Animals of Toyota Elephant Passage
Asian Elephant
The most distinctive feature of an elephant is its amazing multifunctional trunk. The trunk enables the elephant to breathe, locate scents and drink. It also allows the elephant to seize and manipulate objects from a small twig to a large tree branch. The trunk is also used to make sounds, greet or comfort other elephants, guide a calf and even to snorkel when swimming.
Greater one-horned Rhinoceros
Large mammals like rhinos, hippos and elephants live in hot climates, and because of their size, can easily overheat. Greater one-horned rhinos feed early and late in the day when it’s cooler, but spend the hot midday in mud wallows and wetlands. By submerging themselves until the heat passes, they keep cool.
Malayan Tapirs
The black on the front and back with white or gray in the middle is a form of camouflage that breaks up the tapir’s outline in the shadows of the forest. Their vulnerable babies are born with stripes and spots to help them blend into the dappled sunlight and leaf shadows of the forest and protect them from predators.
Gibbons
Forget the monkey bars -– they should be called “gibbon bars!” These apes are the only true brachiators, spending the majority of their travel time swinging effortlessly through the trees. What’s the secret to their success? Their long, strong arms -– the longest of all primates at more than 2 and a half times their body length.
Clouded Leopard
Clouded leopards are well adapted for living in the trees. Their short, flexible legs, large feet and sharp, retractable claws make them adept in the trees. Their long tail provides balance as they leap from branch to branch. Their arboreal lifestyle also provides protection from larger predators like tigers and leopards.
Fishing Cat
Fishing cats attract fish by lightly tapping the water’s surface with a paw mimicking insect movement. They then dive into the water to catch the fish that come near. Because their claws do not fully retract, they use their claws like fishing hooks to spear the slippery fish.
Flying Fox
Bats are the only true flying mammals. Like birds, bats have lightweight bones and small bodies. A bat's wing is really its hand. Delicate arm and finger bones form the framework for their wings. Unlike birds that have wings covered with feathers, bats have a double layer of skin that stretches between the side of the body and four elongated fingers on each hand.
Sarus Crane
Before mating, paired cranes engage in intensive periods of elaborate dance moves that include head bobbing, leaping, deep bowing, running with wings flapping and short ritual flights accompanied by loud trumpeting calls. Juvenile birds engage in "social dancing" that helps develop pair bonds. Even downy chicks mimic the adult dance moves!
Asian Small-Clawed Otter
These otters have very short claws that do not extend past the fleshy pads of their partly webbed toes making their forepaws very dexterous. They forage with their sensitive paws to locate prey in murky water or mud. They also have stiff whiskers called "vibrissae" that can detect the movement of prey in the water. They catch prey with their paws not with their mouths like other otters.
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