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Animals

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African Elephant

Loxodonta africana

African elephants are the largest of
Earth's land mammals. Their enormous ears help them to keep
cool in the hot African climate.

Photograph by Beverly
Joubert

African Elephant Profile

African elephants are the largest land animals on
Earth. They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins
and can be identified by their larger ears that look
somewhat like the continent of Africa. (Asian elephants
have smaller, rounded ears.)

Elephant ears
radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but
sometimes the African heat is too much. Elephants are
fond of water and enjoy showering by sucking water into
their trunks and spraying it all over themselves.
Afterwards, they often spray their skin with a
protective coating of dust.

An elephant's trunk
is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing,
trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing
things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone
contains about 100,000 different muscles. African
elephants have two fingerlike features on the end of
their trunk that they can use to grab small items.
(Asian elephants have one.)

Both male and female
African elephants have tusks they use to dig for food
and water and strip bark from trees. Males use the tusks
to battle one another, but the ivory has also attracted
violence of a far more dangerous sort.

Because
ivory is so valuable to some humans, many elephants have
been killed for their tusks. This trade is illegal
today, but it has not been completely eliminated, and
some African elephant populations remain
endangered.

Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit,
and bark, and they eat a lot of these things. An adult
elephant can consume up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of
food in a single day.

These hungry animals do not
sleep much, and they roam over great distances while
foraging for the large quantities of food that they
require to sustain their massive bodies.

Female
elephants (cows) live in family herds with their young,
but adult males (bulls) tend to roam on their
own.

Having a baby elephant is a serious
commitment. Elephants have a longer pregnancy than any
other mammal—almost 22 months. Cows usually give birth
to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants
already weigh some 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and stand
about 3 feet (1 meter) tall.

African elephants,
unlike their Asian relatives, are not easily
domesticated.

Fast Facts

Type: Mammal

Diet: Herbivore

Average lifespan in the wild: Up to
70 years

Size: Height at the shoulder, 8.2
to 13 ft (2.5 to 4 m)

Weight: 5,000 to 14,000 lbs (2,268
to 6,350 kg)

Group name: Herd

Protection status: Threatened

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m)
man:

Multimedia

Photo
Gallery: Elephants

African Elephant Printable Factsheet

Video:
Elephants Mourning

Elephant Features

Elephants
at Risk

They are among the most recognizable creatures on
Earth, but elephants are under threat in most of their
range from poaching, habitat loss, and human
encroachment.

Learn
More

Africa's
Eden

Read how an African president created 13 new national
parks in an effort to save Gabon's wilderness from the
logger's ax in this multimedia feature.

Learn
More

Preying
on Giants

Learn why some lions in Botswana have broken their
customary truce with elephants in this feature.

Learn
More

Elephant
Weightlifting Game

How many bananas can you lift without toppling over?

Play
Game

How You Can Help Save Elephants

San
Diego Zoo: Wild Animal Park/Swaziland Elephant
Project

World
Wildlife Fund: Elephants

Save the
Elephants

Wildlife
Conservation Society: Elephants

Other Large Animals

Asian
Elephant

Blue
Whale

Hippopotamus

White
Rhinoceros

Black
Rhinoceros

Indian
Rhinoceros

African Elephant range

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