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THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF VERTEBRATES

MAMMALS: Elephant

African elephant (photo by Dr. Ed Stevens)    < go to CD



African elephant (Loxodonta africana) digestive tract (Stevens & Hume 1995)



Figure 2.1.  Relationship between mass-specific metabolic rate (ml O₂/g^.h) or metabolic intensity and log of body mass for eutherian mammals ranging from 6 g shrews to 1,300-kg elephants. Note the inverse relationship between mass-specific metabolic rate and body mass. (From Schmidt-Nielsen 1984).  (CD Figure 3.1)



Figure 3.4. Skull of a South American Margay (Felis tigerina) and the mandibular tooth of an Asian elephant. The elephant tooth has a weight about equal to a telephone book, and the dark band (gingival crest) marks the separation between the root and the crown. (Contributed by David A. Fagan, The Colyer Institute, P. O. Box 26118, San Diego, CA)  (CD Figure 5.7b)



Figure 6.7.  Relationship between cell wall digestibility and mean retention time (MRT) of fiber by foregut and colon fermenters on a grass hay diet. Red circles represent foregut fermenting ruminants and camels; a) barasigha, b) eland, c) nilgae, d) wapiti, e) water buck, f) gaur, g) giraffe, h) gemsbok, i) African buffalo, j) American bison, k) dromedary camel, and l) bactrian camel. Blue circles represent colon fermenting a) Grevy’s zebra, b) mountain zebra, c) plains zebra, d) Asian tapir, e) American tapir, f) Asian wild ass, g) African elephant, h) Asian elephant, i) black rhino, j) Indian rhino, and k) white rhino. R2 = 0.66 for the ruminants and camels and 0.26 for colon fermenters. Yellow triangles represent; (1)  red kangaroos on an alfalfa diet, river hippos on an (2) alfalfa hay or (3) grass diet, and (4) sloths on a diet of Ceropia palmata foliage. Data for ruminants, camels, hippos, and colon fermenters are from Foose (1982). Data on red kangaroos are from Hume (1999) and data on the three-toed sloth are from Foley et al. (1995) and Foley (personal communication.)  (CD Figure 7.7)


Table 7-5b  (CD Table 8.6b)

Enzymatic activity is designated as + (present), trace or 0 (absent). Results in brackets indicate use of and alternate substrate. All data from adult specimens. (from Vonk and Western 1984 plus perissodactyla data from Roberts 1975)


Table 8.4  (CD Table 9.4)



Table 8.7a.  (CD Table 9.7a)

* Absorption from cecum (or ceca) alone.
Dashes indicate absence of information. Contributions of SCFA to maintenance energy were estimated from the rate of SCFA production by in vitro isotope dilution or measurements of digesta flow. Total maintenance energy was either calculated as twice the BMR or assumed to be equivalent to ad libitum digestible energy intake in captive, nonreproducing, and adult animals. (From Stevens and Hume 1995.)