51 Elephants Alive and Dead

Wild elephants live in herds of 10 to about 50. The leader is usually a female. The herd can go through a forest quietly. It travels in single file. It goes about six miles an hour. When frightened, it may run at about 25 miles an hour. When they reach water, elephants swim across. They are great swimmers.

Elephants eat grass, leaves, small branches, and bark. They especially like the tender leaves on the tops of trees. How do they get these leaves? They use their heads to knock trees down. They can easily knock down a 30-foot tree. Elephants also eat berries, mangoes, bananas, and sugar cane. They love salt. They will eat from 500 to 600 pounds of food a day.

There is a strong belief that elephants go to a graveyard. Bones and tusks of dead elephants are almost never found. Searches have been made for these graveyards. The place is known only to elephants, and perhaps other animals. But not to humans. Obviously, such a graveyard would be filled with ivory tusks. These were once very valuable. The objective of explorers was to find this “gold” mine. This graveyard belief may be a truth or a myth. But it is romantic. It would be nice if it were true.

野生大象生活在 10 到約 50 隻的大象群中。領袖通常是雌性。象群可以安靜地穿過森林，並以單行隊列行進。牠們的速度約每小時六英里。當受到驚嚇時，牠們可能以每小時約 25 英里的速度奔跑。當牠們到達水域時，大象會游過去。牠們是非常出色的游泳者。

大象吃草、樹葉、小樹枝和樹皮。牠們特別喜歡樹頂嫩葉。牠們如何取得這些葉子？牠們用頭撞倒樹木。牠們可以輕易撞倒一棵 30 英尺高的樹。大象也吃漿果、芒果、香蕉和甘蔗。牠們喜歡鹽。牠們每天會吃掉 500 到 600 磅的食物。

有一個強烈的信念認為大象會去墓地。死去的大象的骨頭和象牙幾乎從未被發現。人們曾搜尋過這些墓地。這個地方只有大象知道，也許還有其他動物，但人類不知道。顯然，這樣的墓地會充滿象牙。這些象牙曾經非常有價值。探險家的目標是找到這個「金礦」。這個墓地的信念可能是真實的，也可能是神話。但它很浪漫。如果是真的，那就太好了。