86 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
ef a male. A baby elephant, as I have already 
written, weighs approximately two hundred pounds 
at birth and stands thirty-six inches high. It suckles 
from six to nine months. The breasts of the female 
are located just back of the fore legs, and the baby 
runs its trunk up along its mother’s side while nurs- 
ing. Its next food is fruit and the tenderest bam- 
boo shoots. It is very fond of sugar. It grows at 
the rate of one inch a month up to its third year 
and attains its full growth, but not maturity, at 
about twenty-five. The age of an elephant is told 
largely by the ears; an old animal has ragged ears 
and sunken cheeks. The height of an elephant is 
almost exactly twice the distance around its foot. 
A herd of elephants is invariably led by the fe- 
males, perhaps because they are the more alert to 
catch the least sign of danger. If the herd is put 
to flight, the males take the lead, breaking through 
the jungle and making a trail for the females and 
young. An elephant never goes around things; he 
either pushes them to one side or goes straight 
through. He is very sure-footed and, on anything 
that looks doubtful, he will never step without first 
putting out a foot and trying it. For that reason, 
it requires some skill to build a pit-trap that will 
not attract attention. A pit-trap is practically use- 
less, however, because the elephant is invariably 
injured in the fall; it allows the capture of the baby, 
in the case of females, but at the cost of the good, 
full-grown animal. Wild elephants, grazing in a 
