Elephants life cycle has a lot of things in common to the life cycle of a human. Here we look into some of the things that are alike, and some that are not. It will shock you when you see what some of them are.

First thing that we can note that happens with elephants are that they tend to live in small, family type of groups that have the old females heading them. Depending on the abundance of food in the area that they are residing, some of the groups can join together. If this happens though the males will tend to stick to being around other males and the females will associate with other females. Although quite different in one respect, this is very similar when you think of the way that teenagers are. They too tend to hang out in their perspective groups the majority of the time.

However, during a certain time frame the males will enter a period that is called "musth" and will release a fluid that is thicker than the one that is released normally. Musth is generally the time that reproduction occurs, both in the wild or in tamed environments.

Once the male and the female elephant have mated, we will find that the female elephant will carry the fetus for a very lengthy gestation period. The period of time that this can last ranges from 18 - 22 months in length. The world would be a whole lot less populated if this is what humans had to go through to have their young.

When it comes to the life cycle of an elephant, we learn that the female elephant is in a state of pregnancy for anywhere from 18 - 22 months. This is the longest of any mammal on earth. When they have the baby, it weighs over 200 lbs. The baby elephant will use their mouth to get milk from their mother, and continue to nurse for quite some time. The baby elephants can take a long time when it comes to weaning and often they are weaned off due to their mother being unable to tolerate the pokes from the tusks that they have developing.

Continuing through the elephants life cycle we find that the female elephant will continue to have young until they are around 50 years of age. Keep in mind that they are unable to get impregnated again before a minimum 2 years and 6 months after giving birth, and sometimes this can extend to 4 years. Humans do not have to wait this long at all if they do not want to.

As an elephant ages they also are found to develop some of the diseases that are common to humans as they get older. Arthritis and cardiovascular ailments are two in particular that they can find to have as they age. But as we continue through elephants life cycle we see that this does not hinder the length of time that they live. Many of them live until they are at least 70 years old. There are some that die earlier, but a lot of this could be prevented as many of them are killed by illegal poaching that is done in the areas that they live.

Elephants life cycle has a lot of things in common to the life cycle of a human. Here we look into some of the things that are alike, and some that are not. It will shock you when you see what some of them are.

About the Author
Find more information on elephants and the fascinating world of their life cycle on Andrew Keets website about these wonderful animals.