Elephants
Elephants are the largest land-dwelling mammals on earth. They are brown to dark gray
in color and have long, coarse hairs sparsely covering their bodies. They have very
thick skin that keeps them cool. Elephant trunks serve as another limb. A fusion of the
nose and upper lip, the trunk may contain more than 40,000 muscles that help the
elephant use it to gather food and water. They also have large ears and thick tree-trunklike legs to support their great weight. They are 5-14 feet at shoulders (males); females
of all subspecies are smaller than males. Their trunks are up to 30 feet trunk to tail.
They weight 6,000-15,000 pounds. Their lifespan is up to 70 years.
There are two distinct species of elephants: the African elephant (genus: Loxodonta)
and the Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). There are a number of differences
between the two species – overall size, ear size, tusks and shape of the back and
forehead among others.
Elephant ears are large, thin, and full of veins. This allows blood to circulate through
them and help cool off this large mammal. When they fan their ears, they're looking to
cool off!
They eat grasses, leaves, bamboo, bark, roots. Elephants are also known to eat crops
like banana and sugarcane which are grown by farmers. Adult elephants eat 300-400
lbs of food per day.
At the turn of the 20th century, there were a few million African elephants and about
100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are an estimated 450,000 - 700,000 African
elephants and between 35,000 - 40,000 wild Asian elephants.
African savannah elephants are found in savannah zones in 37 countries south of the
Sahara Desert. African forest elephants inhabit the dense rain forests of west and
central Africa. The Asian elephant is found in India, Sri Lanka, China and much of
Southeast Asia.
Elephants form deep family bonds and live in tight matriarchal family groups of related
females called a herd. The herd is led by the oldest and often largest female in the herd,
called a matriarch. Herds consist of 8-100 individuals depending on terrain and family
size. When a calf is born, it is raised and protected by the whole matriarchal herd. Males
leave the family unit between the ages of 12-15 and may lead solitary lives or live
temporarily with other males.
Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years.
It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during dry seasons when they need to
guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember
from the past. They also display signs of grief, joy, anger and play.
Elephants don't have bones in their trunk, just muscle, and can use them with extreme
dexterity, to pick up and manipulate even very tiny items.