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Indian Elephant

Elephants eat tall grasses, but the portion consumed varies with season. When the new growth appears in April, they remove the tender blades in small clumps. Later in the year, when the grasses are higher than 0.5m they uproot entire clumps, dust them skilfully and consume the fresh leave tops, but discard the roots. When grasses are mature in autumn, they clean and consume the succulent basal portions with the roots and discard the fibrous blades. From bamboo they eat seedlings, culms and lateral shoots. During the dry season from January to April, they mainly browse on both leaves and twigs preferring the fresh foliage, and consume thorn bearing shoots of acacia species without any obvious discomfort. They feed on the bark of white thorn and other flowering plants and consume the fruits of wood apple, tamarind, kumbhi and date palm.

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Uploaded on June 1, 2016
Taken on December 3, 2015