Elephants

June 9th, 2008

Elephants are mammals they are also the largest land animal! When fully grown at 25years they are the 2^nd tallest animal after the giraffe. There are two different types one of them is the African elephant and the other is the Asian elephant. They both can live up to be 65 years old!

An elephant has the best memory that can sometimes last up to when they were born! Their small brown eyes are protected by big giant eyelashes. They have very good eyesight but are colour blind. Their wrinkly grey skin is 2-4cm thick. They have very sensitive skin and the wrinkles keep them cool. They keep them cool because the trapped water evaporates slowly and then starts to cool them down. They have all different ears kind of like the human hand print. Their ears are very good at hearing. The trunk is the most important sense of all. The trunk is the elephant’s nose so they can breath out of it like us. But unlike us humans the elephant picks up its food and sucks up liquid using its trunk. Their tusks are really their teeth and continually keep growing until they are 1.5 metres long. They weigh about 45 kilograms. They are made out of a hard creamy-white substance called ivory. Their tusks are useful for things like digging, fighting, feeding and lifting.

The African elephant is the biggest elephant at 2-4 meters tall and can weigh 7500 kilograms. Both females and males have tusks. The Asian elephant has smaller ears and the upper edge is curled forward. They are endangered and only the male has tusks.

Elephants live in all sorts of places like in the dessert, safaris, mountains, tropical forests, Africa, India and Southern Asia. They live in family groups called herds and they all protect the young. They have short naps for 2-4 hours a day. They can sleep standing or lying. Elephants are herbivores and in the wild they eat things like grasses, leaves, roots and shoots. They usually eat for about 20 hours and eat up to 250-330 kg a day. In captivity they eat hay, oats, potatoes and some meat.

Elephants communicate to each other by trunk touch each other, make noises like a trumpet sound, a bellow, a cry and a snort. When an elephant is in danger they flap their ears against their head and then the herd gathers. They are endangered because of ivory poachers and forests being cut down. Elephants are very good swimmers. When they are under the water they use their trunks as a snorkel!