Makuubi Elephant

One of the great beasts of the shores of the Mekub, and the surrounding plains, Makuubi elephants can be differentiated from other elephants by their various adaptations to semiaquatic life. Uncommonly good swimmers with particularly long trunks and slightly splayed feet, the elephants of the Mekub also grow to exceptional size.

The elephant is the largest animal known to the Mekub region, and is common in Makuubi symbology and heraldry. Many princes take the elephant as their sigil, and the wealthiest ones even have elephants of their own. However, the great expense of keeping elephants prohibits most practical use of the beasts, as merely feeding an elephant would be enough to ruin most families.

Basic Information

Ecology and Habitats

Elephants are herbivores, and those of the Mekub are no different. However, Makuubi elephants are especially known for foraging for food underwater, and often eat river grasses and kelp. They can mainly be found on the coasts of the lake, and generally do not stray especially far from the lake or its tributary rivers. Despite the semiaquatic nature of Makuubi elephants, they do still spend most of their time on land.

Additional Information

Domestication

The Makuubi have some understanding of elephant domestication, and kept elephants are not unknown to region. While harnessing the power of elephants for labor has occasionally been attempted, the costs of keeping and feeding an elephant tend to be prohibitive compared to simply using the much smaller but still extremely powerful ox also found on the Makuubi grasslands.

Particularly wealthy princes keep elephants to draw their pleasure barges in the harbors of their home cities. On occasion, the princes have also used elephants for riding, though as Makuubi elephants are somewhat clumsier on land than their eastern counterparts, this has only been an occasional curiosity. Riding elephants to war has also been attempted by some princes, but has never become a mainstay of Makuubi aristocratic fighting.