Mother Elephant and her Baby

Title: Mother Elephant and her Baby
Year: 1941
Rights
Fulltext: 194 THE YOUNG CITIZEN JtrNB, 1941 MOTHER ELEPHANT AND HER BABY ~.1· I·~~ [~ '\,,...;~. J.. .. ... ~111!..:i... ' ~ ~ ~.·,.. I 'ii: ~· ·=- . /~'.-.__:: . . 1· ···~ THE BABY ELEPHANT is called a calf. The calf is about three feet long when it is born. It is covered with tight curly hair. The calf can stand on its feet as soon as it is born. If it gets tired it leans against its mother's great legs. When a baby elephant sleeps; its mother stands over it waving her trunk bac;k and forth. The baby is four months old before it learns to raise its trunk. It will take the baby in the picture twenty-five years to grow up. The mother will not have another baby until this one is eight years old. ·~ · .. •· ' j' • 'i . .· . ··. ·. ". The mother elephant eats grass, fruits, leaves, and tender shoots. At first the baby elephant gets milk from its mother, but later it eats the same food as the older elephants. Mother Elephant and her baby both like to take a bath and-play in the water. They are not afraid to go into deep water, because they are good swimmers. Even if an elephant has its entire body below the water, it can breathe by placing its trunk up above the water. Elephants. live to be quite old. They often live to be one hundred years old or even more.