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. They range
throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the rain forests of central and West Africa.
The continent’s northernmost elephants are found in Mali’s Sahel desert. The
small, nomadic herd of Mali elephants migrates in a circular route through the
desert in search of water.