Childrens Illustrated Encyclopedia

184

GREAT TUSKS, huge ears,

and a strong trunk

make the elephant

one of the most

magnificent

creatures on

Earth. Elephants

are the largest

living land

mammals and

have a long fossil

history. They are extremely strong and

highly intelligent, and have been trained to

work with humans for thousands of years.

There are three kinds of elephants—African

Savanna, Forest, and Asian (Indian). African

elephants are bigger than Asian elephants,

with much larger ears. A large African

Savanna male measures up to 13 ft (4 m)

high at the shoulder and weighs up to

11 tons (10 metric tons). The elephant’s

trunk reaches to the ground and high

into the trees to find food. The trunk is

also used for drinking, smelling,

greeting other members of the herd,

and as a snorkel in deep water.

AFRICAN

Elephants

In the late 1970s, there

were about 1.3 million elephants in

Africa. Today there are fewer than half

that number. Poachers kill them for their

ivory, and farms are built on the land where they

live. They are being killed at such a rate that they will

be extinct within a few decades unless something more is

done. In reserves, however, where elephants are protected,

their numbers have increased. Today, elephants are on the

official list of endangered species, and the trade in

elephants and ivory is controlled by

international agreement.

ASIAN ELEPHANT

There are probably

fewer than 50,000
Asian elephants

left in the wild
in remote forests

of India, China,
and Southeast Asia.

Female or cow
elephants are quite

easy to tame between
the ages of about 10 and

20 years. In many countries, the
capture of elephants has been banned

in order to conserve their wild herds.

TRUNK
The trunk is formed from the nose and the
long upper lip. It is extremely sensitive to
touch and smell. The elephant uses its trunk
to grasp leaves, fruits, and shoots, and place
them in its mouth. In order to drink, the
elephant must squirt water into its mouth
because it cannot drink through its trunk.

Ears

are used

to threaten

other animals.

Huge ears help cool

elephant by allowing

heat to escape.

BREEDING
A newborn African elephant calf weighs 198–220 lb (90–100 kg)
at birth. Females usually stay with the herd for life, but males
move away and form bachelor groups. Males rarely breed
before they are 20 years old, though they reach maturity
before then; females mature at 11–22 years of age.

ELEPHANTS

Head and jaws are huge, with wide, ridged

teeth for chewing plant matter.

When bathing, the elephant

sucks water into its trunk,

then squirts it over the body.

Wide, flat, soft-soled

feet leave hardly any

tracks.

Two

nostrils

at tip of

an African

elephant

trunk

Tusks are massive upper

incisor teeth, made of ivory

(dentine). They can split bark

from trees and gouge roots

from the ground.

A six-year-old

male African

elephant

Find out more

Animals

Conservation

and endangered species

Forest wildlife

Mammals

WOOLLY MAMMOTH
The prehistoric mammoth
became extinct over 3,000
years ago. Frozen remains of
mammoths have been found
in Alaska and Siberia.