Why do elephants spray water and dust over their skin?

The elephants throw dirt on themselves to protect themselves from the harsh rays of the sun. Elephants splash their bodies with water first and then throw a layer of dirt on their back to help it form a solid thick barrier. The dirt also acts as a bug repellent.

The mothers and other elephants spray a shower of dirt and dust on their calves even when sleeping. The wrinkles on the elephants’ skin retain water and mud efficiently, which allows these gentle giants to regulate their body temperature.

Why Do the Elephants Take Mud Baths? 

If you notice the activities of an elephant herd, you will see that the elephants spend a significant time rolling around in the mud. While it may look like that the elephants are enjoying the mud baths, there is another reason why they take them regularly.

Elephants do not have any sweat glands in their bodies. That means they find it extremely difficult to cool off under the harsh rays of the tropical sun. 

The mud baths they take not only cool their bodies off but also help them get a protective layer on their skin. It saves their delicate skin from the sun rays and insect bites. 

Even though the elephant skin looks extremely tough to the naked eye, the harsh sun rays can negatively impact it leading to severe sunburn. 

The elephants use two different techniques for a mud bath. The number one method they adopt takes place when they drink water. Once they complete the drinking, they kick the water to stir up mud and spray it on their bodies. 

The other method of mud bathing is by churning the mud through the tusk and trunk. After cleaning themselves with water, the elephants use their trunks to spray the dirt on their back. 

The younger elephants roll around in mud whenever they get a chance.

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Elephants Create Holes and Footpath

As one of the largest animals, elephants require a vast amount of water to stay healthy. The problem is, during the summer months, all the watering holes dry up. During this time, the elephants often dig their wells to satisfy their water requirements. They use their tusks, feet, and their trunks to dig small watering holes for themselves. The holes they make gets filled up with rainwater or groundwater. These watering holes benefit the elephants and other small animals that live in the same habitat. The elephants also make footpaths by treading through the same route over and over. 

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Elephants Dig Up Soil for Salt

As you may already know, elephants have extremely intelligent animals that have massive brainpower. That means they have different nutritional requirements than other animals. To satisfy their unique requirements, the elephants tend to dig up soil. The elephants need salt to stay hydrated. When the elephants cannot gather enough salt from the plant matter, they dig up the dirt to utilise the salt stored. Some even adventure into underground caves to get salt.

Elephants Eat For 12 to 18 Hours 

As you already know the elephants have a huge body mass. That is why they require a massive amount of food to sustain themselves. As herbivores, the elephants eat leaves, grass, woody shrubs, fruits, and flowers. Elephants can consume 300 pounds of food a day. That means they require a considerable amount of time to chew down all the food. 

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Matriarchal Herds

The elephants are very social animals that live in complex and tight-knit female focussed herds. Each herd consists of several related elephants, and the herd’s matriarch is generally the mother, grandmother, aunt, or great aunt.

The matriarch takes care of the entire herd by teaching and watching after the younger elephants, ensuring that the herd members work together to keep themselves safe. The male elephants, most of the time, leave the herd when they become adolescents. However, it has been noted that some male elephants form separate groups of bachelors of their own.

Elephants Have High Empathy

The sociability and intelligence level of elephants are well known in the research world. Studies have shown that elephants can display actual emotions towards other members of their group. This factor challenges the notion that animals do not have feelings. 

Elephants form relationships with the herd members and often celebrate the birth of new babies. In the herd, matriarchs and other herd members take care of the young elephants just like humans. They guide and reassure the elephant babies as they step into their teenage years. 

Elephants mourn their demised members and even return to where their friends or family have died to grieve their absence.

Remembering Their Environment

Elephants have a remarkable memory that helps them to understand their surroundings better. Thanks to their astounding memory, the matriarch can find food and water resources when necessary. An elephant’s unforgettable memory also helps them to avoid dangers. 

Elephant herds with an older matriarch are far better during the dry months than those with younger matriarchs. This is possible because more senior females remember how they were able to survive in the last droughts. Elephants pass on references of knowledge from one generation to the next.

Remembering Their Friends and Family

Elephants can remember individual members of their clans separately. Not only that, they can recognise the members even after not seeing each other for years.

The social structure of elephants is complex, varying by gender, and population dynamics. Adult elephants form matriarchal (female-led) societies. Adult males are usually solitary.

Males

Adult male elephants are solitary in nature but may associate with other bulls (adult males) in small, unstable groups. Males will leave the family unit (natal unit) between 12 and 15 years of age.

Bulls that associate in small groupings have a hierarchal-ranking social structure. Leaders, determined by age and strength, protect the front and rear of the herd. More docile (quiet-natured) bulls do not seek leadership roles, but serve as stabilizing members within the group. Hierarchical roles are re-established and re-adjusted whenever a male leaves or enters the group.

Although primarily solitary in nature, bulls will associate with non-natal family units (family units to which they are not related). Bulls do not have preferences for specific family units and will randomly move to different groupings daily and even hourly looking for reproductively receptive females. The bulls' nomadic (wandering) social system allows them to maximize reproductive potential. With this system, a single bull can potentially find up to 30 mates in a year, as opposed to fathering four calves in three years, if he associates with only one family unit

Females

Female social structure is similar to concentric rings, with the innermost circle comprising a family unit of related adult cows (females). Family units range in size from three to 25 individuals; including the eldest, most dominant female called the matriarch, her adult daughters, and their calves, and a number of juveniles. From this stable core, the groupings widen to include less familiar individuals.

Matriarchs / Hierarchy Status

The oldest, most dominant female is called the matriarch. The matriarch is the backbone of the elephant family unit because she provides stability and determines ranging patterns for the rest of the family.

The other females comprising the family unit are usually the matriarch's daughters and their offspring. The hierarchal ranking for these females is based on leadership, experience, and age. Generally, the older the female, the higher her ranking.

The primary function of elephant family units is the protection and rearing of calves. Adult females cooperate in the assistance of calf movements, foraging, protection, and social experiences. Calf survivability greatly increases with an increased number of females taking care of them.

Elephant family units may have consistent, friendly interactions with other units. These associated families are called kin or bond groups and will mingle, feed, and interact with one another frequently. Bond groups may be composed of unrelated females or of related.

Under ideal environmental circumstances, family units may congregate in groups of up to six families. Occasionally, there may be herd aggregations ranging in size from 500 to 1,000 individuals around watering holes and other consolidated resources. Herd aggregations have also been documented in areas of intense poaching (illegal hunting) pressure.

Large congregations of elephants occur more frequently with African elephants than Asian. In regions with less food, smaller elephant family units are found. In regions with abundant food, larger social groups are formed.

Social Behavior

Dominance

Bulls assess each other’s strength through sparring or play-fighting. The level of dominance is closely related to a bull's size, power, and weight. As bulls mature, these characteristics increase.

Bulls that are in musth are particularly dominant and non-musth bulls and younger males avoid confrontations with them. Refer to musth section.

Mourning Behavior

The complex nature of elephant social structure is extended into the mourning behavior for deceased companions. When elephants come across deceased remains of other elephants, a silent pause is taken, as the remains are touched with their trunks. Occasionally tusks or bones are carried with them, as the herd continues to travel.

Home Range

Elephants are not territorial. The home range is between 10 and 70 km2 (four to 27 mi.2) and possibly larger, depending on herd size and seasonality.

Individual Behavior

Musth

Elephants have a musth gland located just beneath the skin's surface, halfway between the eye and ear, on each side of their head.

Annually, musth glands secrete a dark, oily, musky substance and become inflamed. This physiological change is associated with a behavior observed in male elephants called musth, and is characterized by unpredictable, dominant, and excitable behavior.

The musth period lasts between several days to several months. There is no seasonal pattern with musth. Bulls come into it a different times.

Male elephants first experience musth about three years after sexual maturity (between eight and 15 years of age) is reached. The musth secretion increases gradually until the bulls reach their 40's, after which, it declines in strength and intensity.

Female African elephants experience a much less intense form of musth. It is thought that the scent of the secretion primarily helps unify the herd. Musth has not been documented in Asian female elephants.

Bulls in musth display a significant change in behavior and deep vocabulary of sounds, which signals strength and virility. These bulls will dominate a herd and are aggressive in warding off rivals. Musth males may rub secretions onto trees to scent-mark (signal to other males) their areas of dominance.

Bathing / Dusting

Bathing appears to be pleasurable and is essential to elephants. The trunks are used like a hose to spray water across the body. To help protect the skin from parasites and biting insects, elephants wallow in mud or spray dust on their wet skin. Once the mud and dust is dry, elephants rub against a hard surface, removing most parasites.

Sleeping

Elephants sleep about approximately four hours a night. About two hours of that are spent standing. During deep sleep, individuals lie on their sides, breathing noisily, and sometimes snoring.

Gait

A top speed of 30 kmh (18 mph.) over short distances has been recorded for elephants.

Elephants have been described as having an ambling (easy-going) walk at a normal rate of six to eight kmh (3.6 to 4.8 mph.).

Trials of Strength

Young, strong bulls test strength by pushing over trees. A 45 cm (18 in.) circumference tree can easily be pushed over with just the head, trunk, or foreleg.

While many strong bulls like to test strength by pushing over trees, only one or two bulls in a group will make it a specialty. Skilled bulls can bring down trees as large as 150 cm (5 ft.) in circumference.

Activity

Elephants are crepuscular in nature, primarily active at dawn and dusk (twilight hours) when the environment is cooler.