a small part of the volume of the skull. Consider the main characteristics and features of the brain of these animals, and also compare it with the human brain.
Types of elephants
Currently, three species of these animals live on our planet:
- African elephants. They live in most of Africa and are the largest species of terrestrial animals. Large specimens of these animals reach 7.5 meters in length, 3.3 meters in height and weigh up to 6 tons. The tusks of this species of elephants grow throughout their lives, both in males and females. The African elephant has large ears to give off more heat into the atmosphere. This species is endangered due to poaching.
- Indian elephants. This type of elephant lives mainly in India. Its specimens grow up to 6.4 m in length and up to 2-3.5 m in height. The elephant is dark grey. It occupies an important place in Indian culture.
- Asian elephants. These elephants are the mostbig animals of Asia. In length, they reach 6.4 m, and in height - 3 m. The weight of an adult individual is within 5 tons. Unlike the African elephant, they have small ears that are constantly moving to cool the animal's head. Most males do not have tusks.
Some Elephant Brain Facts
Here are important facts about the brains of the largest land animals on the planet:
- The brain of newly born baby elephants is 35% by weight of the brain mass of an adult animal;
- elephants are among the smartest animals on Earth;
- The brain of an African male has a mass of 4.2 to 5.4 kilograms, while the mass of the brain of an African female is 3.6-4.3 kilograms;
- Elephant brain development is similar to that of humans.
The importance of brain size
Despite the fact that the brain of an elephant is the largest in size among mammals on Earth, it occupies only a small area at the back of the animal's head. If we take the ratio of brain weight to body weight, it turns out that this figure for elephants will be less than for humans. Be that as it may, the elephant is the only animal, along with primates and sperm whales, that has a fairly high ratio of brain size to body size.
The size of the brain is important because it correlates with the flexibility of the animal's thinking or, as it is commonly said, with its intelligence, and also determines the complex social structures and relationships in the population of these animals.
How much does the brain weigh in males and females?
In both African and Indian elephants, the size of the brain depends on whether the individual is male or female. The weight of the brain of the males of the African elephant is more than the weight of the females of this species, by 0.6-1.1 kg, and is 4.2-5.4 kg. It is important to note that this difference in the brain weight of the animals does not affect their mental abilities.
Many studies of the behavior of elephants have shown quite reasonable behavior of females, which are in no way inferior to male elephants. This is explained by the fact that it is not the weight of the brain itself that is important for reasonable behavior, but the ratio of its mass to body weight. Since female elephants are usually smaller than males, the difference in this ratio is practically zero. In addition, the consciousness itself in females is very different from that of males, since they are attached to their mothers and, starting from early childhood, form stable bonds with other females of their herd, which they maintain throughout their lives. Males are more solitary nomads.
Brain Development
It is interesting to note that the brain of elephants develops similarly to the brain of primates, including humans. Elephants and humans are born with a small brain mass: in an elephant it is 35% of the brain mass of an adult, and in humans it is 26%.
These figures suggest that there is room for significant brain development in animals as they grow. As the mass of the brain increases, actively developvarious abilities, including mental ones, in young elephants. Conducted studies on the behavior of elephants, as well as the anatomy of their brain, suggest that elephants are very intelligent animals.
Elephants are smart animals
Thanks to a developed brain, elephants remember the location of oases with water during a drought period, and are able to recognize the bones of their dead relatives. They may even love. Elephants are able to identify whether a given person is dangerous to them or not, because animals distinguish between people of different ethnic groups, distinguish between human languages, age and gender. Dolphins and whales have similar abilities. It has been observed that young elephants learn from their older counterparts throughout their lives.
For example, one of the populations of African elephants lives near the territory where the Maasai tribes live. Elephants are afraid of the people of this tribe, because conflicts often break out between animals and the Maasai due to the lack of vital resources, which is a common problem in Africa. Animals have learned to recognize the smell and red color of the clothes of the people of the tribe.
Scottish scientists from the University of St. Andrews found that the developed brain of elephants allows them to understand many human gestures without prior training. This fantastic discovery puts elephants at the top of the list of animals that can understand humans in sign language. Thanks to this ability of animals, they were able to domesticate and establish a strong friendly relationship between the elephant and its owner, despite all the danger of the elephant and its owner.plus size.
Elephant vs human brain comparison
If mental capabilities depended only on the mass of the brain, then knowing how much a human brain weighs (approximately 1.4 kg), one could say that it is much more stupid than an elephant, since the brain of an animal weighs 3-3, 5 times more.
It is also impossible to identify mental capabilities with the ratio of brain and body masses. For example, for a human this figure is 1/40, and for an elephant it is 1/560, but for small birds the ratio is 1/12.
The difference in mental capabilities is not associated with the mass or volume of the brain of an elephant and a person, but with structural features. Most scientists are inclined to believe that the mental abilities of a person are associated with the complex structure of his cerebral cortex, which includes 16 billion neurons, and in this indicator significantly exceeds the brain of any animal, including an elephant, which has less 3 times neurons than in humans. Each human neuron is capable of forming tens of thousands of connections with others. In addition, all the neurons of the brain are packed into several layers, which leads to an increase in their density, in comparison with the brain of an elephant.
As for the elephant, it should be noted that the structure of its cerebral cortex is different from that of primates. In particular, it contains a greater number of cell types, which, according to scientists, plays an important role in the manifestation of the mental abilities of these animals.
