Survival skills (mastering survival skills)
In nature, many wild animal cubs are born every day. So how will a newborn animal pup protect itself? How will their mother raise them?
Life is fragile, and newborn cubs are even more fragile. After birth, they must try their best to learn various skills quickly in order to survive. Otherwise it will be eliminated.
African elephants live in tropical forests, jungles and grasslands from sea level to 5,000 meters above sea level. It is the largest land mammal in existence and has a very long lifespan, living to be 60-70 years old.
How do African elephants learn survival skills?
African elephants are pregnant for about 22 months. After the pups are born, the cubs must learn to find their feet and walk in the first few hours. Of course, in the beginning, the pup will fall to the ground because of poor control, but this is a necessary process. They have to learn to control their limbs as they fall over and over again.
Later, African elephants began to learn various survival skills from their mothers. In Africa, elephants have the longest time to learn various skills, as long as ten years or even longer. They have a lot to learn, and years of accumulation can guarantee their future life.
The brain of an adult African elephant is the largest among terrestrial mammals, and the brain of a young elephant is only half that of an adult elephant. For the first 8 years after birth, a calf is inseparable from its mother within a range of up to 5 meters. At five months, they are still learning the most basic skills, and it can be quite a challenge for the pups to coordinate their limbs.
African elephants are huge, even as young, which makes it difficult for them to control their limbs, but this has to be overcome.
What can an African elephant’s trunk do?
In the process of learning, African elephants must learn to use their noses flexibly. Their snouts are long, cylindrical and can be extended freely. Their nostrils end open and have finger-like protrusions on their snouts so they can pick up delicate objects. The elephant’s trunk is very flexible, with about 150,000 muscle fibers on it. Every time you use your nose, thousands of nerve veins are affected.
It takes a baby elephant a year to get the hang of it. At first, his nose may be out of control, but with more practice, he can use his nose freely.
Learning to use the nose is a very important project. The elephant’s trunk can pick fruit from the tree, pull grass from the ground, and send it to the mouth to eat. It can also drink water, or pick up things as small as needles on the ground. The long nose can also sniff out hundreds of meters or even further to detect danger.
Do African elephants socialize?
Every year during the rainy season, the elephants in the surrounding area will gather by the river with water. this is an important socialoccasion. Mothers will introduce their children to everyone, and baby elephants need to understand these elephants, and know which ones are bad and which ones are good by familiarizing themselves with their calls.
African elephants have big brains. Through accumulation, they will write maps of the places they have lived and visited, including the small river that they visited once as a child and never visited again.
After giving birth, mothers will try their best to educate their children and ensure their safety until the children can stand on their own.
However, some wild animals are threatened with death as soon as they are born, and it is very difficult to survive. Wildebeest, their newborn cubs must learn to run fast or be caught and eaten.
Can a wildebeest learn to survive in one day?
In the Siwa Grassland of Zambia, a large number of takins come here to give birth for three weeks every year. When they gather together, they will also attract top hunters.
The female wildebeest can give birth to cubs in about 8 months of pregnancy. The cubs are just born. It takes them 6 minutes to find their feet and 10 minutes to learn to run. After a few hours, their speed can reach 50 kilometers per hour. They have to learn to run fast because the cubs are always in danger of dying.
A newborn wildebeest cub will try to stand up first and then keep up with its mother. A wildebeest cub needs to suck to remember its mother’s scent, since most wildebeest mothers and babies look very similar.
If the cub is separated from its mother at birth, it will only rely on instinct and follow the moving things. At dusk, the appearance of cheetahs put them in danger, and then the young wildebeest were taken as prey. So, can a day-old wildebeest cub escape a cheetah?
The answer is yes, it learned to run in one day and saved it. It must have a very fast running speed to ensure that it can escape when it encounters danger.
In nature, life is very fragile, especially cubs. They need to continuously learn the skills of survival, and the learning process may be long or short. Elephants take the longest to learn. It will take at least ten years for African elephants to master survival skills and allow themselves to survive better.