Video Description: Sarah, a white bespectacled woman with black hair in a half ponytail, is sitting in a maroon chair in front of a blue background. She is wearing a long black sleeve shirt. She gives a lesson in ASL about elephants: their eating/socialization habits, statistics, and geographical facts.
Transcript: Hello! Welcome to this week’s ASL lesson pertaining to elephants. I’m Sarah *exhibits name sign* I will be teaching you everything there is to learn about elephants. I’m really excited because elephants are one of my favorite animals. I think they’re quite unique. Hopefully by the end of this lesson the feeling will be mutual— elephants will become your favorite too! Ready to dive in the lesson and absorb content all about elephants? Yes, you’re ready! Let’s do it.
See that? Where do elephants come from? The North Pole? No. The South Pole? No. America? No. They are from Asia and Africa. It is important noting that they are the largest land mammal. Wow! Imagine that.
African elephants are the biggest type of elephants. Both males and females have tusks. Tusks are white protuberances on elephants’ faces. Both males and females have this. African elephants can reach 11 feet height wise. I suggest getting out tape to measure how tall 11 feet is. Go ahead and do that!
African elephants weigh 6 tons. That’s akin to a semi truck. You know, those huge trucks with lots of wheels. They both weigh about the same! Wow.
They grow about 19-24 feet in length. Again, I suggest getting out a tape to measure just how big that is!How many African elephants are there in the wild? In the wild means living in their natural habitat, not in zoos. See that number? 415,000 living in the wild. Some Asian elephants have tusks. Some males grow tusks. Asian elephants are between 6.5 to 11.5 feet. They weigh 5.5 tons. They grow 21 feet length-wise.
How many Asian elephants left in the wild? Wow, the number is really low. Less than 50,000. Why are there so few left in the wild? It is due to human tendencies to build in animals’ natural habitats. This shrinks available space for animals to survive in. This impacts the overall population. Moving on to the next slide..
We will be discussing African elephants. African elephants live in forests and grasslands. There are two sub-species of African elephants. The two sub-species: Savannah and Forest.
During the dry season, it is hard to find water. Elephants exhibit their resourcefulness by using their tusks to dig up riverbeds to locate hidden sources of water. That’s how elephants find water during the dry season. Many animals follow elephants because they know elephants can locate water. Truly amazing.
African elephants have huge ears. Why are the ears so big? They radiate heat to keep the elephant cool. So cool. The ears are like the elephants’ personal form of air conditioning. Like how we have AC units to keep us cool. The elephants have their ears to keep them cool!
Where are Asian elephants located? Forests. Female Asian elephants are extremely sociable! On the other hand, males are loners. Babies and young elephants are part of the herd. The oldest female is the leader of the herd. There are typically six to seven elephants in a herd. Nice seeing the differences between African and Asian elephants.
Elephants eat grass, roots, bark, fruit, and vegetables. They consume 330-375 pounds of food daily!
Try using your body weight to calculate how much that is! How many yous would that be? For instance, I think that would be about five of me. Wow! Elephants travel 50 miles a day to locate food. They eat and walk a lot!
Elephants love bananas, sugar cane, and rice. They drink 40-45 liters of water in one day. Wow! I thought I drank a lot of water, but elephants have got me beat! If you want to see how much that is, look it up! I’m learning lots— hope you are too!
Another extraordinary trait elephants possess is the ability to grieve. Wow. Elephants in a herd become extremely close with one another. They have extremely long life spans—- spanning about 70 years. When a member of the herd passes, it impacts the others. They grieve the death. Wow. That is incredibly touching. It means that elephants have a great capacity for empathy.
Now we will play a guessing game. We will figure which type elephant just by looking at the picture. The picture presented has helpful tips on how to distinguish differences between Asian and African elephants. Remember that African elephants have huge ears. Asian elephants have smaller ears. Asian elephants are typically smaller. African elephants are ginormous.
Go ahead and look up pictures! Only type in “elephants” and determine which type it is just by looking at the pictures that pop up. That’s your homework!
I hope you enjoyed this lesson about elephants. They are special animals, right? Goodbye!
