The African Elephant

Africa is a land of giants. The biggest of them is the African elephant. An adult male is much larger than the adult female. Head and body length including trunk: 19-24 feet. (7.3meters) Shoulder height: 10-13 feet.(3.9meters) Weight: 5.5 - 7 tons. Tail: 4 feet.

Male elephants differ from their female counterparts in that males have an evenly sloping forehead while females have a sharper angle between the forehead and the top of the head.

Elephants have an inefficient digestive system and digest only about 40 per cent of what they eat. They are also mixed feeders, combining browse (leaves and twigs) and grass in their diet. They eat enormously. Estimates in the wild range from 100-1000 pounds of vegetation per day (a 16 hour period).

The African elephant is a destructive eater, uprooting and scattering as much as is eaten, often breaking down whole trees. Elephants eat almost anything green, but green grass, shoots and buds of trees and shrubs are preferred. Farms are often raided for fruits and vegetables of all types. Average daily consumption of water for full-grown animals is between 30 and 50 gallons.

Elephants live in a complex matriarchal society normally composed of 8 to 15 related members and led by a dominant cow. Three or four generations of cows and calves spend their entire lives together with the exception of males, who leave the group at puberty. Groups of related families stay in fairly close range of each other and communicate often; these are called “kin groups”. In times of danger, kin groups will mass and form “clans” of 200 or more.

Elephants live up to 70 years. By this age the last set of teeth wear out.

An elephants skull if it where made of solid bone would be too heavy even for this huge beast to carry around. The majority of the skull is honeycombed with sinuses which minimize the weight of the skull.

Tusks are elongated second upper incisors and grow throughout the elephant’s lifetime.

The trunk is an elongation of the nose and upper lip; in adults it contains 150,000 muscles. It is used for eating, drinking, dust and water bathing, as well as communication. An elephant’s sense of smell is highly sophisticated and elephants have often been seen locating underground water by smelling the earth above.

Elephants have poor Vision. Long lashes and thick eye lids protect the eyes from dust. Hearing is acute. Recent studies have established that elephants use infrasound which is a tone lower than humans can hear for long-range communication. Ears are also used to control body temperature; blood circulating through the large vessels in the ears is cooled by flapping.