- 期刊
- OpenAccess
亞洲象－阿沛性別判定之分析
A Study on the Gender Determination in a Famous Asian Elephant, A-Pei
摘要
本研究乃利用亞洲象骨骼結構與骨盆部位的測量分析，作為性別判斷的依據。亞洲象林旺與馬蘭，是臺灣家喻戶曉的圈養大象，而亞洲象林旺與阿沛，更是隨著孫立人將軍部隊，在二次世界大戰之後從緬甸戰區，輾轉播遷來到臺灣。阿沛很早就因病死亡，長久以來體型嬌小的阿沛經常被認為是雌象，且與林旺為一對夫妻。然而藉由在國立臺灣博物館，三隻亞洲象展示的機會，本研究進行骨骼觀察與骨盆測量分析，從骨盆測量所獲得的骨盆口寬度與長度指數，阿沛的骨盆較小，但是並沒有明顯偏向雌性的特徵。雌性亞洲象門齒會萎縮或終生不長出，在1951年即因病死亡的阿沛，亞成年階段即長有門齒，因此判定亞洲象阿沛，實為一隻年輕的公象。
並列摘要
The gender determination of Asian elephants have been conducted by the analysis of their skeletal structures and pelvic girdles. The Asian elephants 'Lin-Wang' and 'Ma-Lan' are well-known captive elephants in Taiwan. The Asian elephants 'Lin-Wang' and 'A-Pei' were also relocated from the Burmese battlefield to Taiwan with the army of General Sun Li-ren after World War II. 'A-Pei' died of illness very young. For a long time, 'A-Pei', who was petite, was often identified as a female elephant and considered as the wife of 'Lin-Wang'. However, with the opportunity of displaying three Asian elephants side by side at the National Taiwan Museum, this study conducted bone observation and pelvic measurement analysis. The both ratio of pelvic aperture height and ratio of pelvic aperture width showed that the A-Pei's pelvis was small but did not obviously biased towards female characteristics. In general, the female Asian elephant's incisor/tusk will shrink or will not grow out for life. 'A-Pei', who had incisor teeth in its alveolar cavity. Therefore, it was judged that the Asian elephant 'A-Pei' was actually a young male elephant.