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- When an elephant gets a whiff of something interesting, it sniffs the air with its trunk raised up like a submarine periscope. If threatened, an elephant will also use its trunk to make loud trumpeting noises as a warning. Elephants are social creatures. They sometimes hug by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection.
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An adult African elephant's trunk is about seven feet (two meters) long! It's actually an elongated nose and upper lip. Like most noses, trunks are for smelling. When an elephant drinks, it sucks as much as 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water into its trunk at a time. Then it curls its trunk under, sticks the tip of its trunk into its mouth, and blows.
- There are three different species of elephant – the African Savannah elephant, the African Forest elephant and the Asian elephant. Elephants are known for their large ears, tusks made of ivory and their trunks.
- Elephants are the world’s largest land animal! Male African elephants can reach 3m tall and weigh between 4,000 -7,500kg. Asian elephants are slightly smaller, reaching 2.7m tall and weighing 3,000– 6,000kg.
- There’s an easy way to tell the African elephants apart from their Asian cousins – their ears! African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa!
- You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant.
- Description
- Teeth
- Distribution and Habitat
- Behavior and Ecology
- Threats
- Conservation
- In Culture
- Images For Kids
One species of African elephant, the bush elephant, is the largest living terrestrial animal. The forest elephant is the third-largest. Their thickset bodies rest on stocky legs, and they have concave backs. Their large ears enable them to keep cool. The upper lip and nose form a trunk. The trunk acts as a fifth limb, a sound amplifier, and an impo...
At any one time, elephants have one molar in each jaw bone (two upper, two lower). Each weighs about 11 lbs and measures about 12 inches long. As they wear away at the front, new molars emerge in the back of the mouth and gradually replace the old ones. Elephants replace their teeth six times. If it survives to 60 years of age the elephant no longe...
African elephants are distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa, where they inhabit Sahelian scrubland and arid regions, tropical rainforests, mopane and miombo woodlands. African forest elephant populations occur only in Central Africa.
Sleeping pattern
Elephants are the animals with the lowest sleep times, especially African elephants. Their average sleep was found to be only 2 hours in 24-hour cycles.
Family
Both African elephant species live in family units comprising several adult cows, their daughters and their subadult sons. Each family unit is led by an older cow known as the matriarch. African forest elephant groups are less cohesive than African bush elephant groups, probably because of the lack of predators. When separate family units bond, they form kinship or bond groups. After puberty, male elephants tend to form close alliances with other males. While females are the most active membe...
Feeding
While feeding, the African elephant uses its trunk to pluck leaves and its tusk to tear at branches, which can cause enormous damage to foliage. Fermentationof the food takes place in the hindgut, thus enabling large food intakes. The large size and hindgut of the African elephant also allows for digestion of various plant parts, including fibrous stems, bark and roots.
Both species are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and poaching for the illegal ivory trade is a threat in several range countries as well. The African bush elephant is listed as Endangered and the African forest elephant as Critically Endangered on the respective IUCN Red Lists. Based on vegetation types that provide suitable habitat f...
In 1986, the African Elephant Database was initiated with the aim to monitor the status of African elephant populations. This database includes results from aerial surveys, dung counts, interviews with local people and data on poaching. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora listed the African e...
Many African cultures revere the African elephant as a symbol of strength and power. It is also praised for its size, longevity, stamina, mental faculties, cooperative spirit, and loyalty. Its religious importance is mostly totemic. Many societies believed that their chiefs would be reincarnatedas elephants. In the 10th century, the people of Igbo-...
Comparison of bush (left) and forest (right) elephant skulls in frontal view. Note the shorter and wider head of L. cyclotis, with a concave instead of convex forehead.A female African bush elephant skeleton on display at the Museum of Osteology, Oklahoma CityAug 21, 2020 · 1) African elephants can weigh between 2200 kilograms and 6350 kilograms. 2) African elephants can grow up to three metres tall, from the ground to their shoulder. 3) African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. They have huge ears which have a shape like the continent of Africa itself.
3 days ago · An adult African elephant can weigh up to 14,000 pounds. That's about the weight of two average cars! Elephants have the longest pregnancy of any mammal, lasting about 22 months. Baby elephants, called calves, are born weighing around 200 pounds. The trunk of an African elephant has over 40,000 muscles. This versatile appendage is used for ...
Feb 19, 2018 · Their beneficial impact on biodiversity in large unfenced ecosystems and their potentially negative impact on same in fenced environments, make them a key species in Africa. Here are 17 facts about African elephants that you need to know: 1. There are about 50,000 muscles in an elephant’s trunk, made up of six muscle groups, and no bones ...
1. They’re the world’s largest land animal. The African Savanna (Bush) elephant is the world's largest land animal – with adult males, or bull elephants, standing up to 3m high and weighing up to 6,000kg on average.
