essay on elephant body parts

Essay on Elephant for Students and Children

500+ words essay on elephant.

Elephants are quite large animals . They have four legs which resemble large pillars. They have two ears which are like big fans. Elephants have a special body part which is their trunk. In addition, they have a short tail. The male elephant has two teeth which are quite long and are referred to as tusks.

Elephants are herbivorous and feed on leaves, plants, grains, fruits and more. They are mostly found in Africa and Asia. Most of the elephants are grey in color, however, in Thailand, they have white elephants.

In addition, elephants are one of the longest-lived animals with an average lifespan of around 5-70 years. But, the oldest elephant to ever live passed away at the age of 86 years.

Furthermore, they mostly inhabit jungles but humans have forced them to work in zoos and circuses. Elephants are considered to be one of the most intelligent animals.

Similarly, they are quite obedient too. Usually, the female elephants live in groups but the male ones prefer solitary living. Additionally, this wild animal has great learning capacity. Humans use them for transport and entertainment purposes. Elephants are of great importance to the earth and mankind. Thus, we must protect them to not create an imbalance in nature’s cycle.

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Importance of Elephants

Elephants come in the group of most intelligent creatures. They are capable of quite strong emotions. These creatures have earned the respect of people of Africa that share the landscape with them. This gives them a great cultural significance. Elephants are tourism magnets for mankind. In addition, they also play a great role in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems.

Most importantly, elephants are also significant for wildlife. They dig for water in the dry season with their tusks. It helps them survive the dry environment and droughts and also helps other animals to survive.

In addition, the elephants of the forest create gaps in the vegetation while eating. The gaps created enables the growth of new plants as well as pathways for smaller animals. This method also helps in dispersal of seeds by trees.

Furthermore, even elephant dung is beneficial. The dung they leave contains seeds of plants they have consumed. This, in turn, helps the birth of new grasses, bushes, and even trees. Thus, they also boost the health of the savannah ecosystem.

Endangerment of Elephants

Elephants have found their way on the list of endangered species. Selfish human activities have caused this endangerment. One of the biggest reasons for their endangerment is the illegal killing of elephants. As their body parts are very profitable, humans kill them off for their skin, bones, tusks, and more.

Moreover, humans are wiping out the natural habitat of elephants i.e. the forests. This results in a lack of food, area to live, and resources to survive. Similarly, hunting and poaching just for the thrill of it also cause the death of elephants.

Therefore, we see how humans are the main reason behind their endangerment. In other words, we must educate the public about the importance of elephants. Conservation efforts must be taken aggressively to protect them. In addition, poachers must be arrested to stop killing of the endangered species.

FAQs on Essay on Elephant

Q.1 Why are Elephants important?

A.1 Elephants are important not only to humans but wildlife and vegetation too. They provide sources of water for other animals in the dry season. Their eating method helps in the growth of new plants. They maintain the balance of the savannah ecosystem.

Q.2 Why is endangerment of elephants harmful?

A.2 Human activities have caused endangerment of elephants. Extinction of these animals will create an imbalance in the ecosystem gravely. We must take steps to stop this endangerment so they can be protected from extinction.

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Animal Corner

Discover the many amazing animals that live on our planet.

Elephant Anatomy

The Complete Elephant Anatomy

Trunks | Tusks | Teeth | Brain | Hair | Ears | Feet | Skin | Senses and Communication

The elephants body is well adapted for the survival of rugged conditions of their habitats in Africa and Asia.

Elephants have strong, long trunks that perform multiple tasks, sharp tusks used for carrying heavy objects and for fighting with, large ears which they flap to keep themselves cool as well as having other functions. Elephants also have a tail that with one swish can whisk away flies and other insects making it the perfect fly swatter.

On the left is an anatomy diagram of the internal organs of a female elephant. Click on the image for a larger look at it.

The larger image will open in a new window, use the close button when finished.

Below you can see some distinct differences between the African elephant and the Asian elephants body structures. The African is larger, with much larger ears and larger all round in height and length. For more detailed information on either the African Elephant or the Asian Elephant, click on the individual images in the picture below.

Elephant Trunks

One of the most interesting features of an elephant is its trunk. An elephants trunk is both an upper lip and an extension of the nose with two nostrils running through the whole length.

The trunk has more than 40,000 muscles in it which is more than a human has in their whole body. A human being only has 639 muscles in total. An elephants trunk is both strong and very agile. It can perform multiple tasks from pushing over heavy trees to picking up the smallest twig. An elephant uses its trunk to pick up and throw objects, rub an itchy eye or ear, fills it with water and then pours it into its mouth to drink and also as a snorkel when swimming under water. Elephants also use it for feeding and for friendly wrestling matches with other elephants.

The trunk plays an important role in an elephants life by being used as an exploratory organ. The trunk is extremely flexible and can be used with the finest touch. At the first sign of danger, an elephant raises its trunk to smell the air and detect the smell of what is threatening. An elephant uses a whole range of smelling tasks as it is one of the elephants primary sensory organs, along with the ears. An elephants trunk is so important and vital to its life that it would be almost impossible for the elephant to survive should it ever get damaged.

Most animals use their nose solely for breathing, however, the elephant also uses its trunk for water storage and for drawing in mud and dust to spray over themselves to clean or cool down. An average elephant can hold and store 4 litres of water inside its trunk. The trunk has a sparse covering of fine sensory hairs and the skin covering the front of the trunk has rings of deep crevasses and resembles a slinky.

The African elephant has two prehensile fingers at the tip of its trunk which are used to grab hold of objects and smaller items. The Asian elephant has only one finger at the end of its trunk and usually only uses its trunk to scoop things up. Elephants can lift very heavy weights with its trunk, but it is important to remember that each elephant is individual and unique and the amount of weight each can lift varies. The trunk is not usually used in combat or for fighting with, but it can be used to make threatening gestures. However, elephants do use their trunks to play fight which can be quite interesting to observe.

Another interesting observation is when an elephant is charging. If its trunk is stretched out in front, then the elephant is just bluffing. However, it the trunk is curled or tucked downwards then it means business and is serious about its intentions. Like all vertebrates, elephants possess the Jacobson’s organ in its mouth (a smelling organ).

The elephant tests and experiments with different odours by touching a particular object with its trunk and then placing the trunk in its mouth. Elephants are very inquisitive creatures.

Elephant Tusks

Elephant tusks are very elongated incisor teeth. Elephants do not have any canine teeth at all. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, however, only the male species of the Asian elephant has them. Tusks continue growing for most of the elephants life. They are an age indicator – much like the elephants feet, the age of the elephant can be estimated by observing their tusks. The size of an elephants tusks is an inherited characteristic, however, because of ivory hunters, it would be quite rare today to find and elephant whose tusks weigh more than 100 pounds.

The total length of the tusks is not apparent on the outside of the elephant, about a third of the length of the tusk lies hidden inside the elephants skull. This is the unfortunate reason ivory hunters destroy the elephant for their tusks instead of just cutting them off. Ivory is really only dentine and is no different from ordinary teeth. It is the diamond shaped pattern of the elephants tusk which can be distinguished when viewed from a cross-section which gives elephant ivory its distinctive lustre.

Elephants are either ‘left-tusked’ or ‘right-tusked’, just like a human being might be ‘left-handed’ or ‘right-handed’. The favoured tusk is usually shorter than the other due to constant use. Tusks on an individual elephant can differ in shape, length, thickness and growth direction. Male elephants tend to have heavier, longer and more stouter tusks than females do.

An elephant uses its tusks to many many tasks just like its trunk. They use their tusks for digging, ripping bark of trees, foraging, carrying heavy objects and for resting a wary, heavy trunk on. They will also use them as weapons should they ever encounter conflict.

Tusks in a baby elephant (Calf) are present at birth and are really only like milk teeth. They measure only about 5 centimetres long. These ‘milk tusks’ will fall out around their first birthday. Their permanent tusks will then start to protrude beyond their lips at around 2 – 3 years old and will continue to grow throughout their lives.

Tusks grow at about 15 – 18 centimetres per year, however, they are continually worn down with constant use. Should they be allowed to continually grow without use, they would grow into a spiral shape (similar to those of the extinct woolly mammoth) as they typically grow following a curved growth pattern.

Interestingly, some elephants are born without tusks. This hereditary condition causes huge differences in the musculature and shape of the neck and the head of the elephant. Also, the carriage of the head is different and the bones at the back of the skull are less developed.

Not all male Asian elephants have tusks, there is approximately 40 – 50% of male Asian elephants that are tuskless. These particular males are known as ‘Makhnas ‘ in India.

Elephant Teeth

An elephants teeth are very unique in the manner in which they proceed from the back of each half jaw towards the front. The teeth follow a linear progression. As the front teeth continuously become more worn down they are slowly replaced with new teeth that give the elephant an ability to chew the coarse foods it eats particularly tree bark. The elephant has a total of 24 teeth, but only 2 are usually in use at any one time.

When an elephant is born, a calf has four developing teeth in each side of its jaws. These consist of their smallish first and second teeth which are present after birth and the end of a third and a forth which is still below the gum. As each tooth wears out, it is pushed forward to the front of the mouth and it slowly wears into a shelf  as the roots are absorbed. The shelf eventually will break off and the remaining piece will be pushed out of the mouth.

After the first two teeth are gone, parts of the two adjacent teeth are being worn down in each half of the jaw. This process continues until the 6th and sometimes 7th molar appears. The 6th molar weighs on average an incredible 4 kilograms and has a maximum grinding length of 21 centimetres (and a width of 7 centimetres).

This 6th molar will be present for around half the elephants life. When the last molar tooth is worn down and the elephant can no longer chew properly, unfortunately it will usually starve or develop malnutrition and eventually die. This does not happen until the elephant is at least 60 – 70 years old. Below is a table showing the onset and loss of each tooth and age the above process usually occurs:

The molars of an elephant differ between the African and Asian species. Both have a series of ridges (laminae) which run across the tooth. However, in the Asian elephant the ridges are parallel as opposed to the diamond shaped ridges in the African elephant. Although the Asian elephant has grazing teeth, it is usually spends most of its time in forests as opposed to plains like the African elephant.

In both species of elephant, the movement of the jaw during chewing is forwards and backwards, unlike cows who use sideways movements to chew their cud. Therefore, the ridges act as two rasps grating upon one another and is made more effective by the teeth being slightly curved along the lengths.

Elephants Brain

Elephants are born with 35% of the mass of the adult brain. The elephant is among the more intelligent animals. The brain weight of the male African elephant is 4.2-5.4 kilograms. The brain weight of the female African elephant is 3.6 – 4.3 kilograms. Both are quite heavy in comparison to the adult human brain although brain development in elephants is quite similar to that of human beings.

Humans are born with small brain mass, so are elephants. As a human brain grows and develops, so does an elephant calfs brain. Likewise, the learning ability of a human increases with growth, so does that of an elephant calf. It is not surprising that elephants are such intelligent creatures. Although the female elephant brain is smaller than the male elephant brain, this does not suggest that the male is more intelligent than the female. Studies have revealed that the female elephant is equal to or even more intelligent than the male. Given the fact that female elephants are generally smaller to male elephants, the brain mass in proportion to the body size indicates the larger female brain.

Also, the brain and consciousness of the female elephant is much different than that of a male as they are reared and interact with their mothers in very different ways right from birth and while the females form a very close knit bond with each other which is constantly maintained, the males are more solitary and independent.

Although the brain of the elephant is the largest in size among all of the land mammals, it actually only occupies a small area at the back of the skull. However, in proportion to the size of the elephants body, the elephant brain is smaller than the human brain. Despite this, the elephant is one of the only animals along with all apes (including ourselves), sperm whales and a few other creatures who has a large brain relative to body size.

Elephant Hair

Although elephants are generally considered hairless animals, both African and Asian elephants are born with thick hair. The elephant fetus is covered with ‘Lanugo’, a mass of long, downy hair, however, most of this is shed before the elephant is actually born. The hair on an elephant calf sheds more as the elephant calf grows. The hair is not designed to provide warmth for the elephant, however, it does allow the elephant to sense the closeness of objects the hair touches.

The hair on an elephant is thickest on the tail and more visible on the head and back. The hair on the tail can reach a length of up to 100 centimetres.

The hair that appears around the eyes and nose have a protection purpose. It helps to keep out particles and germs from invading the body through the ears and nose. An elephant also has small sensory hairs along its trunk.

Baby elephants (calves) have lots of small fine hairs that cover most of their body. In the photo on the left, you can see the fine hair on the calfs forehead and lower back. These hairs will last in the same density long after the elephants first birthday and then as the elephant grows the hair will gradually become thinner and become less visible.

Elephant Ears

The African elephant has ears that are at least 3 times the size of the Asian elephants ears. The African elephant uses its ears as signaling organs. Ears are also used to regulate body temperature and are used as a protective feature in the African elephant to ward off potential threats. Each elephants ear is unique and different to any other elephants ear. They are used just like fingerprints on a human as a type of identification. The ears serve several important functions in the elephant. When a threat is perceived by the elephant, the ears are spread wide on each side of the head, which produces a huge frontal area.

Because the elephant is such a large bulbous shape and contains large organs, their insides generate a lot of heat, particularly the digestive system. The surface area of an elephant is a lower ratio compared to the elephants volume. Therefore, there is not enough skin area to cope with the heat that needs expelling. So elephants use their ears to perform this function. When an elephant flaps its ears, it can lower their blood temperature by 10 degrees Fahrenheit . Both the African and Asian elephants use their ears for this purpose although it is more effective in the African elephant due to the larger ears.

The wider surface area of outer ear tissue on the African elephants ears consists of a vast network of capillaries and veins. Hot blood in the arteries are filtered through these and cooler blood is returned to the elephants body.

It is not uncommon to see an elephant facing down on a windy day with its ears extended to allow the cool wind to blow across the hot arteries. The physical structure of the elephant ear is simply a sheet of cartilage covered by thin skin. Another amazing function of the elephant ear is its ‘infra sound capabilities’. This is used for long range communication between the elephants. Elephant ears are extremely sensitive and studies have proved that elephants can communicate over great distances with each other. Elephants can use this communication which is unhearing to human ears to warn of impending dangers in the far distance. So do not forget, if you have the opportunity to ever touch the ears of an elephant, be very careful as they are very soft and sensitive.

Elephant Feet

Elephants feet are unique and very interesting. They are quite different from other animal feet. An elephants foot is designed in such a way that elephants actually walk on the tips of their toes. Because of the way it walks, elephants are also known as ‘Digitigrades’ and belong to a group of animals that also includes horses, cattle, sheep, camels and rhinos. All elephants do not have the same number of toes on each foot. The African elephants have 4 toes on their front feet and 3 toes on their back feet. Asian elephants on the other hand, have 5 on the front and 4 at the back.

The sole of the foot is also ridged and pitted which gives the elephant stability when walking over a variety of terrains. Its design prevents the elephant from slipping on smooth surfaces such as ice and snow. The reason that elephants can walk so quietly is in part due to the ‘elastic spongy cushion’ on the bottom of the foot smothering any objects beneath itself. This causes most noises (including the cracking of sticks and twigs) to be muffled.

The fore feet of an elephant have a circular shape whereas the back feet are a more oval shape. The footprint of an elephant can tell you a few things about that particular elephant. For example, elongated oval footprints usually indicates that they belong to a male elephant, whereas a more rounded footprint indicates a female elephant. Male elephants tend to leave double footprints as their rear leg falls slightly to the side of their front leg. Females tend to walk more precisely in the same spot with both legs.

The footprint can also tell you what age the elephant might be. Younger elephants leave a more crisp and defined footprint. Older elephants leave a more undefined footprint because of smoother ridges and worn heels. The height of the elephant can also be determined by its footprint. Twice the circumference of the footprint suggests how tall the elephant is to the height of its shoulder. Elephants footprints can play a beneficial role for other animals. Their large, deep prints create holes in which water can be collected in providing water holes for small animals, roots can be dug up from the ground and navigation on difficult terrain can be made easier.

The structure of the foot allows an elephant to walk in deep mud without difficulty, because when it is being withdrawn the circumference becomes smaller which in turn reduces the suction preventing the elephant from being drawn deeper into the mud.

Elephant Skin

Although elephants belong to the Pachyderm species which means ‘thick-skinned’ animals, they actually have very thin skin except in certain places such as the back and the sides where it is about 2 – 3 centimetres thick. The thinnest parts of skin are behind their ears, around their eyes, on the chest, abdomen and shoulders. On these parts, their skin is as thin as paper. Skin provides a protective function for all animals, however, there are some unique characteristics about the elephants skin. Elephants skin is very sensitive to the sun. Elephant calves are constantly shadowed by their mothers to avoid sunburn.

Elephants naturally love water, however, one of the reasons they enjoy wallowing in mud, lakes and rivers is to keep cool when it is very hot. Elephants also use their trunks to draw up cool water and squirt it over their backs and heads to wet the skin most exposed to the sunlight. The absence of sweat glands is also another important reason for elephants to spend a lot of time in water and mud.

Wrinkles increase the surface area of the skin so when the elephant bathes in water, there is more skin to wet. When the elephant comes out of the water, the cracks and crevices of the wrinkles trap the water and because it takes longer to evaporate in the heat it keeps the elephants skin moist longer than it would if it had smooth skin.

Skin structure on an elephant can also distinguish whether they are Asian or African. Asian elephants have finer skin than African elephants and it is sometimes colorless except for some ‘white spots’ around the ears and forehead.

The natural skin color of the African elephant is greyish black, but all elephant skin color changes and is determined by the color of the soil of the land where their habitat is. Elephants have a habit of throwing mud over their backs and this gives them their apparent coloring.

Elephant Senses and Communication

By better understanding an elephants view of the world we can become more aware of how amazing these animals really are. As human beings, the impact our senses have on the nature of our experiences such as what we see, hear, smell and touch, play a huge part in determining our world. Likewise, it is important that we recognize the world of an elephant is much different from our world. For instance, the eyesight of an elephant is not as far reaching as a humans eyesight, however, an elephants sense of smell is unparalleled. The elephants acute sense of smell is also used in communication along with its other senses of vision, touch, hearing and the amazing ability to detect vibrations.

An elephant is capable of hearing sound waves well below the human hearing limitation. They communicate using both high and low frequency sounds. Low frequency rumbles are made to warn other elephants at long distance of a current situation whereas high frequency sounds such as trumpeting, barking, snorting and other loud calls are used to communicate to those nearer.

Using their heads, bodies, trunks, ears and tail for communicating is the elephants natural language. Visual communication includes movements of the head, mouth, tusks and trunk. For example, when a female elephant feels threatened, she will make herself appear larger by holding her head as high as she can and spreading her ears wide. Chemical communication is the use of the trunk. The elephant will lift its trunk to smell the air or root around the floor usually searching for urine spots and urine trails.

Tactile communication usually involves the whole body, feet, tail, ears, trunk and tusks and is mostly to do with touch. An elephant will use its tusks to provoke aggression or to lift a baby elephant out of a mud wallow. The rubbing together of ears shows affection. Depending on how the elephant moves and uses its body parts depicts the mood of the animal.

Such moods and body movements show if the elephant is angry, happy, anti-predator, parental, excited or sad. Every observation of the elephant senses shows an insight to the world the elephant lives in. It is important to remember that the elephants world is a completely different world from ours based on its sensory experiences.

Understanding Elephant Anatomy: A Comprehensive Guide

Have you ever wondered about the intricate anatomy of elephants , those gentle giants roaming our planet? We have too! In fact, did you know that elephants walk on their toes like professional ballet dancers yet remain utterly silent due to a unique foot structure ? With extensive research , we’ve dissected every aspect of elephant anatomy in this comprehensive guide.

Don’t miss out, let’s dive deep into the world of these magnificent creatures.

Key Takeaways

• Elephants have a unique foot structure that allows them to walk silently on their toes.
• The trunk of an elephant is an incredible tool that serves multiple functions, such as breathing, drinking, and communication.
• Elephant tusks continuously grow throughout their lifetime and play important roles in digging for food, defending against predators, and displaying dominance within the herd.
• Elephant skin is thick and provides protection from the sun’s harmful rays and insect bites.

Overview of Elephants

Elephants are large mammals that belong to the family Elephantidae , which includes two species – the African elephant and the Asian elephant.

What are elephants?

Elephants are fascinating, intelligent mammals primarily recognized by their large size, long trunks and tusks. Three main species exist: the African savanna elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant.

They play an essential role in maintaining the balance of their ecosystems with their herbivorous habits and extensive travels that promote seed dispersal . Despite this crucial role, elephants face numerous threats due to habitat loss and illegal poaching for ivory – a material obtained from their tusks.

A distinctive feature is their trunk or proboscis which hosts over 40,000 muscles; quite astonishing considering that’s far more than what we humans have in our entire body! This unique tool serves multiple purposes such as detecting smells or potential danger but can also store up to 4 liters of water at once – handy for those parched moments in the wild! Another intriguing fact about these gentle giants is that they have incredible memory capabilities allowing them to recognize human body language among other things proving just how intellectually advanced they truly are.

Elephants aren’t just physically remarkable animals but deeply complex creatures who continue to captivate us with every new discovery into their world.

Different species of elephants

Let’s delve into the fascinating world of elephants, where diversity abounds. There are three primary species that exist today:

• The African Savanna Elephant : This is the largest land mammal in existence today. Notably found in sub-Saharan Africa, they boast large ears and a concave back.
• The African Forest Elephant : Residing predominantly within the dense rainforests of West Africa and the Congo Basin, these elephants take second place in size. They were recognized as a unique species as recently as 2000.
• The Asian Elephant : Divided further into three subspecies – Indian, Sumatran, and Sri Lankan – they represent their continent well with smaller ears and a convex or straight back.

Are elephants endangered?

Absolutely, both African and Asian elephants are endangered species . Disturbingly, more than half of the African elephant population reduced from 1979 to 1989 . At the start of this century, less than 50,000 wild Asian elephants were counted.

This decline is majorly due to habitat loss and poaching. In order to protect these magnificent mammals and maintain our diverse ecosystems, we must take swift actions to stop these threats.

The plight of the pachyderm species underscores the urgent need for conservation efforts worldwide.

Elephant Anatomy: Form and Function

Elephant trunks are a remarkable feature of their anatomy , serving multiple functions such as breathing, smelling, eating, drinking, and even communication.

Elephant Trunks

Elephant trunks act as a crucial tool in their everyday lives. With over 40,000 muscles , these versatile proboscises are incredibly sensitive and adaptable. They allow elephants to perform a wide range of activities from sipping water to lifting objects.

An elephant can store up to 4 liters of water in its trunk , turning it into a portable hydration station during arduous treks across the parched savannah. Moreover, an elephant’s trunk functions as a snorkel when they’re swimming or wading through deep waters – quite the multipurpose tool! Another intriguing fact is the way an elephant’s trunk position communicates intentions; just one example of their complex visual communication methods within the herd.

Elephant Tusks

Elephant tusks are fascinating and unique features that play a crucial role in an elephant’s life. These elongated incisor teeth can grow to be as long as 3 meters and weigh over 100 kilograms each .

They continuously grow throughout an elephant’s lifetime , providing various functions. Tusks are used for activities like digging for food and water, defending against predators , and displaying dominance within their herd .

Unfortunately, the ivory from these tusks is highly valuable in the illegal wildlife trade , posing a significant threat to elephant conservation efforts. African elephants typically have larger and heavier tusks compared to their Asian counterparts .

Elephant Teeth

Elephants have a fascinating dental system, with a total of 24 teeth . However, only two of these teeth are usually in use at any given time. Why? Well, elephants continuously replace their worn-out teeth throughout their lives.

These massive mammals have six sets of molars that gradually move forward as the front set wears down and falls out. This process allows new teeth to come in from the back to take their place.

So, while an elephant may not get a shiny penny from the tooth fairy, they do get fresh and functional chompers!

One prominent feature of an elephant’s dental structure is its elongated incisor teeth – also known as tusks. The size of an elephant’s tusks is actually hereditary; it’s passed down from generation to generation.

Elephant Ears

Elephant ears serve multiple functions for these majestic creatures. Firstly, their large surface area helps to dissipate heat and regulate body temperature . This is especially important in hot climates where elephants reside.

Secondly, elephant ears enhance their hearing abilities by capturing and funneling sound waves towards their eardrums. Not only does this allow them to detect low-frequency rumbles from other elephants over long distances, but it also allows them to pick up on high-frequency sounds that escape the range of human hearing.

Additionally, the flapping motion of elephant ears can deter pests like flies and mosquitoes , providing some relief from annoying insects. Lastly, the shape and size of an elephant’s ears are unique to each individual, serving as a distinguishing feature that adds to their overall anatomy and behavior.

Elephant Feet

The feet of elephants are fascinating and unique. They walk on the tips of their toes, with African elephants having 4 toes on their front feet and 3 toes on their back feet, while Asian elephants have 5 toes on the front and 4 on the back .

The soles of an elephant’s feet are made of tough, fatty connective tissue which acts as a shock absorber and allows for silent movement. The ridged and pitted sole provides stability on various terrains and prevents slipping on smooth surfaces.

The shape of an elephant’s forefeet is circular, while the back feet are more oval.

Elephant Skin

Elephant skin is a remarkable feature that serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it provides protection for these magnificent creatures from the sun’s harmful rays, insect bites, and potential abrasions.

In fact, in some areas of an elephant’s body, its skin can be as thick as 2.5 cm! Additionally, elephant skin plays a role in regulating their body temperature through sweat glands found within the folds of their skin.

Elephants also have a unique way of keeping cool by covering themselves in mud or dust baths which serve to both cool them down and protect their sensitive skin. Another interesting characteristic of elephant skin is its elasticity; it allows these animals to move freely without tearing their protective covering.

Special Features of Elephant Anatomy

Elephants possess several special features that set them apart from other animals. From their highly intelligent brains to their unique sensory organs, elephants are truly remarkable creatures.

Discover more about these fascinating special features by reading on!

Elephant Brain and Intelligence

Elephants have an incredibly sophisticated and intelligent brain. On average, an elephant’s brain weighs between 4.5 to 5.5 kilograms (10-12 pounds). This large size is directly connected to their complex social behaviors and advanced cognitive abilities .

In fact, elephants possess a well-developed hippocampus, which is responsible for memory and spatial awareness. They even have the ability to recognize themselves in mirrors , indicating self-awareness.

Additionally, these magnificent creatures display empathy and compassion towards other members of their herd , showcasing a high level of emotional intelligence.

Elephant Hair

Elephant hair is a unique and important feature of these magnificent creatures. Found on their tails, ears, and heads, elephant hair serves several crucial functions. The long strands of hair on an elephant’s tail can reach up to 1.5 meters in length ! This hair acts as protection against the sun, insects, and other environmental factors that could harm their sensitive skin.

Additionally, the hair on an elephant’s head and ears acts as a sensory organ , allowing them to detect subtle vibrations and changes in their surroundings. Not only does it provide insulation for regulating body temperature but also allows air to flow through during hot climates .

The color of elephant hair can range from dark brown to gray , adding to the fascinating diversity of these remarkable animals’ characteristics.

Elephant Senses and Communication

Elephants have an impressive array of senses that help them navigate their environment and communicate with each other. Their sense of smell is highly developed, allowing them to detect scents from great distances.

They also have excellent hearing and can pick up low-frequency sounds that are too low for humans to hear. In addition, elephants use infrasound, which is sound below the range of human hearing, to communicate with each other over long distances.

But it’s not just their sensory abilities that aid in communication – elephants also rely on vocalizations like trumpeting and rumbling , as well as body language such as head shaking, ear flapping, and trunk gestures .

Elephant Reproduction

Elephant reproduction is a complex and fascinating process. Female elephants begin breeding once they reach puberty, which usually occurs when they are around 12 to 14 years old. The gestation period for elephants is incredibly long, lasting between 18 to 22 months, the longest among mammals.

Female elephants have a menstrual cycle that lasts between 13 to 18 weeks, with a peak phase known as estrus or being in heat .

During this time, male elephants in musth, a period of increased sexual activity and aggression, often guard female elephants in their peak cycle. Mating involves a ritual where the female rubs against the male and entwines trunks.

Successful mating requires the male to chase the female and mount her for at least one or two minutes.

Interesting Facts about Elephants

Elephants have over 40,000 muscles in their trunks . They can hold and store up to 4 liters of water in their trunks . The trunk is an important sensory organ for elephants, used for smelling the air and detecting potential threats. Elephant tusks are elongated incisor teeth used for digging and carrying heavy objects. Elephant eyes have moderately strong vision, able to determine the shape of an object at 150m. Elephant skin is tough, grey, and wrinkled, with a thickness of up to 3.8cm in certain areas .

In conclusion, understanding the anatomy of elephants provides fascinating insights into their incredible abilities and adaptations . From their highly versatile trunks to their impressive tusks and teeth , elephants have evolved unique features that enable them to survive in diverse habitats.

Their immense intelligence and exceptional sensory organs further contribute to their remarkable existence in the animal kingdom. The more we learn about elephant anatomy , the better equipped we are to appreciate and protect these magnificent creatures for future generations.

1. What are some unique aspects of an elephant’s anatomy?

Elephants have several unique characteristics, including walking on the tips of their toes, having prehensile fingers on their trunks for smell and touch tasks, and using low-frequency rumbles for long-range communication .

2. Can elephants regulate their body temperature?

Yes, elephants use various methods to control body heat such as expelling it through capillaries in their large ears and wallowing in mud. Their skin structure includes thick fatty connective tissue contributing to this factor too.

3. How does sensory hair aid elephants?

Elephants use sensory hairs present throughout the trunk and body to detect vibrations and threats from afar. These fine sensory hairs also help them smell the air to detect odours or danger.

4. Are tusks one of the primary components of elephant anatomy?

Absolutely! Tusks formed by dentine are critical not only structurally but culturally as well with threatening gestures among males or unfortunately attracting ivory hunters which is a threat these animals face.

5. Do Elephants possess specific teeth structures?

Certainly! Elephants have molar teeth for grinding coarse foods along with milk tusks appearing temporarily in baby elephants while besides these canine teeth are found commonly amongst solitary tuskless ones known as Makhnas.

6. Do all parts of an Elephant’s body communicate something?

Interestingly enough yes! The tail communicates emotions; Ears act as heat expellers while showing aggression or fear when spread out; Trunk (proboscis) aids in sound production showing joy or irritation; Feet display friendly gestures besides detecting subtle ground vibrations too.

Elephant Parts: Great List of 12 Parts of an Elephant

Have you ever wondered about the different parts of an elephant? These majestic creatures are known for their large size and unique features, but what makes up their anatomy? In this article, we will explore the various parts of an elephant and their functions.

Table of Contents

Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, and their anatomy is nothing short of remarkable. They are known for their unique physical characteristics, which make them stand out from other animals.

Body Size and Shape

The elephant’s body is massive and bulky, with a round belly and a wide back. They can grow up to 13 feet tall and weigh up to 22,000 pounds. Male elephants are typically larger than females, with longer tusks and a more prominent forehead.

One of the most distinctive features of an elephant is its trunk. The trunk is a multi-functional organ with over 40,000 muscles. Its primary functions are for breathing, smelling, touching, and grasping. Elephants also use their trunks to drink water, which they then squirt into their mouths, and they can even use their trunk as a snorkel when swimming.

Elephants have two long, curved tusks made of ivory that protrude from their upper jaw. Tusks are used for root digging, brush clearing, fighting over females, and self-defense. They also protect their trunks, which are an important part of an elephant’s body.

The elephant’s large ears are one of its most distinguishing characteristics. Elephants use their ears to regulate their body temperature, as well as to communicate with other elephants. They can also use their ears to detect sounds from long distances.

Elephants have thick, wrinkled skin that is gray in color. Their skin is as thin as paper, but it provides a protective function for all animals . However, there are some unique characteristics about the elephant’s skin. For example, elephants have sparse hair on their skin and their skin is covered in a layer of dust and mud to protect them from the sun.

Elephant Parts

Elephants are the largest grassland animal in the world. They can hear with their feet and live an average of 70 years.

An elephant’s trunk is one of its most distinctive features. It is a long, muscular appendage that serves many functions, including breathing, smelling, touching, grasping, and making sounds. The trunk is made up of over 100,000 muscles and can be up to 2 meters long. Elephants use their trunks to drink water, pick fruits, and even to spray themselves with dust or mud to keep cool.

Elephant tusks are elongated incisor teeth that protrude from the upper jaw. Tusks are used for a variety of purposes, including defense, digging, and foraging. Tusks can grow up to 3 meters long and can weigh over 100 kilograms. Unfortunately, elephants are often hunted for their tusks, which are highly valued in some cultures for their ornamental and medicinal properties.

Elephants have six sets of teeth throughout their lives, but they only have two or three teeth in their mouth at any given time. As their front teeth wear down, they are replaced by new teeth that move forward to take their place. This process continues throughout their lives, and when they run out of teeth, they can no longer chew their food properly and may die of starvation.

Legs and Feet

Elephants have four legs that are very strong and sturdy. Their feet are wide and cushioned, which helps them to distribute their weight evenly and walk quietly. Elephants walk on their toes, which are covered by thick, calloused pads. They also have a fifth toe, which is located higher up on their leg and is used for balance and support.

Parts of An Elephant | List

Frequently asked questions.

What are the body parts of an elephant and their uses?

Elephants have many body parts that help them survive in their natural habitat. Some of the most important body parts include their trunks, tusks, ears, and feet. Elephants use their trunks for a variety of tasks, such as breathing, smelling, and grabbing food. Their tusks are used for defense and to dig for food and water. Their large ears help them regulate their body temperature, and their feet are used for walking long distances and foraging for food.

What are 5 characteristics of an elephant?

Elephants are known for their intelligence, social behavior, communication skills, and memory. They also have a unique ability to use tools and to show empathy towards other elephants and even other species. Elephants are also known for their long lifespans, with some living up to 70 years in the wild .

What are the physical features of an elephant?

Elephants are characterized by their large size, gray skin, and long trunks. They also have large ears that they use to regulate their body temperature, and their tusks can grow up to 10 feet long. Elephants have four legs and large, flat feet that help them walk long distances and forage for food.

Why is an elephant’s skin so thick?

An elephant’s skin is very thick and tough, which helps protect them from predators and the harsh elements of their environment. Their skin is also wrinkled, which helps them retain moisture and stay cool in hot weather.

What are some uses of an elephant’s tusk?

Elephants use their tusks for a variety of tasks, such as digging for food and water, defending themselves from predators, and foraging for food. Unfortunately, elephants are also hunted for their tusks, which are made of ivory and are highly valued in some cultures.

How does an elephant use its trunk?

An elephant’s trunk is a highly versatile tool that they use for a variety of tasks. They can use it to breathe, smell, grab food and water, and even communicate with other elephants. Elephants can also use their trunks to make loud trumpeting sounds , which they use to communicate with other elephants over long distances.

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African Elephant

An adult African elephant's trunk is about seven feet (two meters) long! It's actually an elongated nose and upper lip. Like most noses, trunks are for smelling.

When an elephant drinks, it sucks as much as 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water into its trunk at a time. Then it curls its trunk under, sticks the tip of its trunk into its mouth, and blows. Out comes the water, right down the elephant's throat.

Since African elephants live where the sun is usually blazing hot, they use their trunks to help them keep cool. First they squirt a trunkful of cool water over their bodies. Then they often follow that with a sprinkling of dust to create a protective layer of dirt on their skin. Elephants pick up and spray dust the same way they do water—with their trunks.

Mission Animal Rescue: Elephants

Elephant power, baby elephants, elephants play soccer.

Elephants also use their trunks as snorkels when they wade in deep water. An elephant's trunk is controlled by many muscles. Two fingerlike parts on the tip of the trunk allow the elephant to perform delicate maneuvers such as picking a berry from the ground or plucking a single leaf off a tree . Elephants can also use its trunk to grasp an entire tree branch and pull it down to its mouth and to yank up clumps of grasses and shove the greenery into their mouths.

When an elephant gets a whiff of something interesting, it sniffs the air with its trunk raised up like a submarine periscope. If threatened, an elephant will also use its trunk to make loud trumpeting noises as a warning.

Elephants are social creatures. They sometimes hug by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection . Elephants also use their trunks to help lift or nudge an elephant calf over an obstacle, to rescue a fellow elephant stuck in mud, or to gently raise a newborn elephant to its feet. And just as a human baby sucks its thumb, an elephant calf often sucks its trunk for comfort. One elephant can eat 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food in one day.

People hunt elephants mainly for their ivory tusks. Adult females and young travel in herds, while adult males generally travel alone or in groups of their own.

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Elephant Essay

Elephants are the largest land animals with distinct body parts. Unlike other mammals, elephants don’t have nose, instead they breathe through a long trunk. They have huge fan like ears and long extended teeth called tusks. Because of their distinct tusks they are often called tuskers.

Elephants are wild animals; though, they are also domesticated by humans to mainly perform laborious tasks. Colossal body parts give the elephants tremendous physical strength over humans, thus they are tamed and made to perform strenuous and challenging tasks. Elephants have a distinct social structure displaying feelings of compassion, love and care for the family members.

Long and Short Essay on Elephant in English

We have provided below various essay on elephant in order to help students.

Now-a-days, essays and paragraphs writing are more common strategy followed by the teachers in the schools and colleges in order to enhance student’s skill and knowledge about any subject.

All the elephant essay given below are written using very simple words and easy sentences under various words limit. Students can select any of the essays given below according to their need and requirement:

Elephant Essay 1 (100 words)

Elephant is a very big animal. It lives in the forest however it is a pet animal also. Some people keep it at home as a pet animal in order to earn money through circus. It is also kept in the zoo in order to enhance the glory of zoo as well as interest of kids. It has a big body with four legs like pillars, two fan like ears, a long trunk, a short tail and two small eyes. A male elephant contains two long white teeth called as tusks. It can eat soft green leaves, plants, grains, etc. It is very useful animal to the man and proved to be a good friend to mankind as it performs many functions such as earns money, carries heavy loads, etc. It has long life span and lives around one hundred years.

Elephant Essay 2 (150 words)

Elephant is a biggest animal on the land. It is also considered as the strongest animal on the land. Generally it is a wild animal however can live as a pet animal after proper training in the zoo or with human being at home. It has been proved a useful animal for the humanity. It is an animal with big body generally found in the grey color.

It’s all four legs looks like a pillar and two big ears just like a fan. Its eyes are quite small in comparison to the body. It has a long trunk and a short tail. It can pick up a range of things very easily through its trunk such as a small needle and very heavy trees or loads. It has two long white tusks on each side of trunk.

Elephants live in the jungle and generally eat small twigs, leaves, straw and wild fruits however a pet elephant can also eat bread, bananas, sugarcane, etc. It is a pure vegetarian wild animal. Now-a-days, they are used by the people to carry heavy loads, in the circus, lifting logs, etc. In the ancient time, they were used by the kings and dukes in the wars and battles. It lives for long years (more than 100 years). It is very useful animal even after death (bangles are made of bones and tusks).

Elephant Essay 3 (200 words)

Elephant is a largest animal on the land. It lives in the forest however can be a pet after proper training. It can be more than eight feet in height. Its big and heavy body is supported by the strong pillar like legs. It takes help of its long trunk in eating leaves, plants, fruits or trees. Generally two types of elephants are found on land African (scientific name is Loxodonta africana) and Asian (scientific name is Elephas maximus).

Its big hanging ears looks like a fan and legs like a pillar. It has a long trunk attached with mouth and two tusks each side. The trunk of an elephant is very flexible and strong and known as a multi-purpose organ. It is used for feeding, bathing, breathing, expressing emotions, fighting, etc by the elephant.

African elephants are little bigger is size and darker in color than the Asian elephants. They have more prominent ears also. Elephants are commonly found in India, Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Siam. They generally like to live in a herd and become very fond of water. They know well about swimming. Because of being an herbivorous animal, they depend on plants in the forest in order to meet their food need. They move to villages and other residential places in the lack of food in forest or because of deforestation. It is known as an intelligent animal and benefits man in many ways.

Elephant Essay 4 (250 words)

Elephant is a strongest and biggest animal on the earth. It is quite famous for its big body, intelligence and obedient nature. It lives in jungle however can be trained and used by people for various purposes. Its peculiar features are four pillars like legs, two fan like ears, two small eyes, a short tail, a long trunk, and two long white tusks. Elephant eats leaves, stem of banana trees, grass, soft plants, nuts, fruits, etc in the jungle. It lives more than hundred and twenty years. It is found in India in the dense jungles of Assam, Mysore, Tripura, etc. Generally elephants are of dark grey color however white elephants are found as well in the Thailand.

Elephant is an intelligent animal and has good learning capacity. It can be trained very easily according to the use in circus, zoo, transport, carry loads, etc. It can carry heavy logs of timber to a long distance from one place to another. It is an animal of kid’s interest in the zoo or other places. A trained elephant can perform various tasks such as delightful activities in the circus, etc. It can be very angry which create danger to the humanity as it can destroy anything. It is useful animal even after death as its tusk, skin, bones, etc are used to make costly and artistic items.

Elephant Essay 5 (300 words)

Elephant is a very huge wild animal lives in a jungle. It looks quite ugly however mostly liked by the kids. It has big heavy body and called as royal animal. It can be more than 10 feet in height. It is found in coarse dark grey color with very hard skin. In other countries, it is found in white color also. Its long and flexible trunk helps in feeding, breathing, bathing and lifting heavy loads. Its two big ears hanging like big fans. Its four legs are very strong and look like pillars. Elephants are found in the forests of India (Assam, Mysore, Tripura, etc), Ceylon, Africa, and Burma. Elephants like to live in groups of hundreds (lead by a big male elephant) in the jungle.

It is very useful animal to the humanity whole life and after death also. Its various body parts are used to make precious things all over the world. Bones and tusks of elephant are used to make hooks for brushes, knife-handles, combs, bangles including other fancy things. It can live for many years from 150 to 200 years. Keeping elephant at home is very costly which an ordinary person cannot afford.

It has very calm nature however on teasing it can be very angry and dangerous as it can destroy anything even kill people. It is known as intelligent and faithful animal because it understands every sign of the keeper after training. It obeys its keeper very sincerely till death.

There are two types of elephant, African and Indian. African elephants are quite bigger than Indian elephant. Both, male and female African elephants have tusks with wrinkly gray skin and two tips at the end of trunk. Indian or Asian elephants are quite smaller than African elephants with humped back and only one tip at the end of trunk.

Elephant Essay 6 (400 words)

An elephant is very clever, obedient and biggest animal on the earth. It is found in the Africa and Asia. Generally, it is found in grey color however white in Thailand. Female elephants are used to live in groups however male elephants solitary. Elephants live long life more than 100 years. They generally live in jungles however also seen in the zoo and circus. They can grow around 11 feet in height and 13,000 pounds weight. The largest elephant ever has been measured as 13 feet in height and 24,000 pounds in weight. An individual elephant can eat 400 pounds of food and drink 30 gallons of water daily.

Elephant skin becomes one inch thick however very sensitive. They can hear each other’s sound from long distance around 5 miles away. Male elephant starts living alone whenever become adult however female lives in group (oldest female of a group called as matriarch). In spite of having intelligence, excellent hearing power, and good sense of smell, elephants have poor eyesight.

Elephants look very attractive to kids because of its interesting features such as two giant ears, two long tusks (around 10 feet long), four pillars like legs, a huge trunk, a huge body, two small eyes, and a short tail. It is considered that tusks are continued to grow entire life. Trunk is used to eat food, drink water, bath, breathe, smell, carry loads, etc. It is considered as elephants are very smart and never forget any event happened in their life. They communicate to each other in very low sound.

The baby of an elephant is called calf. Elephants come under the category of mammals as they give birth to a baby and feed their milk. A baby elephant can take almost 20 to 22 months in getting fully developed inside its mother womb. No other animal’s baby takes such a long time to develop before birth. A female elephants give birth to a single baby for every four or five years. They give birth to a baby of 85 cm (33 inch) tall and 120 kg heavy. A baby elephant takes almost a year or more to learn the use of trunk. A baby elephant can drink about 10 liters of milk daily. Elephants are at risk of extinction because of their size, prized ivory tusks, hunting, etc. They should be protected in order to maintain their availability on the earth.

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Essay on Elephants

Introduction to Elephants

Elephants, majestic giants of the animal kingdom, embody a profound cultural and ecological significance globally. Revered in numerous societies, particularly in Asia, where they hold religious and symbolic importance, elephants have served as mythical creatures and practical assets throughout history. Today, they face critical challenges such as habitat loss, poaching, and conflicts with human development, threatening their survival. Despite these threats, conservation efforts strive to protect these gentle giants, highlighting the intricate balance between human progress and wildlife preservation. Understanding elephants involves delving into their symbolic, historical, and environmental roles, reflecting on our shared responsibility toward their future.

Anatomy and Physical Characteristics

Elephants are incredibly unique creatures, both in their anatomy and physical characteristics. Here are some key points you might consider covering:

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Behavior and Social Structure

Elephants, the largest land mammals, are known for their complex behavior and intricate social structures. They exhibit intelligence and close bonds essential for their survival.

• Communication: Elephants communicate through vocalizations, body language , and seismic signals. Their low-frequency rumbles can be heard across great distances, and they trumpet and roar. They use these rumbles for various purposes, including coordinating movements, maintaining group cohesion, and signaling distress or reproductive readiness.
• Emotional Intelligence: Elephants display a remarkable level of emotional intelligence. They exhibit behaviors indicative of empathy , such as comforting distressed individuals and mourning deceased companions. Elephants have shown signs of grief, lingering near the remains of deceased herd members and even covering them with leaves and branches.
• Problem-Solving and Tool Use: Elephants are capable of problem-solving and using tools. Observers have seen them using branches to swat flies, create shade, or scratch themselves. Their ability to learn from experience and modify their behavior highlights their cognitive capabilities.
• Play and Social Learning: Young elephants engage in play, which is crucial for their social and physical development. Play behaviors include mock fights, chasing, and trunk wrestling. Young elephants learn essential social skills through play and bond with their peers.

Social Structure

• Matriarchal Society: Elephant herds are typically matriarchal, led by the oldest and often most experienced female, the matriarch. The matriarch is essential to the herd’s direction, making movement decisions, finding water and food sources, and protecting the group from threats.
• Family Units: Elephant herds are composed of closely related females and their offspring. Female elephants usually live with their natal herd, creating robust, multi-generational family units. Male elephants, on the other hand, leave the herd upon reaching adolescence and either live solitary lives or form loosely associated bachelor groups.
• Allomothering: Older females assist in caring for other people’s calves, a process known as “allomothering” in elephant cultures. This cooperative care enhances the survival rate of the young and allows mothers to feed and rest, ensuring the well-being of the entire herd.
• Social Bonds and Hierarchies: Elephants maintain solid social bonds through frequent physical contact, such as touching trunks, entwining trunks, and leaning on each other. Age, experience, and social bonds often determine the social hierarchy within the herd. The matriarch holds the highest rank, followed by other adult females and their offspring.
• Male Social Structure: After leaving the natal herd, male elephants spend more solitary lives. However, they occasionally associate with other males. These associations, known as bachelor groups, are usually fluid and based on factors such as age, size, and reproductive status. During musth, a period of heightened sexual activity and aggression, males become more competitive and may challenge each other for mating rights.

Habitat and Distribution

Elephants, the largest land mammals, inhabit Africa and Asia, each with unique habitats and distributions specific to African and Asian elephant species.

African Elephants

• Habitat: African elephants thrive in diverse environments, including savannas, forests, deserts, and marshes. They are incredibly adaptable, which allows them to live in varied climates, from the rainforests of Central Africa to the dry regions of the Sahel.
• Distribution: African elephants inhabit sub-Saharan Africa, with significant populations in Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South Africa. There are two subspecies of African elephants: the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana), found in open grasslands and woodlands, and the forest elephant (Loxodonta Cyclotis), which inhabits the dense rainforests of Central and West Africa. These elephants’ distribution primarily influences factors such as the availability of food and water and human activities such as agriculture and urban development.

Asian Elephants

• Habitat: Asian elephants primarily inhabit forested regions, including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, dry deciduous forests, and grasslands. They depend more on forested environments than their African counterparts and are typically found in regions with dense vegetation providing ample food and cover.
• Distribution: The range of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) extends across 13 countries in South and Southeast Asia, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo). The largest populations are found in India, home to more than half of the world’s Asian elephants. Their distribution is increasingly fragmented due to habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and poaching, resulting in isolated populations vulnerable to genetic bottlenecks and other conservation challenges.

Diet and Feeding Habits

Understanding diet and feeding habits provides insight into elephants’ ecological role as large herbivores in their ecosystems:  

Elephants are herbivorous mammals with a diverse diet primarily consisting of vegetation. Their diet typically includes:

• Grasses: Elephants feed on various grasses, which form a significant part of their diet, especially in savannah and grassland habitats.
• Leaves and Foliage: They consume various leaves from different plant species. They browse on tree leaves, shrubs, and other foliage in their habitats.
• Bark: In some cases, elephants also consume bark from trees. They may strip bark with their tusks and consume the inner layers, especially during dry seasons when other food sources are scarce.
• Fruits: In season, fruits are essential to an elephant’s diet. They consume various fruits, such as berries, melons, and other fleshy fruits within their range.

Feeding Habits

Elephants are known for their constant need to feed due to their large size and energy requirements. Key aspects of their feeding habits include:

• Foraging: Elephants spend a significant portion of their day foraging for food. They grasp and manipulate vegetation using their trunk and may also use their tusks to help access certain types of plants.
• Water Dependence: Elephants require large amounts of water daily. They are known to travel long distances to find water sources and may spend considerable time bathing and drinking.
• Feeding Patterns: Elephants frequently adapt their eating habits according to available food and water sources. During periods of scarcity, they may adjust their diet or travel longer distances to find suitable vegetation.
• Social Feeding: Elephants are social animals and often feed in groups. This social behavior can sometimes lead to cooperative feeding and sharing of food resources within their herd.
• Digestive Process: Their digestive system is adapted to process rigid plant material. Its complex process involves fermentation in the large intestine to extract nutrients from fibrous plant material.

Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities

Elephants are amazing animals with exceptional cognitive and intellectual capacities. Here are some points:

• Complex Social Structures: Elephants live in matriarchal herds led by the oldest female, showing sophisticated social structures akin to human societies.
• Exceptional Memory: Known for their long-term memory, elephants can remember distant locations of water sources and pathways, which is crucial for survival in their habitats.
• Tool Use and Problem-Solving: Elephants demonstrate tool use, such as using branches to swat insects or digging for water in dry riverbeds, indicating problem-solving abilities.
• Communication and Language: They communicate through various vocalizations, infrasound (low-frequency sounds), and body language, suggesting complex forms of communication.
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: Elephants empathize with injured or distressed herd members, displaying emotional bonds and social cohesion within their groups.
• Self-Awareness: Studies, including mirror tests, suggest that elephants possess a self-awareness comparable to humans, recognizing themselves in reflections.
• Learning and Adaptation: They learn from experiences and can adapt to changing environments, demonstrating the adaptability of thought and the capacity for creativity in the face of difficulty.
• Problem-Solving Skills: In captivity, elephants have demonstrated their cognitive capabilities by solving puzzles and learning complex tasks.
• Numerical and Spatial Awareness: Elephants show numerical understanding, can distinguish between different quantities of items, and have a keen spatial awareness that aids navigation across vast territories.
• Creative Behaviors: Behaviors like creating protective sunscreens from mud or using tools in novel ways showcase their ability to innovate and adapt to their environment.

Cultural Significance of Elephants

Elephants symbolize power, wisdom, and cultural richness. They have spanned civilizations, from ancient warfare to ceremonial rituals, leaving an enduring legacy in human history and imagination.

1. Asian Elephants in Religious Contexts

• Hinduism: In Hindu mythology, Ganesha, the deity of wisdom, success , and the removal of obstacles, is often depicted with an elephant head, symbolizing knowledge and the power to overcome barriers.
• Buddhism: In Buddhism, the white elephant symbolizes mental strength, wisdom, and knowledge. It’s believed that Queen Maya, the mother of Buddha, dreamt of a white elephant before his birth, indicating his future greatness.

2. African Elephants

Folklore and Tribal Beliefs: African cultures view elephants as symbols of strength, power, and wisdom . People often portray them as wise creatures with spiritual significance in stories and myths.

3. Historical Roles

• War Elephants: Throughout history, elephants have been used in warfare by civilizations such as the Persians and Indians and later by Alexander the Great. Due to their size, strength, and ability to intimidate enemy forces, they provided a formidable advantage.
• Ceremonial Uses: Elephants have been central to royal and religious ceremonies in many cultures. In India, for example, they have been used in processions during festivals and important events, symbolizing grandeur and royalty.

Conservation Efforts and Challenges

The points highlight both the proactive measures and the ongoing challenges in the conservation of elephants globally:

• Habitat Loss: Human activities like agriculture, urbanization , and infrastructure development are causing elephants to lose much of their habitat.
• Human-Wildlife: Conflict arises when elephants encroach on human settlements, leading to retaliatory killings and habitat fragmentation.
• Poaching: People target elephants for their ivory tusks despite international bans on ivory trade. Poaching remains a severe threat to their survival.
• Legal Protection: International agreements to save elephants, like the CITES- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, aim to control and limit the ivory trade.
• Conservation Reserves and National Parks : Establishing protected areas helps provide safe habitats for elephants and other wildlife.
• Community Involvement: Participating local communities in conservation initiatives helps lessen hostility between people and wildlife and encourages sustainable lifestyles.
• Research and Monitoring: Effective conservation measures require a thorough understanding of elephant behavior, migration patterns, and population dynamics.
• Transboundary Conservation Initiatives: Collaborative efforts between countries are essential, as elephants often move across borders for food and water.
• Climate Change: Factors including temperature extremes and shifting rainfall patterns can disrupt elephant habitats and food sources.
• Education and Awareness: Raising public awareness of the value of protecting elephants and their dangers can help mobilize support for conservation initiatives.

Human-Elephant Interaction

The complex dynamics of human-elephant interaction emphasize the need for sustainable conservation practices and ethical considerations in tourism and captive management.

Conservation vs. Human Development Conflicts

• Habitat Loss: As human populations expand, natural habitats are increasingly converted for agriculture , urbanization, and infrastructure projects, reducing elephant habitats.
• Conflict Over Resources: Elephants often compete with humans for water and food, escalating tensions and conflicts.
• Human-Elephant Conflict: Elephant raids on crops can lead to retaliatory killings by farmers, exacerbating conservation challenges.

Elephant Tourism and Ethical Considerations

• Tourism Impact: Elephant tourism, encompassing rides and performances, raises ethical and animal welfare concerns.
• Physical and Psychological Impact: Captive elephants used for tourism may suffer from physical ailments due to workload and improper care, and they may also experience psychological distress from unnatural living conditions.
• Educational vs. Exploitative Tourism: Balancing educational benefits for visitors with the ethical treatment of elephants remains a critical challenge.

Captive Elephants and Welfare Concerns

• Living Conditions: Captive elephants may face inadequate living conditions, confinement, and lack of social interaction, which can impact their physical and mental well-being.
• Training Methods: Traditional training methods such as “breaking” can involve harsh techniques that cause distress and pain to elephants.
• Legal and Regulatory Frameworks: Countries vary in their regulations governing captive elephants, influencing their welfare standards and treatment.

Elephants stand as majestic icons of cultural heritage and biodiversity conservation. Their symbolic significance spans civilizations, embodying wisdom, strength, and spirituality. However, their survival faces challenges from habitat loss, poaching, and human-wildlife conflicts. Conservation efforts must balance ecological needs with human development, emphasizing sustainable practices and ethical considerations in elephant tourism and captivity. As ambassadors of wilderness, elephants urge us to safeguard their habitats and respect their intrinsic value in our shared ecosystem. Preserving elephants means safeguarding a species and the integrity of our planet’s natural heritage for future generations.

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Elephant body language 101 – a guide for beginners

Animals communicate in a variety of ways but the most obvious of these, to humans at least, is their body language. Anyone can learn to read the body language of animals to differing degrees – we spend our lives figuring out the complexities of human communication and animals are far less equivocal than human beings.  With their complex social structure and high intelligence, not to mention their potential danger to humans, elephants are an excellent place to start. A little practice and some observational skills are all that’s needed to understand the basics. In turn, this understanding can add immeasurably to the enjoyment of an elephant sighting or ensure comfort for elephants and those viewing them.

Where to start

Are you looking at a breeding herd or a male or a group of males? This is important because different things can motivate bulls and cows. The older females of a breeding herd are the ones that will dictate what the herd does and how they respond to something, and their sole objective is to ensure the safety of their herd. The younger elephants can be playful, insecure or looking to establish their boundaries, so their signals are often misleading, meaning that it’s always a good idea to gauge the mood of the larger females first. The intentions of males can be harder to read or understand. The younger males that have left the security of their herds at puberty are often quite nervous, and this either translates into either moving away or attempting to intimidate a potential threat. Older males are the undisputed kings of all that they survey and should be treated as such – don’t block their routes or antagonise them, and most will behave like perfect gentlemen.

Believe it or not, the tail is the real key to reading elephant body language. Elephants are intelligent and often display what’s known as displacement behaviour – they sometimes pretend to feed, for example, while they figure out their next move in an uncomfortable situation. Their tail, however, gives them away. The tail of a relaxed elephant swings from side to side; the tail of an alert or uncomfortable elephant is held still, pointing downwards; and the tail of an upset, frightened or angry elephant is held out stiffly at right angles from the body.

An elephant that is flapping its ears isn’t angry, it’s hot and trying to cool down. They use wind cooling over the surface of their ears to lower the temperature of the blood and ultimately, their core body temperature. If an elephant is unsettled by something, they will raise their heads and spread their ears in an attempt to show off how large they are (this is mostly unnecessary, as anyone who has been close to an elephant will tell you). A headshake often accompanies this.

This is often something that older cows do close to vehicles and is their way of telling you not to try anything silly. You, in turn, can communicate your good intentions by staying still and quiet. If this movement from a female is accompanied by a few short running steps in your direction, it’s time for you to move off if you can – again calmly and as slowly as possible.

This complicated body part so unique to elephants often displays the nuances of elephant body language. An elephant uses its trunk for everything from eating and drinking to smelling and touching so it is continuously moving and interpreting its meaning can be quite complicated. A good general approach is that if the movement is focused – feeding, for example, then the elephant is relaxed. If the elephant is standing still with the trunk raised and curled with the tip pointing in a specific direction, the elephant has picked up on a particular scent and is working out what it is and what direction it is coming from. If the elephant is standing still with the trunk down and the tip twisting from side to side, this can mean that something has caught the elephant’s attention and it is deciding what to do next. A twisting trunk can be a sign of anxiety.

Bull elephants, particularly those in musth (see below), sometimes drape their trunks over their tusks. This is almost always an attempt at intimidation and should be interpreted as such – those new to elephant behaviour should take this as a sign to move out of the male’s way.

Feet and general body language

Elephants use their feet constantly to dig up roots or kick up dirt or dust, so an elephant kicking the ground repeatedly is no cause for concern. Elephants are constantly moving so any stillness (unless they are resting with sleeping youngsters) is a sign that something is amiss or that they are listening intently – either to other elephants or something else. Rocking from side to side can also be a sign of indecision or anxiety.

Musth bulls are deserving of their own section based on the fact that they can be more unpredictable and occasionally more aggressive while in this state. All mature bulls experience musth cycles where their testosterone levels skyrocket to around 60 times the normal levels. They secrete liquid from their temporal glands (see below) and that, combined with a constant urine drip that coats their legs, gives them a distinctive musky odour. Musth bulls hold their heads high with the ears above the level of the shoulders and walk with a self-assured swagger.

Temporal glands

Elephants have glands between their eyes and ears (the temporal region) that secrete an oily substance containing hormones and other substances. Often these secretions go into overdrive when the elephant is nervous, stressed or excited, although interpreting the reasons behind this can often be quite tricky.

Final word and disclaimer

Elephants are complex creatures , and it is impossible to apply any rules with absolute certainty. Discretion is always the better part of valour where elephants are concerned, and they should never be taken for granted – if you are uncomfortable with a situation, move away slowly and calmly. This guide is intended to assist beginners in reading an elephant, rather than encourage a sense of overconfidence. All wild animals should be treated with respect and elephants are no exception.

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Essay on Elephant

Students are often asked to write an essay on Elephant in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Elephant

Introduction.

Elephants are large mammals known for their distinctive features such as long noses or trunks, tusks, and large ear flaps. They are found in Africa and Asia.

Characteristics

Elephants live in diverse habitats including savannahs, forests, deserts, and marshes. They are usually near water and plants which they eat.

Elephants are social creatures, often seen in groups. They communicate through touch, sight, and sound.

Conservation

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250 Words Essay on Elephant

The majestic elephant.

The elephant, a majestic creature, is the largest land mammal on Earth. With its remarkable size and strength, it is a symbol of power and wisdom in many cultures.

Physical Attributes

Elephants are distinguished by their long trunks, used for communication and handling objects, and their large ears, which help regulate body temperature. These creatures can reach up to 13 feet in height and weigh up to 6 tons. They also have thick, wrinkled skin, which protects them from the harsh sun and insect bites.

Species and Habitat

There are three elephant species: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. Each species has adapted to its unique habitat, from the African savannah to the dense Asian rainforests. Unfortunately, habitat destruction and poaching have led to a significant decline in their population.

Social Behavior

Conservation efforts.

Despite being listed as vulnerable or endangered, elephants continue to face threats from human activities. Conservation efforts include habitat preservation, anti-poaching initiatives, and public education about these magnificent creatures.

In conclusion, elephants are not only a symbol of strength and wisdom but also a testament to the intricate balance of nature. Their conservation is an urgent responsibility, lest we lose these magnificent creatures forever.

500 Words Essay on Elephant

The elephant, a majestic creature of significant cultural, ecological, and economic importance, is a fascinating subject of study. Known for their intelligence, emotional depth, and complex social structures, elephants are among the most intriguing animals on Earth.

Physical Characteristics

Elephants are the world’s largest land animals. There are three recognized species: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. The African bush elephant is the largest, reaching heights up to 4 meters and weighing up to 7 tonnes. Elephants are distinguished by their long trunks, or proboscis, which they use for communication, feeding, and various other functions. They also have large, fan-like ears that aid in thermoregulation, and their tusks, which are actually elongated incisor teeth, are used for digging, stripping bark, and in social interactions.

Social Structure and Behavior

Ecological importance, conservation challenges.

Despite their importance, elephants face numerous threats, primarily from human activities. Habitat loss due to deforestation and expanding human populations is a major concern. Poaching for ivory, despite international bans, remains a significant threat to elephant populations. Climate change also poses new challenges, affecting the availability of food and water resources.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Essay on Elephant for Students and Children [100,150,200 Words]

Essay on Elephant: Elephant is the biggest animal on earth. In this article, you are going to learn how to write an essay or paragraph on elephant in English. We’ve included 3 essays (100, 150, 200 words) on elephant in this post. These essays will be helpful for the students as well as children. So, let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Essay on Elephant: 100 Words

The elephant is one of the largest animals. Its natural habitat is thick jungle. Most of the elephants are found in the deep forests of Africa, Burma (Myanmar), India etc. But tamed elephants are very useful to man.

It has thick legs, a huge body, large ears, small eyes, great white tusks, a long trunk and a small tail. It uses its trunk like a hand. The elephant picks things up with its trunk and puts them into its mouth. It sucks water with its trunk. They are trained to draw heavy loads and to do many other useful works.

Essay on Elephant: 150 Words

The elephant is declared the heritage animal of India. This is a just appreciation of the largest of all animals in India. This honor is also due to this animal for various reasons.

First, in Indian religion and legendary accounts, this is highly honored. Elephant’s head forms the head of lord Ganapati who is worshipped before all other deities.

Moreover, this is perhaps the largest of all animals and quiet by nature. In Indian legends, elephants are also described as effectively used on battle-fields. In a good many parts of the land, this is tamed and made to work to please and serve human needs.

Even a dead elephant is costly enough. Its ivory tusks are very valuable. Its strong bones are used to form costly combs, buttons and other luxury goods. In fact, this animal is held in our land as a symbol of love and friendship. Preservation of this species is an urgent necessity.

Elephant Essay in English: 200 Words

The elephant is the strongest and biggest animal on earth. It is dark gray in color. It is one of the most intelligent animals. Elephants can live up to 70 years. They travel in family groups called herds. Elephants can be trained and used for various purposes.

The eyes of the elephants are very tiny. They have two enormous ears, two strong and sharp white tusks, four legs, a long trunk, and a short tail. Elephants use their long trunks to suck up water and squirt it into their mouth. They also use their trunk for breathing, smelling, touching, feeding, lifting objects, etc.

An Elephant is a herbivorous animal. An elephant eats leaves, grass, nuts, fruits, and bark of trees. Male elephants are called bulls and female elephants are called cows.

There are two types of elephants, Asian and African. Asian elephants are smaller than Africans with smaller ears and tusks. Asian elephants live in India Nepal and southeast Asia in Rain forests. African elephants   are found throughout the savannas of Africa, the rainforests of Central and West Africa.

As the largest of all land mammals, African elephants play an important role in balancing natural ecosystems. Unfortunately, elephants are disappearing fast due to habitat loss, poaching etc. The tusks of elephants are made of ivory for which Elephants have always been hunted. It is our duty to protect our heritage animal.

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Short Essay on Elephant [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

In today’s lesson, you will learn how to write short essays on elephants in exams. Here will be three different sets of essays on the same topic covering different word limits. 

Short Essay on Elephant in 100 Words

An elephant is one of the most important herbivorous animals. It has a mighty and huge body with giant limbs and a long trunk, a tail, and tusks. Elephants generally thrive on plants, fruits, vegetables, bamboos, and also sugarcane. It is a wonderful carrier of both materials and humans from one palace to another. An elephant is a quiet animal, and hence an easy preference for human utility.

Elephants are found in several parts of the world, especially Asia, Africa, and also parts of Europe. Elephants are markers of companionship and strength as well. In Hindu mythology, the most prominent gods like Ganesha and Lord Indra are associated with this animal. On auspicious occasions signs of elephants mark virtue. As a wild yet peaceful animal, an elephant is thus important.

Short Essay on Elephant in 200 Words

An elephant is a widely known herbivore found in almost every part of the world. They generally live in herds consisting of a large number of members of their family. The forest is their best habitat. It thrives well on plants, sugarcane, bamboo, and other fruits and vegetables. The physical structure of the elephant is more magnificent, It has a huge ash-coloured body, with thick and strong limbs, and long trunk, two tusks, and a tail. The trunk enables it to drink water and also tear fruits from trees. In Asia, Africa, and also parts of Europe, elephants are abundant.

Presently the number of elephants has declined due to excessive hunting. Elephant skin and tusk have great demand in markets for making many luxurious products which bring ample money to the poachers. But this aggression of people has resulted in the steady decline of the animals. There are hardly any elephants left in the forests. Also, many elephants are dying every day for the railways constructed mid-ways through their forest pathways.

Human gluttony to have more capitalist gains has destroyed all forests and no habitat is left for these innocent animals. Thus today we can observe how the balance of the ecosystem is getting hampered due to the liss of one of the most important components of the food chain. Elephants are marks of prosperity and hence we must preserve them in parks, forests, and zoos.

Short Essay on Elephant in 400 Words

We have often seen how Lord Ganesha has the face of an elephant and Lord Indra uses the elephant as his vehicle. Questions arise as to why the elephant is such an important creature to consider it even as an object of worship. The answer lies in the physical magnanimity and the active participation of an elephant in several tasks it can perform for humans.

An elephant is a widely available wild animal found in several parts of the world like the forests of Asia, Africa, and also parts of Europe as well. It is a herbivore generally feeding upon plants, fruits, vegetables, bamboos, and sugarcane. The body of an elephant is huge with strong limbs, a long trunk, and two tusks. The elephant uses the trunk to drink, feed itself, and also carry logs for longer distances.

Elephants are mainly used for carriers and are the best ride for tourists to visit the forests. On several counts, elephants are regal animals, whereas, in the olden days, kings used to take rides on their backs and go hunting. In fact, elephant tusks are great sources of ivory. As an important component of the food chain, elephants balance the ecosystem. 

In Hindu myths, the usefulness of an elephant is widely renowned on several accounts. Lord Ganesha has the head of an elephant, Lord Indra rides on the elephant’s back. The Mahabharata was composed of the tusk of an elephant that Ganesha severed from his face, the goddess Laxmi is assisted by two elephants as the immediate markers of prosperity, Goddess Jagadhatri carries an elephant at her feet to suppress all evils and vices. Thus elephants are auspicious figures for Hindus, who keep small murals of them to bring in prosperity and peace. An elephant is not seen as a ferocious beast but more as a timid animal that can be easily domesticated. 

But presently, due to excessive hunting and unbridled poaching of elephants, their numbers have rapidly declined. The cost of elephant tusks and skin are of immense value in the indigenous as well as the foreign market. They bring huge profits to the sellers. Also due to excessive human desire to increase urbanization, railways are being constructed for connections and tremendous deforestation is taking place.

Thus many elephants are losing their lives and their habitats as well. So they are entering into human localities and are getting killed for their helplessness. Due to this preservation of elephants is taking place in zoos, parks, and forests as well to keep the wildlife intact. It is our duty to preserve every ounce of the ecosystem safe so as to continue the life cycle properly on earth.

If you still have any queries after going through this session, kindly let me know through some quick comments. Keep browsing our website to read more such sessions. 

Thank you. 

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• Essay on Elephant

Writing an Essay on Elephant

Elephants are animals that belong to the Elephantidae family (which includes mammoths) and can be found all over the world. Elephants are one of the world's largest land animals, with populations spanning Asia and Africa's forests and deserts. Elephants are known to be highly intelligent and social animals, similar to primates and humans, and are regarded as the most lovable creatures and valued by various cultures around the world.

Long Elephant Essay in English

Animals of different forms can be found all over the world. Some are quite large, while others are quite small. The elephant is the world's largest and most powerful mammal.

It has thick legs, massive sides and back, large hanging ears, a short tail, small eyes, long white tusks, and, most notably, a long nose known as the trunk. Elephants have the biggest brain of any terrestrial animal, measuring four times the size of a human brain.

On the head and back, an elephant's skin can be as thick as 2.5-4 cm. The skin is greyish black in colour. On the forehead, top section of the trunk, and ears, there is depigmentation. The skin is silky and supple while being dry due to the lack of sweat glands. To compensate for evaporative heat loss, the heavily wrinkled skin absorbs water and helps keep surface moisture. This is especially important during droughts.

Elephants have 1.5-2 inch length and 1-inch broad eyes. Because of the location of the eyeball, the existence of the trunk and ear, as well as the short neck, the field of vision is limited to just 30-50 metres. When an elephant detects danger, it alternates its body movements from side to side to see behind it rather than travelling straight forward. However, this is offset by exceptionally strong olfactory and hearing abilities.

Elephants have six sets of teeth during their lives. At any one time, there are four teeth in the mouth, two in the lower jaw and two in the upper jaw. If two teeth in the same alveolar pocket are visible at the same time, the front one is the worn-out old tooth and the posterior one is the new tooth. Elephants are the only mammals to migrate their teeth in this way; in other species, the milk teeth are shed as the permanent teeth sprout.

The elephant's trunk is a unique characteristic that it employs in a variety of ways. The trunk is the upper lip that has been changed. It may be used to drink, dress food, and even as a snorkel. The food is also grasped by the trunk, which transports it to the mouth for mastication. Because the tongue cannot be protruded, the food is placed on the tongue by the dextrous trunk. In elephants, the trunk also serves as an olfactory organ, which is a highly evolved mode of communication. By touching the object and inserting the tip into the mouth, it may be used to test different odours. Threatening gestures and play fighting are also done with the trunk. It spreads its trunk forth during pretend charges, but it keeps its trunk tucked in during real charges. An elephant foal can lift roughly 4.5 per cent of its weight with its trunk, whereas an adult elephant can lift about 270 kg. It draws water up by it and can squirt it all over its body like a shower bath, and it collects leaves from trees and eats them. Elephants have a clumsy and bulky appearance.

Elephants can be found in India and Africa. Most zoologists identify two elephant species: the Asian elephant and the African elephant, both of which live on different continents and have distinct characteristics. According to National Geographic, African elephants can be found in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and West African rainforests, and Mali's Sahel desert. Scrub forests and rainforests are home to Asian elephants in Nepal, India, and Southeast Asia.

The African elephant is heavier, tougher, and has longer tusks and larger ears than the Indian elephant. The two are thought to be separate species.

They live in herds in the jungles of both countries, are shy, and avoid people. The elephant is a highly intelligent species of animal, and its strength and intellect make it a valuable companion of humans. It can be taught to serve in a variety of capacities. The trained elephant will kneel, use its tusks to raise a heavy log of wood, bring it to the desired spot, and position it precisely in place.

African elephants, both male and female, are known to have large tusks and two "fingers" at the end of their trunks to assist them in picking up objects from the ground or trees. At the end of their trucks, Asian elephants just have a single "finger." Only male Asian elephants have big tusks, and only a few females and males have smaller tusks that don't often develop outside the mouth.

Elephants are also used to hunt tigers. On the back of the elephant, the hunter is in the ‘howdah,' which is pushed and led by the driver, ‘Mahawat.'

Elephants were used in wars in the past, and armies had their regiments of trained warrior elephants. They can still be seen in state processions. A large number of elephants are captured alive to be tamed and trained.

According to a Scientific American article, elephants are among the most intelligent animals on the planet, and they have been found to have varying degrees of problem-solving abilities, as well as the capacity to display and experience empathy, mourning, and self-awareness.

However, capturing elephants alive is challenging and dangerous work because, while the elephant is a shy, wild animal but when left alone when threatened, it can be a dangerous opponent.

The Asian elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Although the exact population of Asian elephants is unknown, experts believe that the population is declining.

According to the IUCN, the African elephant is considered endangered, and its population is growing. According to the African wildlife Foundation (AWF), there are about 415,000 wild African elephants.

Elephants are extremely beneficial to men and their employment. Elephants are hunted in a few areas mostly for their tusks, which are made of ivory and are extremely valuable. The hunting of elephants is forbidden by statute. To maintain a balanced world, we must protect them.

Short Essay on Elephant

Elephants are the world's biggest and most magnificent land animals. They seem to be both gigantic and modest. Elephants are my favourite animal because they are both grounded and overly sweet. No other animal comes close to resembling them with their snake-like long noses or trunks, big, floppy ears, and thick trunk-like legs.

Tusks are large, deep-rooted teeth-like structures that evolved to help elephants dig, raise, gather food, and defend themselves while also protecting their trunks. Elephants can have either right or left-tusked tusks, similar to how humans can have either left or right-handed tusks.

Elephant herds have a matriarchal system, with the eldest female in charge. Herds are made up of 6 to 20 members, depending on the food source, and consist mainly of female family members and young calves. Herds also break into smaller groups that remain in the same region when the family becomes too large.

They eat soft green grass, grains, bread, bananas, sugar cane, flowers, and the stem of the banana tree, among other things, since they are herbivores.

An adult elephant spends nearly sixteen to eighteen hours a day, or nearly 70% to 80% of their waking hours, feeding. And they consume between 90 and 272 kg of food per day.

Depending on their size, they need approximately 60 to 100 litres of water per day. An adult male, on the other hand, can drink up to 200 litres of water per day.

The African female elephant has a gestation period of 22 months, while the Asian elephant has a gestation period of 18 to 22 months, depending on their lifestyle.

Elephants often pay careful attention to the protection and well-being of all members of their herd and will do everything they can to protect and care for vulnerable or wounded members.

FAQs on Essay on Elephant

1. What is the Normal Lifespan of an Elephant?

Wild elephants have a longer lifespan than their zoo counterparts. In the wild, Asian elephants can live up to 60 years while African elephants can live up to 70 years. Elephants in zoos have the lowest lifespans. Pachyderms in European zoos die far sooner than those in protected wildlife reserves in Africa and Asia, according to six-year research. Captivity, according to researchers, has a major negative impact on elephants' mental health, to the point that stress can lead to early death.

2. How Much Does an Elephant Eat?

It is said that an elephant eats 100kg of food per day. They can drink up to 100 litres of water on average. This is commensurate with the body mass of an elephant, which, for an adult Asian male is 4000 Kg and for an African male is 6000 Kg. Elephants have been known to eat for up to 16 hours a day. In the wild, a single animal may devour up to 600 pounds of food in a single day, however, the average is 250–300 pounds. A normal adult elephant in a zoo may consume 4-5 bales of hay and 10–18 pounds (4.5–8 kg) of grain per day. This equates to more than 29,000 kg of hay and 2700 kg of feed for each animal per year. The average daily water usage per animal is 25–50 gallons (100–200 litres). Elephants only digest their food at a rate of less than 50%. Because of the large amount of food consumed and the inefficiency of the digestive system, there is a lot of manure - a lot of manure. An elephant defecates 12 to 15 times each day, resulting in a daily volume of 220 to 250 pounds.

3. How Many Bones are there in an Elephant's Trunk?

Even though the trunk is the most versatile part of an elephant’s body used for smelling, breathing, grasping, lifting, touching, and making sounds, it is to be noted that there are no bones in it. It consists of 40,000 plus muscles! The elephant's skeleton accounts for around 16.5 per cent of its entire body weight. There are 282 bones in an adult female Asian elephant. The cranium, which is dimensionally huge and weighs 52 kilograms on average, is not as hefty as it appears due to the vast number of sinuses present. It consists of 51 bones, each of which is aerated by sinuses. The vertebral column is made up of 61 bones, with the longest rib reaching a length of 96.5 cm.

The elephant's cervical bone is relatively short. This is why elephants can't bend their necks and gaze backwards, making them uncomfortable when something approaches from behind. They can stand for lengthy periods and sustain their massive body weight because of their nearly vertical limbs. The bones are aligned in a straight line, like a pillar, giving strong support for the massive body. Elephants cannot jump due to the vertical position of their feet, although they may hop and leap. On particularly small sections of land, they can also move forward and backwards. The thigh bone is the body's biggest bone. The femur of an adult animal is 114.3 cm long (thigh bone).

4. Why are Elephants Endangered?

Poachers kill about 20,000 elephants every single year for their tusks, which are then traded illegally in the international market to eventually end up as ivory trinkets. This trade is mostly driven by the demand for ivory in parts of Asia. The biggest threat to Asian and African elephants is the same for all species throughout the world: habitat loss and fragmentation. However, many elephants suffer additional threats, including direct and indirect human conflict. Humans are encroaching on elephants in both Africa and Asia, but the impact on Asian elephants is highly problematic. Agriculture, logging, highways, and construction for residential or commercial usage are all reducing and fragmenting their habitats. Elephants are migratory creatures that require wide, contiguous areas to survive, and this tendency deprives them of essential resources such as food and water. By separating communities from one another, it can also decrease genetic diversity. Last century, many elephant populations declined as a result of excessive poaching, fueled mostly by a desire for their ivory tusks. While the International Convention on the Trading in Endangered Species (CITES) prohibited international ivory trade in 1989, authorized ivory markets have persisted in several nations, aided by a growing black market and well-armed poaching gangs. Elephants are threatened practically everywhere, but according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the majority of illegal ivory presently originates from African elephants, where poachers murder hundreds of elephants each year.

5. Are Elephants Intelligent Species?

Elephants are a highly intelligent species as they have been seen performing well in problem-solving abilities and protecting their herd from dangers. Conventional knowledge believes that elephants are among the most intellectual, socially expressive, and emotionally complex non-human creatures. This widely believed belief is founded on both mythology and decades of scientific inquiry. Elephant intelligence remarked on captive elephants' astonishing capacity to work with minimal training as well as their ability to operate as a team. He regarded elephants with the capacity to predict what would happen if they pushed and dragged big logs into a vehicle, for example, because of their exceptional balance and synchrony.

6. What are the Elephant Tusks?

Their teeth structures are made of ivory which is deeply rooted and has evolved to help elephants in cutting and protecting their trunk. Tusks are the lateral incisors of an animal that continue to develop throughout its life. They appear on the sides of the trunk's base. Nearly half of the tusk, starting at the base, is hollow, containing tusk pulp. It's formed of dentine and has a shiny white enamel finish on the outside. Tusks are utilised for digging, transporting burdens, debarking trees, fighting, and displaying behaviour. Female Asian elephants do not have tusks, but instead have tushes, which are smaller and tougher than the tusks. Male Asian elephants are also known as makhnas since they lack tusks. Almost all elephants have different tusk appearances. They grow 15-20 cm in length each year on average.

Parts of an Elephant in English with Pictures

Elephants are one of the largest land animals on Earth, known for their massive size, long trunks, and distinctive tusks. They are highly intelligent and social creatures, living in herds led by a matriarchal figure. Understanding the different parts of an elephant is key to appreciating their unique beauty and remarkable abilities.

Elephant Body Parts List

Parts of an Elephant with Examples

Learn these parts of an elephant to enhance your English words about animal parts in English.

The elephant’s eye is positioned on the side of its head, giving it excellent peripheral vision .

The elephant’s ear is one of the largest and most recognizable features of its anatomy.

An elephant’s trunk is also used for communication, as it can produce a variety of sounds.

The legs of an elephant are capable of kicking with great force, making them a formidable weapon.

The tusks of an elephant can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh over 200 pounds.

The elephant’s toes are a symbol of its strength, resilience, and adaptability.

An elephant’s tail is also used for display during mating rituals and other social interactions.

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Essay on Elephant (200 & 500 Words)

Elephants are the largest living land animals on Earth. They have large, floppy ears that they use to help regulate their body temperature.

An elephant’s trunk is a unique body part composed of its nose and upper lip that allows it to breath, drink water, and pick up objects. Elephants live in family groups led by older females called matriarchs. They are herbivores and spend much of their time eating leaves, grass, bamboo, and fruit. Elephants are very intelligent animals with large brains.

Essay on Elephant (200 Words)

Elephants are the largest land mammals on Earth. They have big floppy ears, long trunks, and two large white tusks protruding from their mouth. An elephant’s trunk is a long nose-like appendage that lets them pick up objects and put food and water in their mouth. Elephants use their tusks to dig up roots and strip bark from trees. They also use them for fighting.

There are two main types of elephants – African elephants and Asian elephants. African elephants are the larger of the two. They can grow over 13 feet tall and weigh up to 15,000 pounds! Asian elephants are smaller, growing up to 11 feet tall and weighing around 11,000 pounds.

Elephants live together in tight family groups led by older female elephants called matriarchs. Elephant families care for their young, sick and elderly. Elephants communicate through touch, sight, smell and sound. Their big floppy ears help them to hear very well. Elephants are herbivores and spend most of their day eating leaves, twigs, fruit and roots. They eat hundreds of pounds of food and drink over 50 gallons of water each day!

Elephants are amazing animals but many are threatened by illegal poaching and habitat loss. We need to protect these gentle giants so future generations can enjoy seeing elephants in the wild. With care and conservation, we can ensure elephants thrive for years to come.

Essay on Elephant (500 Words)

Introduction.

Elephants are truly magnificent creatures. As the largest land mammals on Earth, elephants inspire awe with their immense size and presence. There are two main species of elephant – African elephants and Asian elephants. While these gentle giants have many similarities, they also have some key differences. Read on to learn more about the world’s incredible elephants!

African Elephants

African elephants are the largest elephants in the world. An adult male African elephant can grow over 13 feet tall and weigh a whopping 15,000 pounds! That’s heavier than a semi truck. African elephants have enormous ears that can be over 6 feet long. Their ears help them to hear even very low sounds over long distances. African elephants use their large ears like a fan to cool themselves in the hot African climate.Another feature that distinguishes African elephants is their impressive tusks. Tusks are elongated teeth made of ivory. Both male and female African elephants have tusks. They use their tusks to dig up roots and strip bark from trees. Elephants also rely on their tusks for fighting rivals and defending themselves. Sadly, elephant tusks have made them a target for illegal poaching.African elephants live in close family groups led by an older female elephant called a matriarch. Within the herd, elephants care deeply for one another. If a baby elephant makes a distress call, the entire herd will rush to help. The bond between elephants shows their intelligence and emotional capacity.

Asian Elephants

Asian elephants are native to parts of India, Southeast Asia, and China. Compared to their African relatives, Asian elephants are smaller in size. An adult Asian elephant grows up to 11 feet tall and weighs around 11,000 pounds. Still, these are incredibly imposing figures!Asian elephants also have smaller ears than African elephants. Their ears are still quite large though, reaching almost 5 feet wide. Large ears help elephants communicate with one another and stay cool in hot jungles. Asian elephants have a distinguishing bump on their head between their eyes and ears. This is called a dual dome because it is made of two half spheres.Only some male Asian elephants grow tusks. If tusks do develop they are much smaller than those of African elephants. Asian elephants often have skin covered in dark spots and patches unlike the uniformly gray African elephants.Like African elephants, Asian elephants form deep familial bonds. They communicate using sounds well below human hearing and through vibrations. Their tight social structure demonstrates advanced intellect.

Elephants are truly amazing creatures. Their immense size, gentle nature, and deep emotion make them fascinating to learn about. Both African and Asian elephants should be protected so they can thrive in our world. With care and conservation, future generations will be able to enjoy these magnificent giants. Elephants play vital roles in their ecosystems and have much still to teach us. Let us appreciate and respect Earth’s largest land mammals – the elephants.

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Elephantology and its Ancient Sanskrit Sources

by Geetha N. | 2012 | 36,369 words

Elephant is considered as an inevitable part of Indian community. So they developed the study of Elephant which is based on Hastyayurveda and Matangalila. Even from the ancient time Indians were awareness about their hygiene and health. They were protected against diseases. They protected not just their own race but also plants and animals. Therefo...

Chapter 8 - The Uses and Values of Elephants

As a tamable but a wild animal, the elephant is useful to mankind in many ways. Elephant's body useful or parts of its limbs have direct use. The most important benefit is derived from harvesting the tusk for ivory. Besides ivory, different parts of the elephants like hide, milk, urine, dung, flesh, bone, pearl, must, etc. are used by people for international trade. Apart from these, they have got another totally different purpose ie medicinal. Most of the limbs or parts of the body of an elephant have medicinal value. For example, the ivory is considered as hair promotive and must fluid is beneficial in disorders of bile , phlegm and wind and an antidote to poison and an effective healing agent. Elephant provides employment for local people and increase the income by its body parts, and ecotourism and by festivals.

Ivory of elephant is considered as international economic importance. In medicinal purpose, ivory is an important ingredient in preparing a concoction to make hair promotive. Sushruta advise that if ivory is burnt, grined into powder and then mixed with goat’s milk, hair may spourt up even on one’s palm. [1]

Indian artisans carved ivory at least as early as the third century B.C., fashioning it into religious images as well as ornaments like bracelets and combs. However, the reverence for elephants in Buddhist and Hindu culture, as their considerable value as tame animals, would have prevented the wholesale collection of ivory as a commodity. The Mughal emperors and their successors used ivory to decorate their thrones and for other lavish objects of art. Under British rule in India , the supply of ivory was further exploited. In East Africa, ivory carving grew into a sizeable industry in places like Kerala and Rajastan. In ancient times craftsmen working in ivory were employed in royal palaces to inlay thrones, couches and other furniture with ivory. An ivory wrist band is considered auspicious at a Hindu wedding. Kavya literature depicts that ivory is an important fact in royal palaces such as ivory seats, and ivory chariots. Ivory is considered as an important chemical composition, because it is essential dentine. It consists to 57-60 percent calcium salts which are mainly phosphates. Variety of articles can be made from ivory dust by placing it in moulds under room temperature.

Human beings done cruelty to elephants or killing them for ivory. The ivory trade make him more beneficial. Ivory is known as white gold. According to Vagbhata , ivory is a best medicine for Indralupta (Indralupta is the heirs fallen as round from the head).

Elephant hide

Elephant hide is used for making belt, suit-cases, umbrella, stands, upholstery for stools and sundry articles. It is said that hide is burnt and the ash is used to cure leucoderma. Hide is also used for making Boots. It is the world’s largest imported items. Elephant hide is used as an acne cure.

Elephant tail hairs

The hairs from the tail, agglutinated are made into rings, bangles and wrist-bands. In Kerala wearing of these is considered auspicious.

The large thick nails are used for making knife handles, buttons, spoons and plates.

Flesh of elephant is eaten by aborigines of Africa, Asia, Burma, Nagaland and China . The meat is generally cooked with spices and oil and then served. Meat is preserved for future consumption after being dried in the sun. [2] Elephant flesh is believed to cure asthma, arthritis, night blindness, spinal trouble, and is regarded as an aphrodisiac. It is still in demand for medicinal purpose. Ashtangahridaya suggests that elephant flesh is reduced cough and wind.

Hastikravyam gurusnigdam vatalano shleshmakarakam bhahuprishtipradam caitra durjarom mandavahnidam virukshano lavamascesham viryoshnapittadushanah svadamla lavomascesham gajah shleshmanilapaha

According to Caraka , elephant flesh is beneficial to those who suffering from constipation. Taken regularly, it helps to build up the body.

Elephant pearl

It is seems to be only an assumption:—

ete karacaranadahatoklamavipakasha bhupadukakshagajavarma ketushsyanasanairdustaih [3]

As an antidote to poison Caraka recommend wearing of elephant pearl.

Elephant urine is a best medicine. According to Caraka it explains as follows:—

hastimutramathoshtrasya hayasya ca kharasyaca ushnam tishnamatho ∫ ruksham katukam lavananvitam mutramutsadane yuktam yuktamalepaneshu ca yuktamastapane mutram yuktam capi virecane svedesheshvapi ca tadyuktam manaheshvandeshu ca udareshvatha carshah su gulmi kushtikilashishu [4] tadyuktamupanaheshu parisheke tathaiva ca dipaniyam vishaghnam ca krimighnam copadishyate pandurogasrshtanamuttamam sharma cocyate shleshmanam shamayet pitam marutam canulomayet karshet pittamatobhagamityasmin gunasamgrahah samanyena mayoktastu prthaktvena pravakshyate avimutram satiktam syat snigdom pittavirodhi ca ajam kashayamadhuram pathyam doshannihanti ca gavyam samadhuram kimciddoshagnam krimikushtanut kandu m ca samayet pitam samyagdoshodare hitam. arshah shophodaraghnam tu saksharam mahisham saram hastikam lavanam mutram hitam to krimikushtinam [5]

Elephant urine is salty, beneficial for patients of worms and Leprosy ( kushtha ) and commended for retention of urine and feces poisons, disorders of cough and piles.

It is believed to cure asthma, cough, dysentery constipation and rheumatism. It decreased vomition, cough, worms, leprosy and wind.

Elephant Dung

Elephant dung is used for sterilising women the kunchimartantra prescribed the water present in elephant dung mixed with honey to be taken for seven days. The dung of an elephant calf ( Karivenna ) which has not yet started eating grass is also prescribed for colic, wind, diseases affecting the rectum and other such disorders. If there is too much discharge of phlegm, the extracted juice of elephant dung mixed with honey should be administered to the patient. Elephant dung is also used for making mosquito coil, paper and cusion. It is also used for making bio-gas; and it is used to cure pain due to nail bite and also to cure leprosy.

Rut fluid ( must ) of an elephant is used for massaging genitals with. It is used to remove blotches on the human skin. It is also considered as a good hair promotive and beneficial in disorders of bile, phlegm, and wind and an antidote to poison and an effective healing agent. It is also prescribed for leucoderma and for treatising sores resulting from leprosy. [6]

danti shyamasmritasangah paravatashanguka pralepa syadgajastani nimbo bhallatakani ca [7]

It is used for curing for piles which are not bleeding, Caraka recommends an ointment made from elephant bone and neem. It is also used as a poison ditector and penis as an aphrodisiac.

A paste made of elephant teeth is applied to remove pimples and boils [8] and is used for some medicinal purposes like the mumps treatment. It is also used head ache. The teeth mixed with water and Kibble it and make paste, which is used for headache.

Ushtrinamatha naginam vadavayah striyastatha prayasho madhuram shitam stanyam payo matam prinanam brihanam vrishyam medhyam balyam manaskaram jivaniyam shramakaram shvasakasanibarhanam nasyalepavagaheshu vamanasthapaneshu ca virecane snehena ca yayah sarvatra yujyate [9]

Elephant milk is sweet, nutritic, smooth, indigestible and bitter taste and it gives body strength and cold to eyes and act as tonic.

Curd prepared with the milk of an elephant cow, is light in indigestion, subdues cough, and is heat-making in its potency. It leaves an astringent after taste and increases the quantity of fecal mater. [10] It is promoting beauty.

Butter prepared with the milk of an elephant cow is astringent, and it brings about a suppression of stool and urine. It is bitter, light and stomachic and proves curative in cutaneous affections, poisoning, worms in the intestines and derangements of kapham (cough). It proves beneficial in eye-diseases, haemoptysis, epileptic fits and vertigo. Cow's urine together with ghee and the two varieties of turmeric are commended for jaundice. An infusion with the above remedy soaked in oil is commended for constipation.

Elephant dung paper

The technology of making paper from the elephant dung was developed in Thailand. From this, the letter pad, drawing sheet, visiting cards, etc are made. The price of one packet containing 20 visiting cards is near Rs.140. The foreigners are very much interested to bring this type of cards. These are selling in the label of maxims. This is 100% natural and handmade one.

The process of making the paper from elephant dung is very easy one. This technology practicalising through heating, boiling and the ingredients adding, avoiding the bad smell colouring, and the threads are removing from the elephant dung. [11]

Indirect uses and values

Indirect use value is derived from the natural functions of the elephant, ie.

i) act as a disperser of seed.

ii) provide food through brought-down and branches to browsers.

iii) provide food to other wild animals etc. wild boars mongooses, horn bills which feed on the dung of elephants.

iv) elephant dung is full of humus and nutrient materials and elephant serves as a fertilizer producing system in the forest ecosystem.

v) their ability to create light gaps in the forest for establishment of seedlings.

vi) creation of light gaps harmful to fungal pathogens that cause damping off of seedlings.

Thus elephant is a useful animal like coconut tree. Now elephant had a bracelet badge to considered it as a lineal animal from the above consideration the elephants are considered to be a tiger in its position. [12] Almost all poets signifies elephants in their Kavyas .

Footnotes and references:

S.S. D.C .1. 88.

AE . 10, 122.

Carakasamhita . XXIII. S.119. 376.

Carakasamhita .( Sushrutasamhita ) 94-96.11

Carakasamhita Sushrutasamhita . 93-102.

A.E . 10, 123.

Carakasamhita . XIV. 55-231.

A.E . 10-123.

C.S. S.S . II.12. 106-112.

Sushrutasamhita Sutrastana . XIV.

Anaye Ariyan . Anaye Ariyam .18, 49-65.

Malayala Manorama Newspaper report 1.09.2010.

Article published on 02 October, 2019

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Essay on Elephant

An elephant is the largest land mammal found on earth. It is easily identified by its distinctly large physical features and a trunk. Tusks of an elephant are considered valuable in the illegal market. Elephants are found in the wild; though, they are also domesticated by humans for various purposes.

Short and Long Essay on Elephant in English

Short and long essays including 10 lines essay on Elephant are given below in different words limit of 120, 250, 400 and 600 words for students of classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Elephant Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

1) Elephants are the largest land mammals on the planet.

2) Elephants have bulky bodies with large ears and one trunk.

3) On average, an elephant can weigh from 1200 – 5000 kilograms.

4) An elephant is a social animal that can be found in groups.

5) Elephants are illegally poached for trading their parts.

6) Elephants are herbivores and mostly eat plants and leaves.

7) People domesticate elephants for many purposes.

8) Elephants hold religious significance in India.

9) Elephants are calm animals until instigated.

10) Asian elephants, African forest elephants, and African bush elephants are the species of elephants.

Essay 1 (250 Words)

Introduction

We all are familiar with what an elephant looks like and probably its distinct physical features. What we don’t seem to know is how precious they are to the environment and ecology. They are commercially used by humans and provide bread and butter to millions of families, only in the Indian subcontinent alone.

Domestication of Asian Elephants

Asian elephants are domesticated for a number of purposes including transport, shifting heavy loads, as a status symbol, during religious processions, in temples, etc. Many families in the Indian subcontinent rely entirely on the elephant for earning their livelihoods. Thousands of animals in India and other Asian countries are currently under domestication for several purposes.

Population and Threats

According to the 2017 census, there are a total of around 27, 000 elephants, which is around 55% of the total world population. Their endangered status since 1986 has helped in improving its population considerably. Prior to that, they were poached heavily for their tusk and other body parts.

Though, the illegal trade and poaching almost stopped, shrinking habitat is the most immediate threat that the Asian elephant faces. Habitat destruction is leading to rising human-elephant conflict which is damaging for both. Elephants have been known to venturing into villages in search of food, too which the inhabitants panic and resort in a way that often injures or frightens the animals, making them consider humans as their enemies.

Shrinking elephant habitat is not good for the elephants or for humans as well. Governments and animal rights groups must chart out an effective plan to retain the natural habitat of elephants without compromising the livelihood of humans.

Essay 2 (400 Words)

An elephant is the largest existing land mammal which is distinctly recognized by its large and distinguished features. They have a trunk, two tusks, large ears and a bulky body that could weigh anything between 1200 to 5000 Kgs.

Uses of Elephants by Humans

Despite their heavy size, elephants have been used by humans for centuries, due to their calm and peaceful nature. Elephants are usually calm unless instigated, making them suitable for domestication. They are used for several purposes due to their sheer strength. Several uses of elephants by humans are described below-

In history, elephants have been trained by humans for combat situations. Their colossal appearance and sheer pleasure were used to instill terror in the enemy ranks and break their progression. However, sometime down the line, advance weaponry has made war elephants redundant and ineffective.

• Status Symbol

Elephants are very costly to maintain and require a mahout (person who tends to the elephant) working full time along with the requirement of food and water. An elephant can eat up to 150 kg of food and drink up to 40 liters of water in a day. For this reason, many existing princely states and landlords, domesticate elephants as a status symbol.

• Working Animal

Elephants have immense strength and their trunk provides dexterity to perform tasks involving heavy loads. Even to this day, elephants are used to lift and shift heavy logs of woods or trees that would have otherwise required a small army of labors.

In India elephants also have religious significance. One of the most revered Hindu deities, Lord Ganesha, is a half elephant half man. Temple in Southern India, especially in Kerala, domesticates elephants to take part in annual religious congregations. These elephants are decorated and paraded in full public view during religious functions.

• Jungle Tourism

Due to their huge size, elephants are avoided by big carnivores like tigers and leopards; thereby making them a safe mount for jungle safaris. Also, they are capable of walking difficult terrains and can reach where vehicles can’t. For these qualities, elephants are widely used for tourism by the forest department.

The relationship of elephants with humans is centuries old. Human’s cleverness and elephants’ peaceful nature is the fuel that keeps the relationship going. However, in taking advantage of them we must not forget that they are the gift of god and extremely useful for ecology and must be protected at all costs.

Essay 3 (500 – 600 Words)

Elephants are the largest land mammals from the family Elephantidae. Another member of the family is now an extinct mammoth. An elephant is the only surviving member of the Elephantidae family.

Characteristics and Behavior of Elephants

• Physical Characteristics

Elephants are the largest land animals with an imposing presence. Their physical features are distinct and huge in proportion to other animals. Depending on the species and geographical location, elephants’ height varies from 2.7 mtr to 3.2 mtr. The weight of an elephant can vary from 1800 Kg to 6300 Kg. They also have large and round fan-like ears.

The most distinct feature of an elephant is the trunk, which is an extension of the nose and upper lip. The trunk is a very useful organ for an elephant and is used for a number of purposes like breathing, holding, grasping, drinking, etc. In the end, the trunk has two lips like extensions that the elephant uses for picking up small items.

• Behavioral Characteristics

Despite their large body and unmatchable strength, elephants generally are very silent and tend to mind their own business, unless provoked. They are herbivorous and their diet mostly consists of leaves, twigs, roots, barks, etc. They often use their trunk to pluck leaves and branches from trees. Bull elephants have tusks, which is an extension of their teeth on both sides of the trunk. Elephants usually feed all day long and can consume up to 150 kgs of food in a day. Also, they love water and are more likely to found near a water source.

Elephants are also highly social animals and live in small to large groups consisting of males, females, and calves. The oldest and probably the strongest elephant head of the family. Their behavior in a group is similar to that of humans that is they show consideration, support, affection, and protection towards each other. Sometimes, stray bull elephants not belonging to any clan are also spotted. Such animals are referred to as rogue and usually in search of a suitable clan to join or going through a periodic condition called ‘masth’. Bull elephants in masth have a large production of reproductive hormones, making them extremely aggressive.

Species of Elephant

Three distinct species of elephants are currently recognized all over the globe. They are as described below-

1. African Bush Elephant

This species of the elephant is the largest of them all and could reach up to a shoulder height of 4 meters. Both males and females have tusks that grow only at an age of 2-3 years. As the name suggests this species is found in Africa. They inhabit grasslands, wetlands, and woodlands. Bull elephants usually live in large bachelor groups.

2. African Forest Elephant

This species of African elephant inhabits West Africa and Congo Basin. It is by far the smallest of all the species reaching up to a shoulder height of 2.5 mtr. Both males and females have down-pointing tusks with males having larger tusks. It feeds on leaves, fruits, and seeds, etc. and contribute largely to maintaining the ecological balance, earning the sobriquet ‘mega gardener of the forest’, for itself.

3. Asian Elephant

The Asian elephant is distributed along with Asia and is found in countries like India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc. It is listed as endangered and the hunt of Asian elephants is prohibited by law in several countries. Average male Asian elephants reach up to 2.75 mtr at the shoulder.

An elephant is the largest mammal on earth and plays a significant role in the ecology of a forest. In the past elephants have been poached for illegal trade; therefore, they are listed as endangered and protected by law.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions on Elephant

Ans . Elephants are native to the Asian and African continent.

Ans . The name of the collective group of elephants is called Memory.

Ans . The elephants can live for 60-70 years in the wild.

Ans . Elephants mourn and become sad when their family member dies.

Ans . Elephants do not sweat because they do not have sweat glands.

Ans . Elephants eat 16-18 hours a day and can consume about 300 kg of food every day.

Ans . There are three eyelids in an elephant.

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Teach Your Kids About Elephant Body Parts

Elephants And Their Importance

List of elephant body parts for preschoolers, interesting facts about elephants for kids.

Writing a long description on a certain topic is not too hard, once there is relevant information at hand. To be able to write about a topic with ease, there needs to be ample research done on it, and once the rough points are listed, it gets easy to elaborate on them to make cohesive sentences that work well together.

In this article, we focus our skills on writing about land’s biggest animal – the elephant. Now, a topic as interesting as this can have a lot of information that can be written about, but it also helps to know more about specific things, like the names of elephant body parts in English.

Let us jump straight in, and understand more about elephant body parts and functions.

Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, and what makes them really special is that they are also unique-looking. It’s very easy to identify elephants because of their characteristic trunks, large and floppy ears and stump-like legs.

There are two types of species when it comes to elephants – the Asian elephant and the African elephant. Both these species live on separate continents and have many distinct features.

Apart form being one of the most intelligent creatures, elephants share the landscape with people and help give a lot of cultural significance to the places they are in. They are magnets for tourists, and funding helps protect not just them but the entire wilderness area they are in. Apart from all this, they also play an important ripple in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems they are in.

During the summers and dry season, they use their tusks to dig for water. This helps not just the elephants, but also helps provide water for the other animals that live in the same region.

Elephants also help with seed dispersal, where they eat large chunks of vegetation and clear the area, allowing new plants to grow. Apart from this, their dung also contains seeds from the plants they eat, and these seeds are then transported to different parts, boosting the ecosystem and helping it grow better.

In this section, we look at different body parts of elephants, and what makes them stand out. First, we’ll just list them down, and then, we‘ll describe each part for you:

Let us look at elephant body parts and their uses here:

Elephants’ eyes are small, compared to the rest of the features on the face, the size of the head and the neck. They also have limited peripheral vision.

The trunk of an elephant is unique, as it’s basically a long nose that is used to sniff things around them, and can also be used to pull things towards them to eat or use.

Elephant ears are huge, making them one of the largest ever, and they are used for hearing and listening.

Elephant legs are the size of tree stumps, and are big to be able to hold their weight.

Elephant tusks are their developed incisors and are used to help gather food, and even to dig when there is water scarcity.

An elephant’s tail is long and spindly, with coarse hairs at the end of it.

Elephant toes are buried inside the flesh of the foot, and not all toes have toenails.

An elephant’s brain is four times the size of a human’s brain. They are one of the most intelligent animals on Earth.

• African male elephants can reach upto 3M in height and can weigh between 4,000 – 7,500 kilograms. Asian elephants are slightly smaller, reaching 2.7m in height and weighing between 3,000 – 6,000 kilograms.
• One way to understand the difference between African and Asian elephants is that African elephants have bigger ears than their Asian counterparts.
• Elephant tusks never stop growing, so an elephant with long tusks is older while an elephant with smaller tusks is younger in age.
• Elephants spend upto 12-15 hours eating grass and other plants and trees in a day!
• Elephant tusks are made of ivory, a material that is most sought-after and elephants are attacked and killed for this.
• Elephants create their own sunscreen by throwing mud and sand on themselves for protection!
• Elephants communicate through vibrations they feel on the ground.

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Essay on Elephant in English for Children and Students

Table of Contents

Elephants are the largest land animals with distinct body parts. Unlike other mammals, elephants don’t have nose, instead they breathe through a long trunk. They have huge fan like ears and long extended teeth called tusks. Because of their distinct tusks they are often called tuskers.

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Target Exam ---

Elephants are wild animals; though, they are also domesticated by humans to mainly perform laborious tasks. Colossal body parts give the elephants tremendous physical strength over humans, thus they are tamed and made to perform strenuous and challenging tasks. Elephants have a distinct social structure displaying feelings of compassion, love and care for the family members.

Long and Short Essay on Elephant in English

We have provided below various essay on elephant in order to help students.

Now-a-days, essays and paragraphs writing are more common strategy followed by the teachers in the schools and colleges in order to enhance student’s skill and knowledge about any subject.

All the elephant essay given below are written using very simple words and easy sentences under various words limit. Students can select any of the essays given below according to their need and requirement:

Elephant Essay 1 (100 words)

Elephant is a very big animal. It lives in the forest however it is a pet animal also. Some people keep it at home as a pet animal in order to earn money through circus. It is also kept in the zoo in order to enhance the glory of zoo as well as interest of kids. It has a big body with four legs like pillars, two fan like ears, a long trunk, a short tail and two small eyes. A male elephant contains two long white teeth called as tusks. It can eat soft green leaves, plants, grains, etc. It is very useful animal to the man and proved to be a good friend to mankind as it performs many functions such as earns money, carries heavy loads, etc. It has long life span and lives around one hundred years.

Elephant Essay 2 (150 words)

Elephant is a biggest animal on the land. It is also considered as the strongest animal on the land. Generally it is a wild animal however can live as a pet animal after proper training in the zoo or with human being at home. It has been proved a useful animal for the humanity. It is an animal with big body generally found in the grey color.

It’s all four legs looks like a pillar and two big ears just like a fan. Its eyes are quite small in comparison to the body. It has a long trunk and a short tail. It can pick up a range of things very easily through its trunk such as a small needle and very heavy trees or loads. It has two long white tusks on each side of trunk.

Elephants live in the jungle and generally eat small twigs, leaves, straw and wild fruits however a pet elephant can also eat bread, bananas, sugarcane, etc. It is a pure vegetarian wild animal. Now-a-days, they are used by the people to carry heavy loads, in the circus, lifting logs, etc. In the ancient time, they were used by the kings and dukes in the wars and battles. It lives for long years (more than 100 years). It is very useful animal even after death (bangles are made of bones and tusks).

Elephant Essay 3 (200 words)

Elephant is a largest animal on the land. It lives in the forest however can be a pet after proper training. It can be more than eight feet in height. Its big and heavy body is supported by the strong pillar like legs. It takes help of its long trunk in eating leaves, plants, fruits or trees. Generally two types of elephants are found on land African (scientific name is Loxodonta africana) and Asian (scientific name is Elephas maximus).

Its big hanging ears looks like a fan and legs like a pillar. It has a long trunk attached with mouth and two tusks each side. The trunk of an elephant is very flexible and strong and known as a multi-purpose organ. It is used for feeding, bathing, breathing, expressing emotions, fighting, etc by the elephant.

African elephants are little bigger is size and darker in color than the Asian elephants. They have more prominent ears also. Elephants are commonly found in India, Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Siam. They generally like to live in a herd and become very fond of water. They know well about swimming. Because of being an herbivorous animal, they depend on plants in the forest in order to meet their food need. They move to villages and other residential places in the lack of food in forest or because of deforestation. It is known as an intelligent animal and benefits man in many ways.

Elephant Essay 4 (250 words)

Elephant is a strongest and biggest animal on the earth. It is quite famous for its big body, intelligence and obedient nature. It lives in jungle however can be trained and used by people for various purposes. Its peculiar features are four pillars like legs, two fan like ears, two small eyes, a short tail, a long trunk, and two long white tusks. Elephant eats leaves, stem of banana trees, grass, soft plants, nuts, fruits, etc in the jungle. It lives more than hundred and twenty years. It is found in India in the dense jungles of Assam, Mysore, Tripura, etc. Generally elephants are of dark grey color however white elephants are found as well in the Thailand.

Elephant is an intelligent animal and has good learning capacity. It can be trained very easily according to the use in circus, zoo, transport, carry loads, etc. It can carry heavy logs of timber to a long distance from one place to another. It is an animal of kid’s interest in the zoo or other places. A trained elephant can perform various tasks such as delightful activities in the circus, etc. It can be very angry which create danger to the humanity as it can destroy anything. It is useful animal even after death as its tusk, skin, bones, etc are used to make costly and artistic items.

Elephant Essay 5 (300 words)

Elephant is a very huge wild animal lives in a jungle. It looks quite ugly however mostly liked by the kids. It has big heavy body and called as royal animal. It can be more than 10 feet in height. It is found in coarse dark grey color with very hard skin. In other countries, it is found in white color also. Its long and flexible trunk helps in feeding, breathing, bathing and lifting heavy loads. Its two big ears hanging like big fans. Its four legs are very strong and look like pillars. Elephants are found in the forests of India (Assam, Mysore, Tripura, etc), Ceylon, Africa, and Burma. Elephants like to live in groups of hundreds (lead by a big male elephant) in the jungle.

It is very useful animal to the humanity whole life and after death also. Its various body parts are used to make precious things all over the world. Bones and tusks of elephant are used to make hooks for brushes, knife-handles, combs, bangles including other fancy things. It can live for many years from 150 to 200 years. Keeping elephant at home is very costly which an ordinary person cannot afford.

It has very calm nature however on teasing it can be very angry and dangerous as it can destroy anything even kill people. It is known as intelligent and faithful animal because it understands every sign of the keeper after training. It obeys its keeper very sincerely till death.

There are two types of elephant, African and Indian. African elephants are quite bigger than Indian elephant. Both, male and female African elephants have tusks with wrinkly gray skin and two tips at the end of trunk. Indian or Asian elephants are quite smaller than African elephants with humped back and only one tip at the end of trunk.

Elephant Essay 6 (400 words)

An elephant is very clever, obedient and biggest animal on the earth. It is found in the Africa and Asia. Generally, it is found in grey color however white in Thailand. Female elephants are used to live in groups however male elephants solitary. Elephants live long life more than 100 years. They generally live in jungles however also seen in the zoo and circus. They can grow around 11 feet in height and 13,000 pounds weight. The largest elephant ever has been measured as 13 feet in height and 24,000 pounds in weight. An individual elephant can eat 400 pounds of food and drink 30 gallons of water daily.

Elephant skin becomes one inch thick however very sensitive. They can hear each other’s sound from long distance around 5 miles away. Male elephant starts living alone whenever become adult however female lives in group (oldest female of a group called as matriarch). In spite of having intelligence, excellent hearing power, and good sense of smell, elephants have poor eyesight.

Elephants look very attractive to kids because of its interesting features such as two giant ears, two long tusks (around 10 feet long), four pillars like legs, a huge trunk, a huge body, two small eyes, and a short tail. It is considered that tusks are continued to grow entire life. Trunk is used to eat food, drink water, bath, breathe, smell, carry loads, etc. It is considered as elephants are very smart and never forget any event happened in their life. They communicate to each other in very low sound.

The baby of an elephant is called calf. Elephants come under the category of mammals as they give birth to a baby and feed their milk. A baby elephant can take almost 20 to 22 months in getting fully developed inside its mother womb. No other animal’s baby takes such a long time to develop before birth. A female elephants give birth to a single baby for every four or five years. They give birth to a baby of 85 cm (33 inch) tall and 120 kg heavy. A baby elephant takes almost a year or more to learn the use of trunk. A baby elephant can drink about 10 liters of milk daily. Elephants are at risk of extinction because of their size, prized ivory tusks, hunting, etc. They should be protected in order to maintain their availability on the earth.

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Essay on Elephant

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Elephants, the largest land animals on Earth, are majestic creatures that have fascinated humans for millennia. These gentle giants are known for their intelligence, complex social structures, and significant role in the ecosystem. This essay delves into the various aspects of elephants, including their characteristics, habitat, social behavior, threats to their survival, and conservation efforts, offering a comprehensive understanding for students preparing for essay writing competitions.

Introduction

Elephants belong to the family Elephantidae and are classified into three species: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. These species are distinguishable by their size, ear shape, and habitat preferences. Elephants have played a crucial role in human culture, symbolizing wisdom and strength, yet they face numerous threats from human activities.

Physical Characteristics

Elephants are remarkable for their distinct features: large ears that help regulate body temperature, long trunks serving multiple purposes from breathing to handling objects, and tusks, which are actually elongated incisors used for digging and defense. An adult elephant can weigh up to 7 tons and live for up to 70 years, making them one of the longest-lived mammals.

Habitat and Distribution

Elephants are versatile in their habitat preferences but primarily reside in savannas, forests, deserts, and marshes. African elephants are mostly found in sub-Saharan Africa, while Asian elephants inhabit parts of Southeast Asia, including India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Their habitats are crucial for their survival but are increasingly being encroached upon by human activities.

Social Behavior and Intelligence

Elephants are highly social and intelligent animals. They live in matriarchal herds led by the oldest and often largest female. These herds are composed of related females and their offspring, demonstrating complex social behaviors such as cooperation, empathy, and mourning. Elephants have shown remarkable cognitive abilities, including memory, problem-solving, and the use of tools.

Communication plays a vital role in their social life. Elephants communicate using a range of sounds, from trumpets to low-frequency rumbles that can travel over long distances. This communication is essential for maintaining herd cohesion and coordinating social interactions.

Diet and Foraging

Elephants are herbivores, consuming a diet of leaves, bark, fruit, and grasses. An adult elephant can eat up to 300 pounds of food in a single day. Their foraging habits significantly impact the environment, often creating clearings in forests that allow new plants to grow and providing habitats for other species.

Role in the Ecosystem

Elephants are known as “ecosystem engineers” due to their ability to modify their habitat. By uprooting trees and trampling vegetation, they create spaces for new plants to grow, maintain grassland ecosystems, and ensure biodiversity. Their dung is a vital seed dispersal mechanism, helping to propagate various plant species.

Threats to Survival

Despite their significance, elephants face several threats primarily due to human activities. Poaching for ivory is a significant threat, especially for African elephants. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural expansion, logging, and human settlement have dramatically reduced their living spaces, leading to human-elephant conflicts over resources.

Climate change also poses a threat by altering the ecosystems elephants depend on for survival. Droughts, changes in rainfall patterns, and extreme weather conditions can reduce the availability of food and water, challenging their ability to thrive.

Conservation Efforts

Conservation of elephants is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance. Various international and local organizations are involved in elephant conservation, focusing on anti-poaching measures, habitat restoration, and conflict resolution strategies.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has been pivotal in regulating the international trade of ivory to protect elephants from poaching. Additionally, the establishment of protected areas and wildlife corridors has helped to secure elephant habitats and facilitate their movement between fragmented landscapes.

Community-based conservation programs have also proven effective by involving local communities in protecting elephants and their habitats. These programs often focus on mitigating human-elephant conflicts through innovative solutions like bee-fence barriers and providing economic incentives for conservation.

In conclusion, Elephants are not just an iconic symbol of wild majesty; they are integral to the health and diversity of the ecosystems they inhabit. Their survival is intricately linked with the well-being of the environment and human societies. The challenges facing elephants are complex, requiring a multifaceted approach to conservation that includes protecting habitats, combating poaching, and fostering human-elephant coexistence. By understanding and appreciating the importance of elephants, we can take meaningful steps toward ensuring their preservation for future generations. As stewards of the planet, it is our responsibility to protect these magnificent creatures and the natural world they help to sustain.

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Elephantine Chinoiserie and Asian Whiteness: Views on a Pair of Sèvres Vases

Whether they beguile or repulse you, the pair of Sèvres porcelain elephant-head vases ( Vases à tête d’éléphant ) at the Walters Art Museum inevitably draws a reaction (fig. 1) . Two meticulously sculpted, milky-white elephant heads jut out from the neck of each vase. The animals’ upturned trunks, attached like handles to the curved body of the vase, once held sockets for candles (fig. 2) . At the center of each vessel is painted a bright polychrome scene of “Chinese” human figures encircled by decorative florets; the other side of the vases features a central flower arrangement. The sheer amount of surrounding rococo detail—feathers, faux beads, and flourishes of gold trim—overwhelms. Ordinarily on view in the museum’s European ceramics galleries, these mid-eighteenth-century curiosities were a focal point of the initial display in the 2018 reopening of Hackerman House at 1 West Mount Vernon Place, where they could be appreciated from all sides. Still, one can only imagine the effect of candlelight catching the glisten of pink-and-white painted enamel as the vases were displayed in an eighteenth-century interior on a mantelpiece or commode alongside porcelains of different shapes, as part of a set of matching wares, or garniture. 

Designed around 1756 under the artistic direction of Jean-Claude Duplessis le Père (ca. 1695–1774) at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Sèvres, the vases combined novelty in color and shape with technical difficulty. Pairs of vases were often sold with an ornate, boat-shaped potpourri vase ( potpourri à vasseau ) that, when filled, would add perfumed aroma to the experience of the works in situ. Three Sèvres porcelains of a five-piece garniture purchased in 1758 by Louis-Joseph de Bourbon, prince of Condé (1736–1818), are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and when displayed together they give an idea of the objects’ interaction. [1] Another famed patron of the Sèvres factory, Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), a mistress of King Louis XV of France (reigned 1715‒1774), owned at least three pairs of the elephant-head vases and two potpourri boat vessels. [2] Not only did she inspire the invention in 1757 of the intense pink ground color on the vases, she collected pieces with Chinese scenes painted by the skilled miniaturist Charles-Nicolas Dodin (1734–1803), who was responsible for the scenes on the Walters’ elephant-head vases. Dodin’s paintings echoed the chinoiserie designs of her favorite rococo artist, François Boucher (1703–1770). [3]

This essay will consider the Walters’ vases as devices of what might be called cross-cultural synesthesia. How do the vases produce an uneasy sensory overload by mingling different orders of chinoiserie imagery, animal and human, sculpted and painted? I will suggest that ornamental art—rather than being only “decorative”—participates in ethnographic and colonial discourse even as it resists fixed interpretations. What can a decorative object tell us about the history of East–West exchanges as they shaped the emergence of new racial thinking in the eighteenth century? How did Europeans’ color-based hierarchies among humans correlate with their artistic innovations in color and form that borrowed from Asian ornament? At this proto-capitalist moment, consumers’ bodies and identities were increasingly self-fashioned by foreign imports that entered the space of the home. Even a pair of vases could, from the interior of an elite bedchamber or drawing room, reference the larger flows of transcontinental trade and its discontents. 

Far from being passive furnishings, objects orient consumers in relation to each other and their environment. We get to know three-dimensional things by handling them, arranging them, even seeing them reproduced in visual art and literature. In the eighteenth century, porcelain and chinoiserie artifacts were generally collected and comprehended as pieces of larger sets. [4] However important it is to study objects in their original settings, my focus on the formal properties and iconographic sources of one unusual and uncannily doubled pair—two vases, four elephant heads—also takes seriously the power of discrete artifacts to arrest the eye, generate stories, and, as material metaphors, activate the critical imagination. The making of a metaphor is itself a process rife with decontextualizing (and recontextualizing) one thing in relation to another, or in the case of metonymy, one part in relation to a whole. In other words, I am interested as much in what the Sèvres vases can teach us about the legacy of Orientalism, as in what we can learn about these particular works of art. Today, our sense of an object’s uniqueness is undoubtedly biased by the selective practices of museum collection and display as well as our ability to behold reproductions online and up close. Yet the act of isolating and closely scrutinizing a representative example can illuminate the ways that intercultural knowledge coalesces, assumes material form, and accrues racial meanings over time.

Whether viewing them virtually or in person, the Walters’ elephant-head vases’ metaphorical evocation of sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound can be at once pleasurable and disorienting, to an elephantine extreme. The elephant’s open mouth, ears, and upturned proboscis add all five sensory dimensions to the equally evocative chinoiserie scenes painted on the body of the vase. United by undulating shapes and decorative gilding, the ornament amounts to a pastiche of Asian decorative forms that enacts the mid-eighteenth-century rage for the “Chinese taste,” or le goût chinois , later referred to as chinoiserie. The medium of porcelain itself elicited the new sensory reaction of tact flou , a French connoisseurial term used to describe the combination of porcelain’s tactility and delicacy. [5] The Sèvres factory produced three sizes of elephant-head vases between 1756 and 1762, the same years that it surpassed the output of its German competitor, Meissen. In 1710, during the reign of Augustus II, Meissen became the first European factory to successfully imitate Chinese hard-paste porcelain. Through painstaking trials, chemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719) was able to make a version of the luminous white substance out of kaolin clay and alabaster (calcium sulphate), but only in 1724, after his death, did the factory discover the key ingredients of feldspar and quartz used by the Chinese to fuse the kaolin under high temperatures and produce the desired translucence. [6] In this era of experimentation, Meissen also made elephant-handled candelabras and vessels that might have been based on Chinese and Japanese precedents , and it is possible that these shapes inspired the elephant-head designs of Duplessis at Sèvres. [7]

Economic and cultural historians have long studied how Chinese technology spurred European manufacturing in the eighteenth century, and porcelain design was part of this trend in imitating and attempting to outperform China. [8] Of the twenty-two extant Sèvres elephant-head vases, the Walters pair is unusual in featuring figural Chinese scenes within the floral-framed reserves (background areas reserved for painted decorations). The painter of the scenes, Charles-Nicolas Dodin, focused on perfecting “the Chinese manner” of painting between 1760 and 1763, and his contribution to the elephant vases was part of the factory’s innovation in three areas inspired by chinoiserie: “moulded ornament, brilliantly colour[ed] grounds and exquisitely painted miniature scenes set within shaped reserves.” [9] To execute the scenes, Dodin probably had at his disposal numerous print sources on Chinese design, in particular, celebrated Rococo court artist François Boucher’s chinoiserie series The Five Senses (Les Cinq Senses) (1740), in which each sense—smell, hearing, touch, sight, and taste—is allegorized by an ensemble of lithe Chinese figures engaged in a central activity of perceiving (fig. 3) .

The reserve of one Walters vase clearly replicates Boucher’s Smell ( L’Odorat ), printed and published by Gabriel Huquier ( fig. 3a , fig. 1 ). An Asian female figure with hair tied into horizontal plaits stands above a cauldron of billowing incense, while a juvenile holds a leafy parasol above her head and a man places a basket of flowers at her feet. This vision of China—defined by heathen ritual and imperial spectacle—reiterates the religious exoticism associated with Eastern empires. So too does the image painted on the other Walters vase: a portly priest figure with a mustache and goatee in a cinctured robe and three-tiered hat stands with arms outstretched. In each hand dangles one of what scholar Carl Christian Dauterman has called “a pair of tintinnabula.” [10] However, the objects do not resemble bells, but rather small pouches, or perhaps European style castanets. [11] Whether or not these are even noisemakers is debatable, and yet Boucher’s Hearing ( L’Ouïe ) has been identified by the Walters and others as Dodin’s source ( fig. 3b , fig. 1 ). [12]

Upon close examination, though, Boucher’s print differs significantly from Dodin’s painting. Boucher depicts two musicians, a slim bald man brandishing timpani sticks before an upright cymbal stand, and a seated man playing a round, four-stringed lyre on a stick; they are surrounded by other pseudo-Chinese instruments with dangling bells. [13] Neither the scene nor the timpani player’s stature, costume, or features are rendered in Dodin’s vase painting. While Dodin’s central priest figure vaguely resembles any number of bell-bearing performers or religious worshippers that appear in other chinoiserie designs ( fig. 4 , fig. 1c ), this is not an explicitly musical or sonic performance. Instead, Dodin places his priest figure before the enrapt spectators of a woman and infant, a figural pairing appearing in a miniature attributed to Dodin on a different Sèvres vase held at the J. Paul Getty Museum ( fig. 5 , fig. 1c ). [14] Thus, while Dodin probably worked from one or more chinoiserie or Chinese print sources, the exact source of the miniature on one of the Walters vases remains elusive.

The misattribution of Boucher’s Hearing further illuminates the cross-cultural synesthesia at work in the vases’ perceived Chinese-ness. Given the popularity of the Five Senses , it seems logical to pair Smell with another sense in the series like Hearing , especially when these designs did appear together on other porcelains of the period, such as vessels in a Berlin Porcelain Factory chocolate and tea service in the Cooper Hewitt collection (fig. 6) . [15] Indeed, ornamental chinoiserie figures were usually imaged as interactive ensembles within a series or an iterative design pattern: one Orientalist element begets another. By assembling somewhat interchangeable Chinese figures (priest, musician, servant, spectator), both Boucher’s prints and Dodin’s chinoiserie interpretations naturalize—through exotic foreigners—the ideas of sensory interconnectedness and what we now call synesthesia, the phenomenon where one sense impression is triggered by the experience of another sense. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, synesthesia was actively debated within scientific circles that challenged the primacy of visual sensation. Was it possible to feel or smell color? How might foreign commodities, materials, and surfaces, even skin, take on heightened dimensionality and tactility when magnified under a microscope? [16] Certainly, the visual kaleidoscope of pinks, greens, yellows, and blues emanating from the Sèvres vases’ painted chinoiserie reserves is at once tactile and theatrical. Each painted scene of “Chinese” costume and gesture echoes the tradition of French and Italian burlesque comic operas, pantomimes, and ballets, which staged Chinese types taken from travel ethnographies, export art, and chinoiserie design books. [17]

Notably, Boucher considered Chinese subjects “perhaps his favourite passion,” and Boucher’s style has been called the “physiology of sensuous experience.” [18] Tactile interactions between human and non-human elements govern each scene of the Senses . Curiously, the series actually contains six senses, as there are two versions of Touch . One oozes human-animal intimacy: a man and woman pet catlike figures while the woman’s bare foot appears to brush the seated man’s left thigh (fig. 3c) . The other version, pictured on the Cooper Hewitt’s Berlin Porcelain Factory bowl, is differently erotic: two men use slender stalks to tickle a seated woman (fig. 3d) . The act of stimulation echoes the deviant sensuality of many chinoiserie vignettes, in which ambiguously gendered master-and-servant figures engage in lavish pastoral leisure activities of consumption, domination and prostration, and sometimes even in scenes of torture. [19] Moreover, the voyeuristic acts of spectatorship staged within chinoiserie scenes foreground the very practice of perceiving, or what scholar Eric Hayot has called the “example-effect” of European hypothesizing about “the Chinese body in pain.” [20] When the human senses are allegorically and ornamentally coded “Chinese,” ironically, the universality and alterity of Chinese-ness is simultaneously presented. [21]

At once eroticized, miniaturized, and infantilized, effete Asian bodies such as those in Boucher’s prints exhibit the extremes of the human sensorium. They experience and perform the novel combination of pleasure and pain, an effect of sensory overload that Edmund Burke (1729–1797) theorized as an aesthetic of the sublime. [22] Boucher’s scenes of Chinese touch, which enact erotic tickling or animal petting, resonate with the mixed affect of Burke’s sublime and the queerness of tactility as described by French anatomist Claude-Nicolas Le Cat (1700–1768): “One Perfection of the Touch . . . is Tickling, a Sort of Hermaphrodite Sensation; productive of Pleasure, of which it is an Extreme; and of Pain, of which it is as it were the first Degree.” [23] While they do not explicitly feature Boucher’s  Touch , the pair of Sèvres vases do bring together two orders of tactile, or haptic, chinoiserie—sculptural and pictorial—on the body of each vase. Together, the chinoiserie elephants and human figures orient the viewer toward a mixed or “hermaphrodite” tactility through the medium of soft-paste porcelain, a form of Eurasian white matter that assimilates Chinese difference into a sign of artisanal innovation.

Whereas the painted Chinese figures exhibit an ornamental liveliness and haptic visuality derived from Boucher’s and others’ designs, they are far from lifelike when compared with the sculpted fleshly elephant ears. (The prominence of the ears might contribute to the association of one of the painted miniatures with  Hearing .) The difference between the sculptural and the pictorial elements can be understood as different metaphorical registers: between synecdoche and metonym, or perhaps even between symbol and allegory. As articulated by German Romantic writer Friedrich Schelling, “The symbol is a metaphysical something in sensuous representation” whereas allegory “sees an abstract meaning in simple reality. It is not emotionally felt, as is the symbol, but thought out, i.e., constructed.” [24] That is, the elephant heads seem to enact (symbolically) the sensory perception referenced more abstractly (allegorically) by the miniature paintings. The scenes of Chinese spectatorship painted in color in the reserves on the Walters’ vases reinforce the corporeality of elephant sensation, including its whiteness and its highly receptive trunk and ears; their synecdochical body parts stand in for civilizational and, as discussed below, racial difference. Their symbolic animal realism creates an immediacy of presence that verges on the monstrous, in contrast and in combination with the two-dimensional carnivalesque Dodin miniatures. The chinoiseries’ combined, “hermaphroditic” effect is perhaps best captured by architect Sir William Chambers’s (1723–1796) description of Chinese gardens: “Their whimsical combinations [exhibit] the most magnificent confusion imaginable. Their artists knowing how powerfully contrast agitates the human mind.” [25]

A sixth sense is normally an unproven intuition or extrasensory perception, an uncanniness, which in the case of the Sèvres pair also results from the recursiveness of the vases’ shapes and influences: two sets of elephant ears, a doubled sense of touch, vases that double as candelabras. If synesthesia occurs when one sense is activated by another, this crossing of perceptions is provoked by the disorienting and reorienting effect of chinoiserie, itself a product of European and Asian mixing. Each example of chinoiserie conjures vitality and multisensory interaction, but the interplay between chinoiseries and contrast of their colors and forms—what Jonathan Hay has called a “cross-referencing of surfaces”—underlines the impact of their elephantine aesthetics. [26]

Monstrosity and Ornamentalism

By the mid-eighteenth century, the vogue for Asian imported porcelains, lacquerware, textiles, and furnishings in European aristocratic courts and middle-class homes drew criticism as well as enthusiasm. Consumers expressed their ambivalence, if not disdain, toward the fanciful, mix-and-match designs of floating pagodas, outsized botanicals, flying boats, and “heathen” robed figures that seemed to defy Western logic and perspective. The poet Richard Graves described the interior of an English villa decorated in the Chinese taste:

All that rich China’s marts display,

Grotesque in shape, in colors gay;

Enamell’d jars, or painted screens,

Fat idols, pagods, mandarines! [27]

Cultural historians have noted the simultaneous desire for and disavowal of Chinese aesthetic influence in the period, a dynamic that shaped British nationalist and cosmopolitan sensibilities well into the twentieth century. Art historian and television broadcaster Lord Kenneth Clark of Saltwood, for one, voiced his ambivalence toward the Walters’ elephant-head vases when he called them “examples of bad taste,” “ridiculous and slightly vulgar,” and “as ugly as one could wish.” He later added, “I have now become quite fond of them, and if anyone offers me a Sèvres elephant vase on my birthday, I will accept it with pleasure.” [28]

In Britain, to be “Chinese” could mean a number of things at a given moment in the eighteenth century: ingeniously British, anti-French, anti-classical, rustic, Gothic, elegant, excessively ornamented, delightfully irregular. Whereas Eugenia Zuroski identifies a structuring relationship between “English selves and Chinese things,” David Porter has studied British and French chinoiserie as commercial phenomena built upon imperial “fantasies of monstrous beauty,” fantasies as played out both between and within empires. [29] Religious, aesthetic, and economic forms of Chinese “monstrosity” signaled China’s unassimilable foreignness, varyingly characterized as mongrel, immoral, wild, eclectic, or illegible. [30]

Monstrosity is an apt framework for us to interpret the mixture of bestial and ornamental shapes and forms that comprise the lingering “bad taste” of the Sèvres two-headed elephant vases. In 1728, the British encyclopedist Ephraim Chambers defined a monster as “a living thing, degenerating from the proper and usual Disposition of Parts, in the Species it belongs to. As when there are too many Members, or too few; or some of ‘em are extravagantly out of proportion.” [31] Adding to this portrait of disproportionate and excessive parts, natural historian Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788), underscored monsters’ resistance to classification when he wrote, “[being] neither the one nor the other, is a kind of monster, because it unites the attributes of two such different genera and resembles none of those models presented to us in the grand classes of Nature.” [32] While Buffon focused his studies on animals, the eighteenth-century British botanist John Hill similarly described the effects of plant reproduction: “By Monsters, among Plants, Naturalists mean such as have been produced by the Copulation of two distinct Kinds.” [33] Coincidentally, Hill took a keen interest in the phenomenon of double-flowered plants and noted the common occurrence of excessive petals in the exotic Chinese specimens he collected, studied, and painted. The monstrous qualities of unruly repetition, non-resemblance to a source, and crisis in categorization could well describe the Sèvres vases.

As early modern European religious and medical understandings of monsters (as unnatural births, foreign peoples, or divine omens) gave way to the efforts of Enlightenment science to redefine the “natural” distinctiveness of races and species, the language of animal monstrosity was applied to aesthetic and moral evaluations of non-European cultural production. A phrase like “mongrel Chinese,” when used by author and aesthete Horace Walpole (1717–1797) in discussing Chinese taste, carried with it the idea of interbreeding and miscegenation. [34] That Chinese ornament was frequently associated with animal monstrosity points to a growing fascination with artificial nature. That is, the grotesqueness attributed to chinoiserie decoration also registered awe toward Chinese artisans’ abilities to artificially manipulate the natural materials of clay or tree sap into fantastically glossy media like porcelain and lacquer. Just as European rococo ornament blurred the line between nature and artifice by integrating shells, plants, and other organic forms into its architectural compositions of S- and C-scrolls, chinoiserie designs entwined plant, animal, human, and object life in fantasy pastoral scenes. The widespread presence of imitative Chinese-ness speaks to the formidable impact of new commodities entering European markets and the power of imitation and artifice—in some instances coded Chinese—to reconfigure the experiences of everyday life. 

Monstrous beasts were very often invoked in descriptions of Chinese porcelain and design. In one eighteenth-century account, the British satirist John Shebbeare described chimney-piece ornaments thus: “[A]ll the pagods and distorted animals of the east are piled up . . . on the sides of the room, lions made of porcelain, grinning and misshapen.” [35] Another popular fable, “The Tea-pot and Scrubbing-Brush,” written from the perspective of a teapot, observed that “Strange beasts were done, in taste Chinese,/ And frightful fish, and humpback’d trees.” [36] Even a proponent of Chinese ornament, Sir William Chambers, noted of Chinese landscape and garden design that “they introduce into these scenes all kinds of extraordinary trees, plants, and flowers, form artificial and complicated echoes, and let loose different sorts of monstrous birds and animals.” [37]

In eighteenth-century Europe, the unnatural nature scenes depicted by chinoiseries were also inspired by the increased proximity to actual Chinese animals and objects in settings of domestic petkeeping and royal menageries. [38] When the products of cultural mixing are seen to take on a life of their own, they in turn produce mixed affects and desires. One of the many English satires on women’s love of exotic pets, for example, describes a lady’s chamber filled to the brim with not only birds, cats, and dogs, but also “little kennels, in the Chinese taste, in almost every corner of the room.” [39] From the perspective of a male writer like Shebbeare, women’s wayward affections for foreign commodities could even result in monstrous offspring. When he remarked that wallpapers with Chinese figures “resemble nothing of God’s creation, and which a prudent nation would prohibit for the sake of pregnant women,” Shebbeare most likely referred to the longstanding theory that pregnant women could, by gazing upon artworks, imprint their fetuses with distorted impressions and give birth to monsters. [40] Masculine collecting in the form of royal zoos across Europe, including that of Louis XIV (reigned 1643‒1715) at Versailles and Kew Gardens in London, displayed live birds and quadrupeds from around the globe that were only before seen in illustrated travel books and decorative artworks. In one elaborate instance of art imitating life, Augustus II, elector of Saxony and king of Poland (1670–1733), commissioned nearly six hundred life-sized animal sculptures, including elephants, for the porcelain zoo gallery of his Japanese Palace in Dresden. [41]

The effect is the animalizing of foreignness, and “ornamentalizing” of animals. By ornamentalizing, I mean to invoke Anne Cheng’s recent study of “ornamentalism,” a historical process in which Asian female personhood is accorded racial status through the close affiliation of the feminine “yellow” body with the artifice of aesthetic objects. [42] In Cheng’s account, if people and ornament can be seen to mutually enliven each other within a commoditized world, this interrelation, fraught as it is, also refuses to relegate the Asian woman to a powerless byproduct of Orientalist dehumanization. Ornamentalism is neither a denial of the racism of Orientalism—of creating an ontological and epistemological distinction between “the Orient” and “the Occident”—as formulated by Edward Said, nor a celebration of aesthetics, but rather an object-oriented approach toward understanding what Cheng calls the “processes of racialization.” Noting the kinship—conceptual and linguistic—of the words ornamental and Oriental, Cheng also underscores a key distinction: “Orientalism is a critique, ornamentalism a theory of being.” [43]

Like Cheng, I explore ornamental processes of racialization, though in a different direction. The Sèvres vases’ multisensory registers of elephant chinoiserie allow us to glimpse the materialization of Asian whiteness as it developed in the decorative arts in relation to human and animal forms. Asian porcelain, the celebrated “white gold” of the era, was a “sensuous surface” that appealed to the eye and even the ear, given its distinctive ping when struck. [44] By the mid-eighteenth century, English and European porcelain factories were successfully replicating and industrializing the prized ceramics that had begun arriving in the 1600s from Japan and China first on Portuguese, and then on Dutch, trade ships. Yet the whiteness, delicacy, and translucence of true Chinese hard-paste porcelain was still unmatched, even by the refined soft-paste formulae produced by European manufacturers and executed in objects like the Sèvres elephant vases. Among the influential ceramics from China were red Yixing clay tea ware, milky-white “Blanc de chine” Dehua porcelain figurines, blue-and-white Kangxi-era porcelains, and other porcelains with green and pink motifs ( famille verte and famille rose ). The colors and textures of Ming- and Qing-dynasty export wares and porcelain design shaped trends in Western clothing and interior décor, and prompted experiments in color that produced novel glazes like the Sèvres pink of the elephant vases.

As mentioned above, objects fashion people and shape discourses even as they resist cooptation by racist and colonial ideologies, in part, owing to their inherent labor-intensive artifice, and in the case of chinoiserie, the conscious pastiche of styles and influences. In her work on the history of chinoiserie, Stacey Sloboda keenly traces the way that ornament mediates between other objects and their environments; while ornament is a “mediatory device, one that brings objects and ideas into order,” chinoiserie is “a style that self-consciously materialized the disorienting mobility and excess of foreign commodities in the domestic landscape.” [45] The animating force of chinoiserie also stems from its straddling the ornamentalism/Orientalism divide, often through levity, to produce an embodied aesthetic experience of delight and horror at the possibilities and inequities of global trade. [46] As articulated in the eighteenth century, “The Chinese artists, knowing how powerfully contrast operates on the mind, constantly practise sudden transitions . . . from objects of horror to scenes of delight.” In another account, Chinese taste was thought to turn on “anti-symmetry which [the Chinese] affect, that air of humor that they give to . . . design and composition.” [47]

In her study of the intentional playfulness of chinoiserie in the context of French court life, Katie Scott identifies an “early, comic form of Orientalism” that deliberately distinguished itself from both authentic Chinese-ness and colonial discourse, yet emerged in a time of “proto-colonialism.” [48] How might we extend these ideas of chinoiserie’s mediatory and humorous techniques to account for its orientation toward the senses and its commentary on the racialized animal/human and color distinctions taking shape in an era of Enlightenment natural history classifications? Perhaps, if chinoiserie foregrounds East–West commercial activity, this includes the circuits of Atlantic slavery in all its grotesqueness. 

In appealing to the elite European consumer’s taste for ornamental animal and Asian bodies, the Sèvres elephant vases manifest an eighteenth-century Orientalist imagination through the specific medium of porcelain. The task of unpacking the novelty, and monstrosity, of the vases brings to mind the Asian fable of the blind men and the elephant . As the legend goes, several sightless men set out to determine the nature of this strange, massive beast by inspecting it through touch. Each draws a different conclusion based on the limited body part they examined; no one is privy to the elephant in its entirety. The point here is less the commonly held epistemological moral that we can only ever know partial truths. Instead, the vases can be interpreted from multiple angles—art historical, literary, scientific—to address the allegorical, iconographic, and zoological meanings that constitute their effects and affects. In what follows, I trace the cultural understandings of the elephant’s animality and its Asian-ness. This approach, while risking its own information overload, can help begin to tell a story of racial ornament and Asian whiteness, one that provokes us to rethink the relationship between Orientalism, race, and decorative art. 

A History of White Elephants

For background on the Orientalized monstrosity of elephants, we can first look to early modern travel accounts that took Asian gods for monsters. Medieval European writers like Odoric of Pordenone, Marco Polo, and John Mandeville set a precedent for interpreting Indian deities and zoolatry through the lens of Christian demonology, on the one hand, and classical Greek and Roman gods, on the other. [49] Visitors to Hindu and Buddhist temples through the 1600s described the multiple heads and limbs and bestial body parts of “monstrous” sculptures. In the second half of the century, and well into the 1700s, these reports were republished by compilers of cosmographies and universal religions in a manner that I have elsewhere described as “early modern orientalism,” an accretive process with far-reaching effects. [50]

To take one example of how religious iconography was circulated and transmogrified, in 1615 the Italian antiquarian Lorenzo Pignoria added a section on Indian, Japanese, and Mexican deities to his edition of a popular book on classical gods. [51] He included an illustration of an adult-sized figure with three elephant heads and three arms and legs, standing next to an elephant-headed child (fig. 7) . The first image combines the features of two Hindu gods, the multi-limbed Shiva Mahesamurti and the elephant-headed Ganesha . [52] The child figure, however, bears a striking resemblance to a European account of an elephant-head boy in Jakob Rueff’s book on monstrous births, De Conceptu et Generatione Hominis (1554), and reproduced in works such as Gaspar Schott’s Physica curiosa (1662) (fig. 8) , which dedicates an entire chapter to sightings of humans with non-human heads. [53]

Pignoria’s juxtaposition of the two images, adult and child, at once animalizes foreignness and suggests the possibility of an East-to-West monstrous reproduction. In the early modern Christian world, a monster was defined as an “unnatural” composite of animal and human body parts. Works on monstrosity commonly included exotic beasts in compendia of medical and religious anomalies. Since antiquity, Pliny the Elder had established the elephant and rhinoceros as natural enemies; they were subsequently imaged together in natural histories, writings on the East Indies, and in porcelain form. [54] The French surgeon Ambroise Paré in Des monstres et prodiges (1573) featured full-page engravings of an elephant and a rhinoceros along with accounts of a boy born with a frog’s face, a colt with a man’s head, and other hybrid beings. Whereas these congenital deformities were attributed to either a pregnant mother’s overactive imagination or divine curses or omens, by inference the source of the elephant or rhinoceros was simply the errancy of a foreign land, whether Asia or Africa.

In many travel writings, the religious exoticism that underlay medical monstrosity, described above, also inflected Western observations of the elephant’s place in royal courts of South and Southeast Asia. White elephants, revered for their rarity (due to their albinism), became a sign of lavish wealth and imperial might. As depicted in Persian and Siamese court art , elephants were ridden in processions, hunted for sport, and used in war. In Pegu and Siam, the prince rode a white elephant and gifted them to royal visitors. Travelers repeatedly embedded descriptions of the animals within scenes of visual and sonic excess. In A relation of the voyage to Siam (1688), the French Jesuit and envoy Guy Tachard recounted all manner of elephant viewing and handling. While the king alone sat on a throne mounted on his chosen elephant, visitors rode atop “gilt Chairs,” and natives perched on the elephant’s neck with no need of equipage. Registering a sensory overload, Tachard marveled at the spectacles of watching an elephant fight a tiger, and attending a light show with “Noise of Drums, Fifes and Trumpets” as the “Moors” celebrated “great Illuminations for eight days together, in Honour of their Prophet Mahomet and his Son.” The holy celebrations were part of the “new diversions dayly” taken in by the French ambassadors, among which was “the manner of taking and taming Elephants.” [55] The animals were thus seen as part of a culture of un-Christian extravagance, all the more pronounced given that the King of Siam, against the wishes of Louis XIV, continuously refused to convert to Christianity. 

Although most early modern references to elephants were based on travels to South and Southeast Asia, the growing dominance of the trade in Chinese luxury goods and the proliferation of embassies and Jesuit missionaries to China produced a concentration of China-related elephant imagery. Two of the key repositories for chinoiserie designs were widely reprinted texts about China by the Dutch trader and ambassador Johann Nieuhof and the German-Jesuit proponent of comparative religion Athanasius Kircher. [56] In the early eighteenth century, Jean-Baptiste du Halde’s General History of China , another major source for chinoiserie designs, included a section “Of the Elephant” describing elephants in Tongking (Tonkin) and Cochinchina as well as Quangsi (Guangxi) and Yunnan: “In the Western Countries there are whole Troops of wild ones, and their Kings ride on them after causing them to be magnificently equip’d: There are of them of two Colours the white and the Iron-grey.” [57]

Both European and Asian artists translated the ceremonial significance of the elephant into decorative form. In Chinese, elephants share a symbolic and linguistic affinity with vases. The relationship derives from a rebus of the auspicious aphorism taiping youxiang , “may there come peace,” which contains two homonyms. The word for peace, ping , shares a sound with the word for vase, while xiang denotes “elephant” as well as “sign.” Another homonym for xiang is the verb meaning “to think or ponder,” which accentuates the elephant’s qualities of strength and intelligence. Buddha, for example, was said to ride an elephant. Perhaps not coincidentally, he shared with the creature elongated earlobes that signaled his enlightenment and compassionate wisdom. The Sèvres factory directors were probably familiar with the milky-white ears of the Dehua porcelain Buddha statuettes exported to Europe beginning in the eighteenth century and subsequently displayed on mantelpieces or mounted in ornate frames. The humanoid yet rather monstrous Sèvres elephant ears might also have been modeled after porcelain renderings of a long-eared caparisoned elephant surmounted by Asian royalty that were produced from the 1740s onward at the Meissen factory in Germany. “ Sultan Riding an Elephant ” (ca. 1749, Detroit Institute of Arts) features a black mahout, or trainer, riding on the animal’s neck and head, while a white-turbaned ruler commands them both. The three figures are ornamentalized through the floral and gilded patterns of their apparel, and the ormolu base on which they sit. Between the whiteness of the sultan and elephant and the glossy blackness of the servant, the color coding of white privilege and black servility could not be clearer. The body of the elephant functions as a support for two extremes of human racial difference as represented by the sultan and the servant, even as the animal unites the figures into an ornamental and Orientalized ensemble. 

In a number of ways, the histories of monstrosity and religious and imperial spectacle illuminate what I wish to term the “elephantine aesthetics” of the Walters’ pair of Sèvres vases. Elephantine aesthetics encompass multiple meanings: the assemblage of parts that do not fit together seamlessly; the reference to Asian “idolatry” that signals an encounter between East and West; the chinoiserie experimentation with size and scale that translates a vision of Eastern wealth and excess into decorative ornament; and the sense of wonder, delight, and revulsion conjured by the fleshly prominence of elephant appendages and orifices. In the eighteenth century, elephant body parts—including the ears, eyes, and trunk—were thought to have heightened powers of sensation. The elephant body is a mass of oversized portals. The vases’ elephantine aesthetic, multisensory and cross-cultural, overwhelms the observer with the “bad taste” of high-class pastiche; it offers up openings to see racialized relationships as mediated by human, animal, and object interactions. 

Feeling Flesh

The elephant ears are arguably the most distinctive element of the Sèvres elephant-head vases. In their shape, they depart from many sculpted representations; they also look nothing like those found in printed images of the creature, as famously illustrated in Conrad Gesner’s Historiae animalium (1551), which tend to depict the large fan-like appendages of African elephants. Even the smaller ears of Asian elephants bear slim resemblance to the anthropomorphized shapes of the Sèvres vase, which are molded to evoke the curvature of cartilage and prominently exposed ear canal of a human ear. In Le Cat’s 1741 Traité des sens ( Treatise of the Senses ), the surgeon made a case for the superiority of hearing over vision (fig. 9) . He described in detail the “perfection of the Ear, superior to that of the Eyes . . . more compleat [sic] in its Kind, than vision is.” [58] Le Cat’s anatomical approach represented a shift in the science of hearing to what scholars have called “the emergence of the anatomical ear.” [59] His study of the sense organ supported the belief that music was the most powerful generator of human sentiment, and that humans’ ability to appreciate music set them apart from all other animals. As one of the “most complex sensory systems in the natural world,” according to Le Cat, the ear not only received impressions but also created “Art” through its processing of sounds. [60] Not everyone agreed on the primacy of the ear. The philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, Le Cat’s contemporary, argued that touch was the most fundamental sense. [61] In an age of sensibility that gave birth to the field of aesthetics—from the Greek aisthēsis , or sense perception—the reactive body was theorized anew across the arts and sciences.

Given its unusual size, every part of the elephant’s body, from its sensory appendages to its internal organs, was intensely scrutinized. In The General History of China , Du Halde found elephants on the whole unappealing and “extremely ill-favoured, hav[ing] eyes like Hog.” [62] But in listing the different medicinal uses of their body parts, including flesh, bones, spleen, and eyes, he noted that the skin had miraculous, self-healing properties that might be used to close human wounds. [63] To audiences attuned to Le Cat’s science of sensation, the elephant’s magnified ear would confirm the civilizing virtue of auditory perception; the ear was a portal to a permeable, virtuously vulnerable body. At the same time, the elephant’s skin according to Du Halde promised corporeal defense and a protective, prosthetic coating for human use. The combined properties of permeability and impenetrability, or fragility and resistance, recall the fetishized contradictions of Chinese porcelain; it was a substance able to withstand terrifically high kiln heat, yet once finished, marvelously delicate and immanently breakable. China vases, for example, were often compared to White women’s bodies following the chauvinistic logic in the eighteenth century that female beauty, fidelity, and chastity were both fortified by social mores, and naturally prone to being flawed or shattered. [64]

While flora and fauna of natural history illustrations were abundantly used for porcelain decoration, ceramics also informed the understanding of animals’ bodies. In Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie (1751–72), the author of the entry “Elephant,” Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, provided exact measurements of each body part. When it came to describing the elephant’s shapes, Daubenton employed ceramics metaphors. The trunk is shaped like a vase toward its end (“ s’élargissoit comme le haut d’un vase ”) and the tip resembles a cup (“ tout le rebord formoit comme une petite tasse, au fond de laquelle étoient les narines ”). [65] The corresponding plate illustrates this likeness and the upturned curve of the proboscis draws attention to the nostrils’ three openings (les narines). [66] The image bears a striking resemblance to the elephant trunks of Duplessis’s vases, and vice versa (fig. 10) . Designed to hold candles, the porcelain nostril holes further underscore the function of animal ornament to link the senses of sight, smell, and touch, and to produce heightened sensory stimulation for the viewer.

Fig. 10 Detail of Plate I in “Regne Animal/ Quadrupedes,” of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, Recueil de Planches sur Les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques (London, 1768)

Detail of fig. 1

The Sèvres elephant heads were made according to the naturalistic design innovations of the porcelain industry, which resonated with mid-eighteenth-century studies of animal anatomy across Britain and France. Artists’ depictions of elephants, though still reliant on ancient and secondhand sources, drew increasingly on viewings of living creatures in court menageries and traveling exhibitions. [67] Of course, Europeans had observed Asian elephants in person since the 1500s: during this period at least thirteen young elephants accompanied by their mahouts were brought from India to cities across Europe, via Portugal, as royal gift exchanges. [68] An ardent patron of the Versailles menagerie, Louis XIV kept an elephant for thirteen years until its death in 1681, after which it was dissected. [69] While Louis XV paid less attention to the menagerie, he commemorated his love of hunting by commissioning a painting, Elephant Hunt (1736) by Charles Parrocel. [70] Court artists like Jean-Baptiste Oudry illustrated exotic animals after preserved corpses or live examples from the Versailles menagerie. As evidenced in his illustrations for La Fontaine’s Fables , re-published in the 1750s, Oudry specialized in animal expression and what Sarah Cohen has called a “Rococo ‘ecology’” that inserted naturalistic animals into a stylized environment or scene. [71]

The culture of exotic animal keeping inspired artistic renderings like the Sèvres elephants, as did some natural history accounts that extolled the elephant’s attributes. Comte de Buffon, Daubenton’s former manager at the botanical garden of Paris ( Jardin des plantes ), offered an extraordinary account of elephant anatomy and sensibility. Buffon’s Natural History portrayed the pachyderms not as hideous marvels of Hindu mythology or Eastern imperial hunts, but rather as beautifully ornamented, feminine paragons. In the East Indies, he wrote, elephants are crowned with garlands, have painted ears and cheeks, “delight in a golden harness or magnificent trappings,” and on festival days, are dressed with gold and silver rings around the tusks: “their harness is ornamented with little bells.” [72] The legs are compared to architectural pillars. The skin is meticulously cleaned by being rubbed with pumice stones, then perfumed, and painted much like ladies’ skin. [73]

Anatomical science in Buffon’s account affirmed elephants’ exquisite sensory organs, and their heightened powers of sensation made them the perfect embodiment of cross-cultural synesthesia. The elephant’s emotional and rational intelligence are evidenced by each of its distinctive parts, according to Buffon. Its eyes, though relatively small, display a “pathetic sentimental expression” that indicates its wishes and desires, and powers of deliberation. Its sense of hearing is superior to all other animals; it appreciates music to the point of dancing. The trunk miraculously unites multiple sensations: “the delicacy of feeling, exquisitiveness [sic] of smelling, facility of motion, and the power of suction.” Like Daubenton, Buffon describes the extremity of the trunk as having “the form of a cup.” It enables “a most exquisite sense of smelling, perhaps more perfect than that of any other animal,” to such an extent that the elephant “makes nosegays of [fragrant flowers], which he smells with eagerness, and then carries to his mouth, as if he intended to taste them.” (He has a predilection for orange flowers.) Furthermore, this “organ of sentiment” resembles a human finger. For Buffon, the sense of touch or feeling is “that which is the most analogical to knowledge,” and the elephant’s “multiplied sensations are equivalent to reflection.” Buffon argues that, if memory retention is most effective when multiple senses are combined, the elephant, of all, has the deepest repository of knowledge. In short, “the elephant is . . . a miracle of intelligence, and a monster of matter .” [74]

In the most stunning passage in Buffon’s text, the elephant is even praised—in racialized terms—for its moral virtue. The invocation of its Europeanized, feminized modesty sets Buffon’s elephant apart from Du Halde’s hog-eyed beast or Daubenton’s hunted behemoth. In Buffon’s broader racist scheme of nature’s hierarchies, the chaste female elephant differs from the orangutan or African women, both considered lascivious and prone to interspecies attraction. [75] The elephant bashfully refuses to copulate in public or in the presence of humans, and has sex in the missionary position, even in private. The male elephant, despite its great size and employment in battle, still eats in moderation. Though “fond of wine, spirituous liquors, brandy, and arrack,” he tempers his appetite out of a love of cleanliness. Due to their virtuous sensibilities, elephants have an innate love of freedom, and this sets them apart from other beasts: “he is not like these born slaves, which we train or multiply for our use. Here the individual alone is a slave, the species remains independent . . . This alone shews in the elephant  elevated sentiments superior to the nature of common brutes.” [76] Exempt from slavery, Buffon’s elephant is not quite human, not quite animal. It is a product of tropical climates even as it appears to transcend its environs. It occupies the place of a foreign observer whose in-between status naturalizes, racializes, and genders the line between those destined for freedom and those “born” to slavery.

In one area, though, the “monster of matter” exhibited a form of racialized monstrosity—the “accidental” whiteness of white elephants. [77] The phenomenon of albinism, though not well understood, was a source of fascination for natural philosophers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Non-European whiteness, in people as well as animals, became a limit case for the science of racial difference. Lacking the language of hereditary genetics, Buffon attributed the white skin of albinos to degenerative accidents of nature that could be corrected over time. Across numerous natural histories and travel writings, non-European, albino whiteness was of a lesser and different order, which ultimately affirmed that white (European) color was the primordial and preferred complexion. As the eighteenth-century novelist and poet Oliver Goldsmith described albinism, “All those changes which the African, the Asiatic, or the American undergo are but accidental deformities, which a kinder climate, better nourishment, or more civilized manners, would, in a course of centuries, very probably, remove.” [78] On the one hand, the uncommonness of white elephants made them gentle outliers and icons of the East—as reported by one Father Vincent Marie, white elephants were “the largest, most gentle, and of the best temper,” and “worshipped as gods by several nations.” [79] On the other, their exceptionalism supported a growing consensus around a universal standard of whiteness as a sign of European virtue.

The existence of (false) white life forms outside Europe posed a challenge to theorists of racial difference concerned with the material source of skin color, particularly blackness. The field of scientists studying and even dissecting black skin had grown, horrifically, to the point that, in 1739, the Bordeaux Academy of Sciences solicited submissions for an essay competition on the cause of black skin and hair. Eighteenth-century anatomists formulated their theories of blackness in a new era of material science and proto-eugenics. [80] The Virginian Royal Society member John Mitchell held that the thickness of African skin when oiled blocked light transmission and usefully acted as a “coat to keep off the Power of the Sun, and preserve the Body against the Moisture of the Air.” [81] The Dutch anatomist Petrus Camper referred to African blood as “tints” comparable to mulberry sap. In considering the “mixture of people” that produced different skin tones, he also described the body as a mortar wherein mercury and sulphur were mixed to produce the skin’s black dye. Moreover, he described skin as “varnish” that preserved the sub-epidermal layers. [82] The combination of the anatomical gaze with artisanal metaphors produced a visualization of black and white bodies across species and media, and in relation to a world of fungible and finely wrought things.

As discussed above, Asian elephant sensitivity, including emotional and sensory intelligence, memory retention, and moral virtue, served to amplify the refinements of human perception from a White European male perspective. The wondrous properties of the elephant made its body a conceptual talisman, metaphorically, able to ward off slavishness and bestiality. That is, the investigative prowess demonstrated by knowing the elephant from all angles, inside and out, indexed Europeans’ sense of their epistemological ingenuity and the ability to tame a formidable Asian and African beast. Its parts merited anatomical study and meticulous artisanal replication, even if, as demonstrated by the Sèvres vases, in anthropomorphized form. Buffon’s cataloguing of the elephant offers a hypothetical template for the Sèvres elephant heads, down to their finely painted gold eyelashes. As Buffon points out, eyelashes are peculiar to men, monkeys, and elephants. [83] Even the balance of wild and tame attributes described by Buffon can be seen in Duplessis’s incorporation of the outsized elephant heads into the confined shape of the vases’ handles.

The elephantine, as rendered in porcelain, thus solicited a mixture of attraction and repulsion that was integral to the eighteenth-century fascination with highly sensitive, racialized surfaces, from human skin to sculptural glaze. Scientist-artists sought to perfect porcelain’s distinctive translucent whiteness and the colored enamels applied to its surface, at the same time that physicians and anatomists sought to understand human complexion. Critics have focused largely on blackness as a racializing quality, but we should keep in mind that whiteness was a constructed value as well. As Kim Hall has argued, “blackness [creates] a value for whiteness.” [84] Color was not only scrutinized, it was made. The scientific theories that materialized color developed in tandem with an aesthetics of racial difference that understood complexions (black and white) as the layering of substances that could be, and were, abstracted (and violently extracted) from their human and animal subjects.  

Racializing the Four Continents, Animalizing Foreignness

Western decorative art has long associated the elephant—and the elephant’s head—with Africa, largely due to the precedent set by the Italian author Cesare Ripa in his influential emblem book, Iconologia (1603), first published without the woodcut illustrations in 1593. Listed as one of the allegorical Four Continents, Africa was personified as a female figure wearing an elephant headdress and holding a scorpion and bushel of wheat (fig. 11) . According to Ripa, the elephant cap signaled “these animals being proper to Africa, used by these people in war not just as a marvel but first of all to scare the Romans, their enemies.” [85] In her study of Ripa’s numismatic sources, Joaneath Spicer has shown the close association of elephants with imperial conquests from Western antiquity. As imaged on classical coins, Alexander the Great wore an elephant headdress as a helmet—in imitation of the legend of Hercules donning the scalp of the Nemean lion—to celebrate the invasion of Egypt in 331 BCE, and of India four years later. [86] The coins of Octavian/Caesar Augustus (reigned 27 BCE‒14 CE) personified Africa wearing an elephant headdress, perhaps in acknowledgment of the reports from Greek historian Strabo of Mauritanians using elephant-skin shields in battle. [87] The elephant headdress continued to appear on the medals of the Roman emperors Septimius Severus (reigned 193–211 CE) and Hadrian (reigned 117–138 CE). 

In the Renaissance and beyond, the elephant scalp headdress appeared widely in Baroque court art as an accoutrement of a personified Africa, together with icons of Asia, Europe, and America in the familiar grouping known as the Allegory of Four Continents. The countless renditions of the Four Continents in tapestry, atlases, prints, sculpture, and ceiling frescoes varied in design—sometimes Asia rides an elephant, as in Giambattista Tiepolo’s 1752 fresco at the Würzburg Residence in Germany—but generally each figure was imaged with its designated animal, plant, and object emblems. [88] Asia, for example, usually rides a camel and holds an incense vessel and scepter or golden crescent; Africa is pictured with a lion, red coral, and cornucopia, in addition to its distinct headdress. [89]

The use of color to further differentiate allegorical figures representing the continents prompts consideration of how ornamental colors developed alongside classifications of racial complexions in the eighteenth century. Even subtler depictions of skin color in a medium such as pastel painting still used tonal variations to distinguish between representations of the Four Continents in a manner that anticipated “racial pseudoscience.” [90] Artistic renditions sometimes depicted both Africa and America with feathered skirts or black skin color. The conflation of African and Amerindian representations in art, as well as literature, has been explained by a number of phenomena: the historical presence of enslaved Africans in the Americas, the replacement of Amerindians with African descendants as enslaved laborers, increased racial mixing, and the fact that the term “Indian” could refer to native inhabitants of the East and West Indies with darker complexions. [91] Blackness was not limited to the African continent. One of the early modern justifications for colonialism was the presence of “black” people the world over. Black populations could be found on all four continents, as the Spanish Jesuit Alonso de Sandoval asserted in his treatise on slavery published in 1627. His belief in the “potential whiteness of the black African soul” only underscored the Christian moral hierarchy of good and evil along a racialized color binary of white and black, which reinforced the developing system of Atlantic slavery. [92] As Sandoval wrote, “Our great King, who trades only in the Gospel, wants to acquire the most valuable pearls of the Orient and West: souls redeemed by his blood. These pearls come from the coarse and ugly shells of black and Indian bodies.” [93] Among the possible causes given for Asian blackness was a shared climate with Africa as dictated by latitude. [94]

The allegorical affinity of Europe with Asia, though, was often established through the common whiteness, and even common gender, of their personified forms. By the mid-eighteenth century, European porcelain manufacturers, eager to establish their mastery of an Asian art form, turned to representing the four corners of the world in ceramic figurines. When modeled in clay, the figure of “Asia” is conjured doubly: as the allegorical representation of a continent, and through the material of translucent white porcelain, itself a Chinese-inspired marvel. [95] In one British soft-paste porcelain set at the Winterthur Museum, The Four Quarters of the Globe (ca. 1770), the continents are juvenile figures; Europe and Asia are rendered white and female, while Africa and America are androgynous, appearing further infantilized, and distinctly non-white (fig. 12) . Although unusual, sometimes sets of continents mixed genders in this way. [96] The Chelsea/Derby manufacturers clearly used the occasion to showcase their color techniques by differentiating the shining jet-black glaze of Africa from a red-toned America, and both of these from the white glazes that unite Europe and Asia. It is worth noting a slighter tonal difference; the white enamel of Africa’s elephant hat contains more iron than the white bodies of Asia and Europe, which creates a white of a duller, lesser order—a bestial, second skin. [97] The animal ornament, in other words, at once humanizes and dehumanizes its wearer. The Winterthur set materializes two kinds of ornamental whiteness: the pallor of the elephant headdress, and the glossy white of imitation Chinese porcelain. Both work to “Africanize” Africa’s blackness, while also Europeanizing Asia’s perceived whiteness. Such is the black-white, color-coding effect of Meissen’s “Sultan Riding an Elephant” discussed earlier.

Porcelain workshops across Europe were eager to reproduce the sheen of Eastern hard-paste porcelain as well as to experiment with difficult glaze colors like white and black; innovations in color were integral to the novelty of the pieces. The contrast between black and white also took on racialized meaning through the transatlantic slave trade. As art historian Charmaine Nelson puts it, “the theme of the four continents was the allegorical performance of race itself .” [98] This allegorical structure of racial whiteness continues to delimit our ways of seeing. For one, an essentialist association of white with European identity makes it easy to misread the forms of artisanal whiteness. Take for example a Four Continents set made by the Meissen Porcelain Factory, which entwined a white figure of Asia (identifiable by the golden crescent of Islam in one hand) with a black figure of Africa: tellingly, Asia has been mislabeled “Europe,” an oversight probably due to the unwitting correlation of a black–white dichotomy with one that is African–European . This points to the larger issues of the figure of Asia being made to alternately disappear or stand in for Europe, and how Asian whiteness (metaphorical or material) functions as a racializing agent. 

To expand on the idea of Asian whiteness, consider first its relation to another form of Asian blackness. If china in this period commonly connoted mass-produced translucence, fragility, and whiteness, japan suggested the ornate blackness, durability, and rarity of both Japanese and Chinese lacquer. In Britain, “japan” or “japanning” referred to Asian lacquer as well as European imitation lacquer and varnishing techniques. [99] Porcelain and lacquer were considered complementary collectors’ items due to their contrasting colors and luxuriant shine. [100] As the Parisian businessman, or marchand-mercier , Claude-François Julliot advertised in 1777, “Precious old Japanese lacquers are a perfect match for porcelains . . . connoisseurs consider these objects essential to the harmony of their collection.” [101] Dealers like Julliot profited from the incredible value of “Old Japan” lacquer pieces that had been imported from Asia a century earlier and were still in high demand. One of the most famous collectors, the gothic and Orientalist novelist William Beckford (1760‒1844), described himself as “affected with Japan-mania in a violent, incurable degree.” [102] In fact, he acquired many of the pieces from Madame de Pompadour’s lacquer collection (and even commissioned in 1792 a cabinet made of repurposed lacquer with elephant heads at the tops of its legs). [103]

From ceramics to statuary, finely wrought ornaments not only furnished luxurious interiors according to the dictates of taste and sensibility; chinoiserie innovations also used color and materials artistically to represent racial difference, as per the phenomenon of “ornamental blackness” identified by Adrienne L. Childs in her important study of decorative porcelain sculptures of enslaved Africans. Characterizations of “blackamoors,” often depicted wearing turbans, referenced both Africa and Asia, “essentially filtering the black African through the veil of an imagined Orient.” [104] From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, “moor” or “blackamoor” referred generically to dark-skinned people—Africans, Ottomans, and Muslims of Berber and Arab descent, as well as the Black laborers of the Atlantic world. The concept of ornamental blackness could also be applied to black Asians if we look to Chinese and Japanese depictions of dark-skinned Indian disciples of Buddhas, or arhats, which took the form of lacquered bronze figurines in French decorative art. [105]

Fig. 13 Charles Phillips, Tea Party at Lord Harrington’s House, St. James’s, 1730, oil on canvas. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.503

The racialized associations of lacquer and porcelain were evident across the eighteenth century. East Asian porcelain became an idealized form of white matter—an ornamental whiteness—that, like the white substance of Caribbean sugar, was at once difficult to refine and highly prized by consumers. British women continued the early modern practice of whitening their skin using the toxic lead substance ceruse, perhaps in an effort to match their hands with the whiteness of their chinaware (fig. 13) . [106] This standard of aesthetic purity is suggested by numerous portraits of women with alabaster hands posed next to their gleaming white tea services. Referencing this trend, the potter Josiah Wedgwood, after designing a line of black basalt wares, wrote to his friend Thomas Bentley in 1772, “I hope white hands will continue in fashion & then we may continue to make black Teapots.” [107]

To further accentuate their white faces and hands, women also employed servants with darker complexions. In a painting like William Hogarth’s Portrait of a Family (ca. 1735)  (fig. 14) ,  this “aesthetics of mastery” is evident in the interaction of black and white bodies. [108] The human subjects’ appearances are coded according to the colors of the Asian commodities that populate the drawing room. Porcelain structures the scene in a number of ways: teacups connect the seated figures and establish their intimacy, a glistening jar with lid sits upright in the fireplace at a remove, much like the disinterested boy in the red chair. Like other paintings of this period, Hogarth showcases the fashionability of Qing dynasty blue-and-white porcelain. The extent to which the people fashion themselves after the products they consume can be seen in the complementary blue and white outfits of the standing man and seated woman, whose porcelain-like complexion mirrors the whiteness of her chinaware. [109]

As components of sumptuous European interiors, Asian objects created new tastes for the exotic. Black lacquer and white porcelain were grounds for expression and innovation. They ornamented representations of enslavers’ and enslaved peoples’ bodies, and aestheticized depictions of Black labor. In Hogarth’s painting, a Japanese black lacquer cabinet on a gilt stand in the background contrasts in its blackness with the central whiteness of the woman, tea set, and tablecloth. Just in front, the standing gentleman’s finger points to a Black servant who enters the room at the painting’s bottom left. At some point the servant was nearly cropped out of the painting, perhaps for framing purposes. The act of dismemberment leaves him barely visible, but for the outstretched dark hands that hold a silver tray with a glistening, overturned teacup. In signaling the subtle disarray of the room, his partial presence still guides the action of the scene. He faces the black lacquer cabinet across the room, which matches the blackness of his skin tone and thus forms a diagonal in the painting’s composition. Although relegated to the background and the margins, these dark figures nonetheless stand in silent witness to the process of things and people fashioning each other. [110]

In the paintings and sculptures discussed above, racial ornamentalism adds value to a scene by linking different orders of representation—animate and inanimate—through a shared color regime. When returning our gaze to the Chinese figures and truncated elephants of the Sèvres vases, the overabundance of color and wondrous rococo detail belies a disappearance at the heart of the liveliness. What bodies are seen in place of those erased, or cut off, like Hogarth’s cropped Black servant? As discussed above, the allegorical investments in elephant corporeality persisted through the anatomical inquiries of Enlightenment racial science. Informed by the decorative tradition of the Four Continents, the elephant vases’ decapitated heads are toy trophies of bygone imperial aspirations, recalling emblematic African weapons when ridden into battle, representational scalp hats worn by Western conquerors as spoils of war, and finally, the decorative headdress of a figurative, black icon of Africa.

Yet, if the Sèvres elephant heads are a vestige of allegories of the Four Continents, the elephant heads’ resignification into chinoiserie spectacle both reintroduces the allegorical figures’ fleshly presence and registers the absence of African, and partial disappearance of Asian, bodies. In place of an African wearer of elephant heads, we see an Asian body, of sorts. The soft-paste, taxidermied heads have been attached to a porcelain body that sports painted, ornamental Chinese figures. To my mind, there is a certain proto–science fiction at work in this virtuosic feat of Frankensteinian patchwork. The anthropomorphized elephant ears make inert decorative matter complicit with the processes of racializing representational surfaces and dehumanizing African, Asian, and American lives rendered ornamental.

At issue, then, is less what the elephant stands for, and instead, what it activates in the beholder. In the Sèvres vases, the elephant’s body parts (those present, and those absent) create a rupture in the workings of animal allegory—a space to explore the racializing function of animal and Asian icons, and to see the material metaphors of White toxicity, fragility, supremacy. Porcelain, a fundamentally domestic medium, is not exactly a monument to racist state violence, like the sculptures commemorating men and ideologies from Columbus to Rizzo that were taken down worldwide in the summer of racial justice uprisings of 2020.  But luxury consumption was an accessory to the Atlantic slave trade; and Western capitalism, to a significant extent, was built upon the human trafficking and commercial exchanges of transatlantic slavery, in concert with the trade in Asian commodities. The chinoiserie excesses of the Sèvres elephant-head vases encourage us to comprehend monstrosities big and small—the parts of history that do not fit together neatly, the human and animal costs to artistic innovations in decorative media, the racialized palette of Asian whiteness that developed in tandem with animal Orientalism. 

Coda: Elephantine Afterlives, Racial Horror

Fig. 15 Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Designer: Jean-Claude Duplessis La Père, Decorator: Jean-Louis Morin, Vase potpourri a vaisseau, 1764, soft-paste porcelain with enamels. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Bequest of Henry Walters, 1931, acc. no. 48.559

Roberto Lugo, Slave Ship Potpourri Boat, 2018, porcelain, china paint, luster. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 2018, acc. no. 48.2882. © Roberto Lugo

This essay offers a cultural history of white elephant chinoiserie, which contributes to an understanding of the Walters’ elephant-head vases as eighteenth-century racial ornaments. Yet these enigmatic vases also invite viewers and artists to reimagine the past in new forms. The Philadelphia-based potter Roberto Lugo has reconceptualized Sèvres porcelain to uncover the ongoing monstrosities of racism and White privilege. Slave Ship Potpourri Boat (2018) is one instance that comments directly on the cross-sensory designs of porcelain garnitures that included vase-candelabras and incense holders like the Walters’ Sèvres boat-shaped potpourri vase, Vase pot-pourri à vaisseau , designed by Duplessis (fig. 15) . In response to this object, Lugo remade the shape to force viewers to reckon with the horrors of the Middle Passage and its role in amassing European wealth. Reenvisioned as a miniature slave ship, Lugo’s vessel is adorned with a figurehead of George Washington on either end; painted onto its body is a replica of an engraving depicting prostrate Black bodies crammed into one space. Regarding the Sèvres potpourri vase Lugo remarked, “The boat depicts life at sea but it was also a functional vessel to give off a good scent. However, at the time that it was made, slave ships were carrying people and using scent as a form of torture.” [111]

Whereas the Sèvres vase once held dried flower petals, this potpourri vessel memorializes Black suffering. Lugo reproduces the now familiar abolitionist image from the Plymouth Committee, an engraving of the slave ship Brooks, Plan of an African Ship’s Lower Deck with Negroes in the Proportion of Only One to a Ton (1788). With chilling precision, the plate diagrammed slavers’ actuarial logic and practice of packing hundreds of enslaved Africans into a hellish cargo hold. In this way they hoped to maximize the space and the profits from violently transporting human beings to the colonies, to function at once as laborers and commodities. In her book on the enduring legacy of this “slave ship icon,” Cheryl Finley speculates on the reaction of the eighteenth-century Afro-British abolitionist Olaudah Equiano upon being shown the image for the first time: “So haunting in its graphic depiction, the plan of the slave ship must have seemed capable of psychically transporting Equiano back to that foundational moment in the swollen belly of the slave ship when he was born into an African diaspora.” [112] That artists like Lugo continue to return to this moment and repurpose the engraving is a testament to the power of its documentary representation.

How does ornamental porcelain enact such “psychic transport” to scenes of subjugation even when the bodies are not made visible? An unlikely site of cultural commentary on the matter of chinoiserie’s monstrous whiteness is Jordan Peele’s popular body-snatching horror film Get Out (2017). The film’s White, rich Armitage family lures African Americans to their secluded home, where they auction off the people and conduct surgical transplantations to allow White elites to live forever in beautiful Black bodies. While the family embodies what Charmaine Nelson has called “white collective narcissism . . . fueled by the racialization of vision and sensory perception,” I am interested in how the figure of the Asian mediates Black–White relations, and how chinoiserie ornament activates racial traumas and embodied resistance. [113] In one scene of bidding, that Anne Cheng has called a “sci-fi version of a slave auction,” there appears to be one person of color, a Japanese man (Yasuhiko Oyama) who bids on the Black protagonist Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) in heavily accented English. [114] The Asian man is a foreigner and a caricatured cultural intermediary, at once hypervisible and a mouthpiece for White supremacy—a twenty-first-century elephant in the room. His character seems to embody Asian economic might and the structures of global capitalism. In his person, Asian-ness becomes a proxy for neo-colonialism. [115]

Fig. 16 (detail) Peele, Jordan, director. 2017. Get Out. © 2017 Universal City Studios Productions LLLP. Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC

Peele, Jordan, director. 2017. Get Out. © 2017 Universal City Studios Productions LLLP. Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC

At the center of the film, though, is another Asian object that, in the hands of the demented mother-psychiatrist Mrs. Armitage (Catherine Keener), unleashes Chris’s psychic nightmare. A blue-and-white, willow-patterned porcelain teacup is the fixation object she uses to hypnotize the hapless Black protagonist seated across from her (fig. 16) . The clinking of a silver spoon inside the delicate teacup stirs up personal and collective racial memories at the heart of the film. As she stirs the tea, her voice guides Chris deep into a traumatic childhood memory, and he is transported into a “sunken place” that resembles the darkness of a slave ship hold. The teacup, we realize, is an accouterment of a slave society that helped define racial Whiteness in an era of nascent capitalism and British empire, and continues to accessorize class- and race-based hierarchies in the present.

Like the eighteenth-century ladies portrayed with their china, the White women of the Armitage family are linked to beverages, whether through the mother’s white teacup or the cool glass of milk drunk by the daughter, Rose (Allison Williams), as she searches online for her next Black boyfriend and victim. Just as the daughter-girlfriend has penetrated Chris’s body, the mother has penetrated his mind. The teacup is nowhere near as grotesque as the milk glass, but both are white objects that racialize mother and daughter alike. At once a plot device, controller of character, and instrument of mise-en-scène, the teacup is not only seen, it is heard. It is one of the sounds of horror that propel the film, whether through the clinking of the mother’s hypnotic silver spoon or the shattering of the porcelain when Chris prevails. Each piece of white matter reactivates the multisensory experience of racial horror. Like the ear of the elephant, the teacup is a chinoiserie portal into material histories of whiteness and the cyclical productions of monstrous matter.

Special thanks to Ruth Bowler, E.R. Cho, Ellie Hughes, Jerry Miller, Iris Moon, Laura Seitter, and Yao-Fen You.

[1] The two elephant vases were later placed atop a commode along with two other Sèvres vases in the bedchamber of Bourbon’s daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Bourbon, Louise-Marie-Thérèse-Bathilde d’Orléans, at the family residence in Paris. See Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, “Paire de vases ‘à oreilles’ en première grandeur, à fond rose,” in Nouvelles acquisitions du département des objets d’art (1995–2002) , exh. cat., Musée du Louvre (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2003): 134–37. For a brilliant study of the history of the Met’s elephant-vases in the late eighteenth-century context of the institutionalization of the Louvre Museum, see Iris Moon, “The Sèvres Elephant Garniture and the Politics of Dispersal during the French Revolution,” forthcoming in the Metropolitan Museum Journal . 

[2] Louis XV also purchased three pairs of the elephant-head vases. Twenty-two of these vases are thought to have survived, and ten of the potpourri vessels. Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide and Jeffrey Munger, The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New Haven, CT: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2010), 195–96. 

[3] Of the twenty-five pieces made with Chinese designs, Pompadour purchased fourteen. There is one documented case of a pink garniture of five pieces with chinoiserie designs that she placed in her bedchamber in the palace Hôtel d’Évreux in Paris. Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, “La passion de madame de Pompadour pour la porcelaine,” in Madame de Pompadour et les arts , ed. Xavier Salmon, exh. cat., Musée national des château de Versailles et de Trianon (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2002), 443–44.

[4] See Mimi Hellman’s discussion of seriality of furnishings that produces an “aesthetics of surplus” as well as an “anxiety of seriality.” “The Joy of Sets: The Uses of Seriality in the French Interior,” in Furnishing the Eighteenth Century: What Furniture Can Tell Us about the European and American Past , ed. Dena Goodman and Kathryn Norberg (New York: Routledge, 2007), 147, 149.

[5] Kristel Smentek, “Global Circulations, Local Transformations: Objects and Cultural Encounter in the Eighteenth Century,” in Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West , ed. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Ning Ding (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015), 49.

[6] Jeffrey Munger, European Porcelain in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018), 190. See Janet Gleeson, The Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story of the Invention of European Porcelain (London: Bantam Press, 1998), 177. Note that the British did not make hard-paste porcelain until 1768.

[7] See Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, “Of Elephants and Porcelain,” The French Porcelain Society Journal 1 (2003): 113–30, and also Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain (London: Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 1988).

[8] Maxine Berg, “Asian Luxuries and the Making of the European Consumer Revolution,” in Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desires, and Delectable Goods , ed. Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger (New York: Palgrave, 2003); Robert Finlay, The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010); Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000).

[9] Marie Laure de Rochebrune, “Charles Nicolas Dodin, miniature painter at Vincennes-Sèvres,” The Magazine Antiques 158, no. 4 (October 2000): 527; Carl Christian Dauterman, “Chinoiserie Motifs and Sèvres: Some Fresh Evidence,” Apollo 84 (December 1966): 476, 477.

[10] Dauterman, 478.

[11] The Daoist Immortal Cao Guojiu, imaged on Chinese porcelain, is often pictured dancing with castanets, which serve to purify his surroundings. While Chinese castanets tend to be elongated sticks, the round shape of European castanets approximates the objects in the Dodin scene. 

[12] The museum’s label is widely cited. See Amy Henderson, “Cataloguing the Eighteenth-Century French Porcelain Collection of the Walters Art Museum,” The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 60/61 (2002/2003): 66. Dauterman also identifies Boucher’s Hearing as Dodin’s source “without a doubt.” See Dauterman, “Chinoiserie Motifs,” 478.

[13] The instruments look more European than Asian, though they seem to combine elements of both traditions. The bells, for example, resemble Western church bells instead of Chinese bronze bianzhong . The cymbals differ from Chinese gongs, and the mallets look like those for a xylophone or marimba. The Greek lyre is comparable to a Chinese ruan or yuqin , round in shape; the small European lute could perhaps reference a Chinese sanxian or pipa . Thanks to Shelley Zhang for these insights. Other evidence for mixing European with Asian imagery is in Boucher’s Taste , where the melon featured could reference either a French cantaloupe (Cavaillon melon) or Chinese watermelon.

[14] As for the woman-infant pair, Richard E. Strassberg has traced them to the Chinese print Ermian (Second Molting) in Jiao Bingzhen, Yuzhi gengzhi tu (Beijing: Wuyingdian, 1696), plate 25. Strassberg, “War and Peace: Four Intercultural Landscapes,” in China on Paper: European and Chinese works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century , ed. Marcia Reed and Paola Demattè (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2011), 90–93.

[15] This Berlin Porcelain Factory set features Boucher’s Touch , Smell , Hearing , and Sight . Thanks to Yao-Fen You and the Cooper Hewitt Decorative Arts department. 

[16] See Robert Boyle, Experiments and considerations touching colours (London, 1664) and the satirical account of touching and smelling color in Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Editions, 2012), 233. See also William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty , ed. Ronald Paulson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).

[17] Adrienne Ward, Pagodas in Play: China on the Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera Stage (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2010).

[18] Sarah Cohen and Downing A. Thomas, “Art and the Senses: Experiencing the Arts in the Age of Sensibility,” in A Cultural History of the Senses: In the Age of Enlightenment , ed. Anne C. Vila, vol. 4 (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 183. Dauterman, 480.

[19] See, for example, the designs of corporal punishment in John Stalker and George Parker, Treatise of Japanning (London, 1688), and the continuation of this theme in George H. Mason, The Punishments of China (London, 1801).

[20] Eric Hayot, The Hypothetical Mandarin: Sympathy, Modernity, and Chinese Pain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 28, 96.

[21] Another good example of allegorical Chinese figures is Jean-Baptiste Pillement’s series representing the twelve months of the year, etched with engravings by Pierre-Charles Canot (1710–1777) in 1759. See Maria Gordon-Smith, “The Influence of Jean Pillement on French and English Decorative Arts. Part One,” Artibus et Historiae 21, no. 41 (2000): 171–96. And “Part Two,” Artibus et Historiae 21, no. 42 (2000): 119–63.

[22] Edmund Burke, Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful , ed. Adam Phillips (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). Burke’s text was first published in 1757.

[23] Claude-Nicolas Le Cat, A physical essay on the senses. Translated from the French (London, 1750), 9, Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Gale document number CW3307300127.

[24] For the Romantic discussions of symbol and allegory, including Schelling’s theory that “[m]usic is an allegorizing art, painting schematizes, the plastic arts are symbolic,” see F. W. J. Schelling, The Philosophy of Art , trans. Douglas W. Stott (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), 48. Schelling’s Die Philosophie der Kunst was first published in 1859. See also Nicholas Halmi, The Genealogy of the Romantic Symbol (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). For other accounts that prioritize symbol over allegory, see Samuel T. Coleridge, Lay Sermons , ed. R. J. White (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1972).

[25] William Chambers, A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (Dublin, 1773), 50, ECCO, Gale document number CW3315440113. 

[26] Jonathan Hay, Sensuous Surfaces: The Decorative Object in Early Modern China (London: Reaktion Books, 2010), 81.

[27] Richard Graves, “On Mrs. C—R—Y’s Villa, at Hampstead, 1760,” in Euphrosyne: or, Amusements on the Road of Life (London, 1776), 124, ECCO, Gale document number CW3315657514.

[28] From “What is good taste?” Published text of Associated TV Broadcast, December 1, 1958. Quoted in Rosalind Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain (London: Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 1988), vol. 1: 162, 43n.

[29] Eugenia Zuroski Jenkins, A Taste for China: English Subjectivity and the Prehistory of Orientalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 63. David Porter, The Chinese Taste in Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 3. 

[30] David Porter, Ideographia: The Chinese Cipher in Early Modern Europe (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), 196. See also Porter, “Monstrous Beauty: Eighteenth-Century Fashion and the Aesthetics of the Chinese Taste,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 35, no. 3 (Spring 2002): 395–411, www.jstor.org/stable/30054206.

[31] Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences , vol. 2 (London, 1728), 573, ECCO, Gale document number CW3306297715.

[32] In this instance, Buffon refers to a bat as half bird, half quadruped. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Barr’s Buffon. Buffon’s Natural history containing a theory of the earth, a general history of man, of the brute creation, and of vegetables [. . .], 10 vols. (London, 1792), 6:240, ECCO, Gale document number CW107327418.

[33] John Hill, Exotic botany illustrated [. . .] (London, 1759), 8. 

[34] Walpole to Bentley,  July 5, 1755, in The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence , ed., W. S. Lewis, vol. 35 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973), 233. 

[35] John Shebbeare, Letters on the English nation: by Batista Angeloni, a Jesuit, who resided many years in London , vol. 2 (London, 1755), 261–62, ECCO, Gale document number CW3305076526.

[36] A collection of modern fables ([London?], 1771), 160, ECCO, Gale document number CW3324543212.

[37] William Chambers, Designs for Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils (London, 1757), 15. 

[38] In animal husbandry, as well, the importation of Chinese pigs transformed English breeds. Sam White, “From Globalized Pig Breeds to Capitalist Pigs: A Study in Animal Cultures and Evolutionary History,” Environmental History 16, no. 1 (January 2011): 94–120, https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emq143.

[39] George Colman, The Connoisseur , October 8, 1754, 536, ECCO, Gale document number CW3317196980.

[40] Shebbeare, Letters , 261. See also Marie-Hélène Huet, Monstrous Imagination (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). 

[41] Augustus II had built the first successful Western porcelain factory in 1709 near Dresden, at Meissen; his porcelain zoo was never completed but his modeler Johann Joachim Kaendler did complete five hundred works before the project was discontinued by 1740. Samuel Wittwer, The Gallery of Meissen Animals: Augustus the Strong’s Menagerie for the Japanese Palace in Dresden (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).  

[42] Anne Anlin Cheng, Ornamentalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), ix.

[43] Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1979), 10; Cheng, Ornamentalism , 24, 18. 

[44] Jonathan Hay, Sensuous Surfaces .

[45] Stacey Sloboda, Chinoiserie: Commerce and Critical Ornament in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014), 9, 3. See also Sloboda, “Surface Contact, Decoration in the Chinese Taste,” in Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West , ed. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Ning Ding (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015): 248–63.

[46] The slipperiness between the ornamental and the oriental was acknowledged already in the late eighteenth century by Horace Walpole, who lambasted the Asia-mania of the moment. In his comparison of works by his contemporaries William Chambers and William Jones, he punned, “[although Chambers’s book] was advertised by the title of ornamental gardening, instead of oriental, I think Mr Jones’s is a blunder of oriental for ornamental, for it is very flowery, and not at all Eastern.” Walpole refers to William Chambers, Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (Dublin, 1773) and William Jones, Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages. Walpole to Mason, May 25, 1772, in The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence , ed. W. S Lewis, vol. 28 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1955), 35–36.

[47] Chambers, Chinese Buildings , 15–16; Marc-Antoine Laugier, An Essay on the Study and Practice of Architecture (London, 1756), 264, ECCO, Gale document number CW3307947073 (my emphasis).

[48] Katie Scott, “Playing Games with Otherness: Watteau’s Chinese Cabinet at the Château de la Muette,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 66 (2003): 210, 191.

[49] Partha Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters: History of European Reactions to Indian Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977).

[50] Chi-ming Yang, Performing China: Virtue, Commerce, and Orientalism in Eighteenth-Century England, 1660–1760 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).

[51] Vincenzo Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi (Venice, 1660), 377.

[52] Partha Mitter identifies two sources for the image: a 1553 Jesuit report on Shiva as viewed in a temple, and a 1560 sighting of Ganesha in Goa. Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters , 28–29.

[53] The elephant-head boy appears in other books on monsters, including Ulisse Aldrovandti, Monstrorum Historia (1642) and Fortuno Liceti, De Monstrorum Caussis, Natura, et Differentiis Libri Duo (1634). Others included a humanoid with an elephant proboscis known as the Monster of Krakow. See Ambroise Paré, Des monstres et prodigies (1573); Pierre Boaistuau, Histoire Prodigieuses (1560); Sebastian Münster, Cosmographia (1544).

[54] On the rhinoceros first imaged by Albrecht Dürer in 1515 and reproduced in countless books, see Brian Cumming, “Pliny’s Literate Elephant and the Idea of Animal Language in Renaissance Thought,” in Renaissance Beasts: Of Animals, Humans, and Other Wonderful Creatures , ed. Erica Fudge (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2004), 164–85. For example, Johann Gottlieb Kirchner of the Meissen factory modeled an elephant and rhinoceros standing. See Samuel Wittwer, A Royal Menagerie: Meissen Porcelain Animals (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2001), 33.

[55] Guy Tachard, A relation of the voyage to Siam (London, 1688), 208, 213, 214, 215. Tachard was sent to Siam first in 1685 and subsequently made two visits.

[56] Nieuhof’s frontispiece to Embassy to China served as the source material for a scene in a sumptuous chinoiserie tapestry from Beauvais, “The Audience of the Emperor,” one of a six-part series, The Story of the Emperor of China. The Audience of the Emperor , 1722–23, from the series The Story of the Emperor of China, designed by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, ca. 1685–90, produced 1685–1740. See Charissa Bremer-David, Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2015), 20. See also Edith A. Standen, “The Story of the Emperor of China: A Beauvais Tapestry Series,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 11 (1976): 103–17.

[57] Jean-Baptiste du Halde, The General History of China, vol. 4 (London, 1736): 28, ECCO, Gale document number CW3300360204.

[58] Le Cat, 43.

[59] Penelope Gouk and Ingrid Sykes, “Hearing Science in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain and France,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 66, no. 4 (October 2011): 516, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrq045 .

[60] Ibid, 514.

[61] On Condillac’s Traité des sensations (1754), see Rowan Rose Boyson, “The Senses in Literature: Pleasures of Imagining in Poetry and Prose,” in Cultural History of the Senses , 168; see also Cohen and Thomas, 185. 

[62] Du Halde, 28.

[63] Du Halde, 30.

[64] See, for example, John Gay’s poem, “To a Lady on Her Passion for Old China” (1725).

[65] Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, eds., Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, etc. , 499. University of Chicago: ARTFL Encyclopédie Project (Autumn 2017 Edition), ed. Robert Morrissey and Glenn Roe, http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/ .

[66] Plate I in “ Regne Animal/ Quadrupedes ,” of Recueil de Planches sur Les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques, 3, https://artflsrv03.uchicago.edu/images/encyclopedie/V23/34.50percent.png .

[67] Christopher Plumb, “‘Strange and Wonderful’: Encountering the Elephant in Britain, 1675–1830,” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 33, no. 4 (2010): 525–43, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2010.00321.x .

[68] Donald Lach, “Asian Elephants in Renaissance Europe,” Journal of Asian History 1, no. 2 (1967): 134. 

[69] Marina Belozerskaya, “Menageries as Princely Necessities and Mirrors of Their Times,” in Oudry’s Painted Menagerie: Portraits of Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century Europe , ed. Mary Morton, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2007): 70; Louise E. Robbins, Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots: Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 46.

[70] The painting was designed after fifteenth-century engravings by Jan van der Straet. See F. Hamilton Hazlehurst, “The Wild Beasts Pursued: The Petite Galerie of Louis XV at Versailles,” The Art Bulletin 66, no. 2 (June 1984): 224–36.

[71] Sarah R. Cohen, “Animal Performance in Oudry’s Illustrations to the Fables of La Fontaine,” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 39 (2010): 44.

[72] Buffon, Barr’s Buffon , 7:272, 276. See also Anita Guerrini, “Perrault, Buffon and the Natural History of Animals,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London (December 20, 2012): 393–409.

[73] Buffon, 7:299.

[74] Buffon, 7:286, 289, 288, 263, 286, 288, 289, 291 (my emphasis).

[75] Buffon describes the “compulsory or voluntary intermixture of the negresses with the apes,” Barr’s Buffon , 9:137. See also Laura Brown’s discussion of interspecies sexual encounters imagined between apes and African women, Fables of Modernity: Literature and Culture in the English Eighteenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), 236-238. The most outspoken proponent of this racist formulation was Edward Long, The History of Jamaica. Reflections on Its Situation, Settlements, Inhabitants, Climate, Products, Commerce, Laws and Government (1774).

[76] Buffon, 7:295, 306, 267.

[77] Buffon, 7:283.

[78] Oliver Goldsmith, An history of the earth, and animated nature (London, 1779), 2:242. Goldsmith’s discussion of albino “white Negroes,” cited the case of African or American infants born fair and darkening over time to argue for the superiority of white skin, a “transparent covering to the soul.” 240–42, 232. ECCO, Gale document number CW3308527885. See also Andrew Curran, The Anatomy of Blackness: Science & Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).

[79] Buffon, 7:284.

[80] Pierre Barrère , Dissertation sur la cause physique de la couleur des nègres, de la qualité de leurs cheveux, et de la dégénération de l’un et de l’autre (Paris, 1741) ; Claude-Nicolas Le Cat, Traité de la couleur de la peau humaine en général, de celle des nègres en particulier (Amsterdam, 1765); Petrus Camper, “On the Origin and Color of Blacks” [in Dutch] (lecture, University of Groningen, November 14, 1764). See also Miriam Meijer, Race and Aesthetics in the Anthropology of Petrus Camper (1722–1789) (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999).

[81] John Mitchell, “An Essay upon the Causes of the Different Colours of People in Different Climates,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 43, no. 474 (January 1, 1744), 143, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1744.0033. See also James Delbourgo, “The Newtonian Slave body: Racial Enlightenment in the Atlantic World,” Atlantic Studies 9, no. 2 (2012): 185–207. 

[82] Meijer, Race and Aesthetics , 186, 190.

[ 83] Buffon, 301. 

[84] Kim F. Hall, Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995) , 742.

[85] Cesare Ripa, Iconologia di Cesare Ripa (Siena, 1613), as translated by and quoted in Joaneath Spicer, “The Personification of Africa with an Elephant-Head Crest in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1603) ,” in Personification: Embodying Meaning and Emotion , ed. Walter S. Melion and Bart Ramakers (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016), 680. 

[86] Spicer, “Personification of Africa,” 701, 707–8. Spicer includes a remarkable example of a sixteenth-century drawing of a Moorish African in the role of a Titan, or Son of Atlas, for a Florence masque. The Florentine Alessandro Allori designed as part of the costume a head cap that sports two elephant heads. (Their placement on either side of the head uncannily resembles the design of the Sèvres vases.) Spicer, 694. See also Frank L. Holt, Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

[87] Spicer, 701.

[88] See Max Weintraub, “Producing the Legible Body: Personification, the Beholder, and Tiepolo’s Würzburg Frescos,” in Personification , ed. Melion and Ramakers, 655–74.

[89] Along with Ripa, Flemish artists Maarten de Vos (1532‒1603) and Philips Galle (1537‒1612) helped popularize the representative animals and accoutrements of the Continents. Alex Zukas, “Class, Imperial Space, and Allegorical Figures of the Continents on Early-Modern World Maps,” Environment, Space, Place 10, no. 2 (Fall 2018): 34, 40.

[90] See Oliver Wunsch, “Rosalba Carriera’s Four Continents and the Commerce of Skin,” Journal18 Issue 10 1720 (Fall 2020), https://www.journal18.org/5218 .

[91] David Bindman, “Introduction,” in The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol . 3, From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition , Part 3: The Eighteenth Century . ed. David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 14. While some scholars caution against anachronistic readings of color-based race and racism, others argue for the historical continuity of racial constructions, even while acknowledging the instability of racial terminology in the early modern period and eighteenth century. See Roxann Wheeler, The Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2000); Ania Loomba and Jonathan Burton, Race in Early Modern England: A Documentary Companion (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Cassander L. Smith, Black Africans in the English Imagination: English Narratives of the Early Atlantic World (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2016). On the figure of the Asian “indio,” see Tatiana Seijas, Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

[92] Grace Harpster, “The Color of Salvation: The Materiality of Blackness in Alonso de Sandoval’s De instauranda Aethiopum salute ,” in Envisioning Others: Race, Color, and the Visual in Iberia and Latin America (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 101.

[93] See Harpster, 109. The quotation is from Alonso de Sandoval, Treatise on Slavery: Selections from De instauranda Aethiopum salute , trans. and ed. Nicole von Germeten (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2008), 189.

[94] Alonso de Sandoval, Un Tratado sobre la esclavitud , trans. Enriqueta Vila Vilar (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1987). See Anna More, “Jesuit Networks and the Transatlantic Slave Trade: Alonso de Sandoval’s Naturaleza, policía Sagrada y profana (1627),” in Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization, ed. Ivonne del Valle, Anna More, and Rachel O’Toole (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2020), 131–58.

[95] Benjamin Schmidt dates the personification of the Continents in the medium of porcelain to the Meissen factory figures made in the 1740s. Schmidt, “The Rearing Horse and the Kneeling Camel: Continental Ceramics and Europe’s Race to Modernity,” in Bodies and Maps , 334. In his haste to associate the allegorical figure of “Asia” with China and Chinese porcelain, though, he misidentifies the incense vessel held by the Meissen figure of Asia as a “porcelain teapot.” See Schmidt, 337, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Asia (one of a pair)” (ca. 1745‒55) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/236776 .

[96] See Michael Wintle, “Gender and Race in the Personification of the Continents in the Early Modern Period: Building Eurocentrism,” in Bodies and Maps , 57, 59. The pairing of Africa and America might also represent “egalitarian societies” as opposed to the class-based societies of Asia and Europe. See Zukas, “Class, Imperial Space, and Allegorical Figures,” 24.

[97] The black color of Africa is comprised of a high concentration of copper mixed with manganese. Winterthur Laboratory analysis AL #3220, June 28, 1993.

[98] Charmaine A. Nelson, Representing the Black Female Subject in Western Art (New York: Routledge, 2010): 176. On the racialized materials of white marble, see also Nelson’s The Color of Stone: Sculpting the Black Female Subject in Nineteenth-Century America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007).

[99] Chi-ming Yang, “Asia Out of Place: The Aesthetics of Incorruptibility in Behn’s Oroonoko, ” Eighteenth-Century Studies 42, no. 2 (2009): 235‒53.

[100] Linda Rosenfeld Shulsky, “Famille Noire and Mirror-Black: The European Taste for Black-Ground Ceramics of the Kangxi Period (1662–1722) and their Relationship to Lacquer,” in Schwartz Porcelain: The Lacquer Craze and Its Impact on European Porcelain , ed. Monika Kopplin, exh. cat., Museum für Lackkunst, Münster (Munich: Hirmer, 2004), 31–36. See also Michael Elia Yonan, “Veneers of Authority: Chinese Lacquers in Maria Theresa’s Vienna,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 37, no. 4 (2004): 652–72, https://doi.org/ 10.1353/ecs.2004.0050 .

[101] Quoted in Oliver Impey and John Whitehead, “Observations on Japanese Lacquer in the Collection of William Beckford,” in William Beckford: An Eye for the Magnificent , ed. Derek E. Ostergard (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 217. The art of reusing panels cut from Chinese or Japanese screens as a veneer in combination with European “japanning” decoration is not unlike the practice of modifying Chinese porcelain by cutting it up and mounting it with gilt bronze ornaments. Sèvres’s director Duplessis himself was engaged in this practice. See Smentek, “Global Circulations” and Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelains and the Allure of the East (New York: The Frick Collection, 2007).

[102] Francis J. B. Watson, “Beckford, Mme. de Pompadour, the Duc de Bouillon and the Taste for Japanese Lacquer in Eighteenth-Century France,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6, no. 61 (1963): 107. See also Oliver R. Impey and Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, “The Japanese connection: French eighteenth-century furniture and export lacquer,” Apollo 139, no. 383 (January 1994): 48–61. The exorbitant prices of the lacquer were due both to shortages of imports from Japan and the difficulty of replicating this material in Europe. 

[103] The cabinet was designed by Jean-Guillaume Moitte and made by Adam Weisweiler. See Impey and Whitehead, “Japanese Lacquer,” 220.

[104] Adrienne L. Childs, “Sugar Boxes and Blackamoors: Ornamental Blackness in Early Meissen Porcelain,” in The Cultural Aesthetics of Eighteenth-Century Porcelain, ed. Alden Cavanaugh and Michael E. Yonan (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 160. See also Cyra Levenson, Chi-ming Yang, Ken Gonzales-Day, “Haptic Blackness: The Double Life of an 18th-Century Bust,” British Art Studies 1 (November 2015), https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-01/harwood .

[105] Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, “The Reign of Magots and Pagods,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 37 (2002): 186. Lacquered bronzes were a specialty of the Martin brothers in Paris, who patented a recipe for gum copal varnish in 1730. This was a part of the imitation lacquer trend known as “japanning” in English and “vernis Martin” in French. See also dark Asians cast in bronze, such as the pair of chinoiserie sugar casters painted by Guillaume Martin, formerly owned by Madame de Pompadour and now at the Getty Museum ( Pair of Decorative Bronzes [88.DH.127]). For more on vernis Martin, see Marianne Webb, Lacquer: Technology and Conservation: A Comprehensive Guide to the Technology and Conservation of Asian and European Lacquer (Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000).

[106] See Jean-François Lozier, “Red Ochre, Vermilion, and the Transatlantic Encounter,” in The Materiality of Color: The Production, Circulation, and Application of Dyes and Pigments, 1400–1800 , ed. Andrea Feeser, Maureen Daly Goggin, and Beth Fowkes Tobin (London: Routledge, 2016), 124. On eighteenth-century citations of hand whitening see Richard Corson, Fashions in Makeup: From Ancient to Modern Times (London: Peter Owen, 2003) , 188–192, 254 .

[107] Wedgwood to Bentley, December 20, 1772, cited in Neil McKendrick, “Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley: An Inventor-Entrepreneur Partnership in the Industrial Revolution,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 14 (1964): 29, https://doi.org/10.2307/3678942 .

[108] See Catherine Molineux’s discussion of Black servitude in Faces of Perfect Ebony: Encountering Atlantic Slavery in Imperial Britain (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 51. 

[109] For a discussion of how dress influenced décor and furniture upholstery, see John Cornforth, Early Georgian Interiors (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).

[110] For a study of enslaved subjects’ use of fashion in the eighteenth-century Latin American context, see Tamara J. Walker, Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

[111] Robert Lugo is quoted in Cara Ober, “Criticality and Ceramics at The Walters,” Bmore Art , July 2, 2018, https://bmoreart.com/2018/07/criticality-and-ceramics-at-the-walters.html . In the installation Garniture (2018), Lugo placed Slave Ship Potpourri Boat along with four of his other pieces on a mantelpiece at the Walters’ 1 West Mount Vernon Place. The mantelpiece garniture memorialized Black historical figures, including Juanita Jackson Mitchell (1913–1992), the first African American woman to practice law in Maryland, and Sybby Grant, who worked as an enslaved cook in the 1860s at 1 West Mount Vernon Place, then the mansion of Dr. John Hanson Thomas, a Confederate sympathizer.

[112] Cheryl Finley, Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018), 123.

[113] Nelson, Representing the Black Female Subject , 181.

[114] Cheng, Ornamentalism , 141.

[115] See E. R. Cho and Chi-ming Yang, “Looping the Now: A Conversation on Film, Race, and Queer Desire,” Asian Diasporic Visual cultures and the Americas 4 (2018): 351–69.

The Materiality of Porcelain and the Interpretation of Ceramic Art

Michael yonan.

• Other Volumes

Chi-ming Yang

China in the Imagination of Edo-Period Kyoto: A Lotus-Shaped Vase from the Walters Art Museum

Sonia coman.

Important Gathering of Curators of Art of the Americas Convened at The Walters in May 2019

Ellen hoobler.

“Meek and Sitting upon an Ass”: A Newly Acquired Medieval Palmesel

Christine sciacca and angela elliott.

The Allusive Power of the Holy Kinship in an Enamel Portrait of Marguerite de Navarre

Hannah prescott.

Reading and Displaying Monograms on Byzantine Signet Rings

Brad hostetler.

The Art of Knowing When (Not) to Wet Your Whistle: Multidisciplinary Research into the Use of a Sicán Whistling Vessel in the Museum Context

Ellen hoobler and sonia matheus.

Remarkable Design and Restoration: Investigations into a Pair of Sèvres Elephant-Head Vases

Angela elliott.

A Chinese Porcelain Ewer with Jeweled Ottoman Mounts

Gregory bailey.

Courtship on the Tombstone of Antaios Meilesios

Lisa anderson-zhu.

Volume 70–71

Volume 68-69

Human Body Essay

Introduction.

It is surprising to see how a human body functions with maximum capability. Whether we are talking, walking or seeing, there are distinct parts in our body that are destined to perform a particular function. The importance of each part is discussed in this human body essay. When we feel tired, we often take a rest and lie down for a moment. But our body continues to work, even when we take a break. Even if you are tired, your heart will not stop beating. It pumps blood and transports nutrients to your body.

The human body is made up of many parts and organs that work together to sustain life in our body. No organ or body part is more important than the other, and if you ignore one of them, then the whole body will be in pain. So, let us teach the significance of different parts of the body to our children through this essay on human body parts in English. To explore other exciting content for kids learning , head to our website.

Different Systems in the Human Body

The human body looks very simple from the outside with hands, legs, face, eyes, ears and so on. But, there is a more complex and significant structure inside the body that helps us to live. The human body is made up of many small structures like cells, tissues, organs and systems. It is covered by the skin, beneath which you could find muscles, veins, and blood. This structure is formed on the base of a skeleton, which consists of many bones. All these are arranged in a specific way to help the body function effectively. In this human body essay, we will see the different systems in the human body and their functions.

The circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system and nervous system are the main systems of the human body. Each system has different organs, and they function together to accomplish several tasks. The circulatory system consists of organs like the heart, blood and blood vessels, and its main function is to pump blood from the heart to the lungs and carry oxygen to different parts of the body.

Next, we will understand the importance of the respiratory system through this human body essay in English. The respiratory system enables us to breathe easily, and it includes organs like the lungs, airways, windpipe, nose and mouth. While the digestive system helps in breaking down the food we eat and gives the energy to work with the help of organs like the mouth, food pipe, stomach, intestines, pancreas, liver, and anus, the nervous system controls our actions, thoughts and movements. It mainly consists of organs like the brain, spinal cord and nerves.

All these systems are necessary for the proper functioning of the human body, which is discussed in this essay on human body parts in English. By inculcating good eating habits, maintaining proper hygiene and doing regular exercises, we can look after our bodies. You can refer to more essays for kids on our website.

Frequently Asked Questions on Human Body Essay

Why should we take care of our bodies.

Most of the tasks we do like walking, running, eating etc., are only possible if we have a healthy body. To ensure we have a healthy body, all the systems must function properly, which is determined by our lifestyle and eating habits. Only a healthy body will have a healthy mind, and hence, we must take good care of our bodies.

What are some of the body parts and their functions?

We see with our eyes, listen with our ears, walk with our legs, touch with our hands, breathe through our nose and taste with our tongue.

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