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The Elephant is the largest animal that lives on land. Among all animals, only some kinds of whales are larger. The elephant is also the second tallest member of the animal kingdom. Only the giraffe is taller. Elephants are the only animals that have a nose in the form of a long trunk, which they use as a hand. They have larger ears than any other animal, and their tusks are the largest teeth. There are two chief kinds of elephants, African elephants and Indian elephants, also known as Asian elephants. African elephants live only in Africa south of the Sahara. Indian elephants live in parts of India and Southeast Asia. Elephants are extremely strong and highly intelligent. People have tamed and trained them for thousands of years. The logging industry in some Asian countries uses elephants to carry heavy loads. People throughout the world enjoy watching elephants in circuses and zoos. Trained circus elephants stand on their heads, lie down and roll over, dance, and perform other tricks. During the 1800's, an African elephant named Jumbo was featured by the London Zoo for more than 17 years. Visitors came from all parts of the world to see Jumbo, the largest animal in captivity at that time. He stood 11 feet (3.4 meters) tall and weighed more than 14,500 pounds (6,600 kilograms). In 1882, the American showman P. T. Barnum purchased Jumbo and made the elephant a star attraction of his circus. The word jumbo became a common adjective for anything extremely large.

Some people travel to Africa to see wild elephants in their own environment. However, the number of wild elephants has been steadily declining because people kill elephants for their ivory tusks. In addition, people have settled on much of the land where the animals lived, resulting in a loss of habitat for the elephants. Farming and industry threaten the natural resources needed by elephants to survive. In 1979, an estimated 1,300,000 elephants lived in Africa. In the early 1990's, there were only about 600,000. A public awareness campaign was launched in the late 1980's to save the African elephant. People throughout the world were made aware that thousands of elephants were being slaughtered every year to provide ivory jewelry and carvings.

The importance of elephants

Wild elephants perform several important natural functions. For example, they help turn densely wooded areas into more open areas by feeding on trees and other plants. More kinds of animals can live in these open habitats. Elephants also dig up dry riverbeds to reach the water beneath the surface of the ground. Other animals then drink this water. When elephants travel through wooded areas, they create paths used by such animals as antelope and zebras. African elephants are larger than Indian elephants. Wild African elephants live only in Africa south of the Sahara. An African elephant is about the same height at the shoulder and the rump. Its back dips slightly in the middle. Adult African bull (male) elephants stand about 11 feet (3.4 meters) tall at the shoulder and weigh about 12,000 pounds (5,400 kilograms). The cows (females) are about 9 feet (2.8 meters) tall and weigh about 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms). The largest known elephant, an African bull, measured 13 feet 2 inches (4.01 meters) tall. The heaviest elephant ever weighed was over 14,500 pounds (6,600 kilograms). Most African elephants have dark gray skin. Their forehead forms a smooth curve. Their ears measure as wide as 4 feet (1.2 meters) and cover their shoulders. Both the bulls and cows have tusks. The tusks of most African bulls grow from 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) long and weigh 50 to 100 pounds (23 to 45 kilograms) each. The tusks of most of the cows weigh from 15 to 20 pounds (7 to 9 kilograms) each. The longest tusk of an African elephant measured 111/2 feet (3.5 meters), and the heaviest weighed 293 pounds (133 kilograms). The trunk of an African elephant has two fleshy, fingerlike structures on the tip. The skin of the trunk has deep wrinkles. African elephants have four or five toes on each forefoot and three toes on each hind foot. A loose fold of skin joins the hind legs and the sides of the body. Indian elephants do not have this fold. There are two types of African elephants, bush elephants and forest elephants. Bush elephants, which live in most countries south of the Sahara, are the larger and have heavier tusks. Forest elephants live in Cameroon, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Ivory Coast, and other countries of central and western Africa. Both kinds of African elephants inhabit forests, grasslands, mountains, swamps, and shrubby areas. An elephant has no sweat glands, and so it must cool off in other ways. It may get rid of excess body heat by flapping its enormous ears or by spraying water on itself. Elephants also stay cool by rolling in mud. The mud dries on the skin and thus shields it from the sun. At birth, elephants are often covered with sparse brown, black, or reddish-brown hair that gradually wears off as they get older. Adult elephants appear to be nearly hairless. But there are bristles around the ears, eyes, and mouth, and sparse hair on the trunk, legs, and other parts of the body. The end of the tail has a long bunch of thick hairs. An elephant's trunk is a combined nose and upper lip. It consists of a strong, flexible, boneless mass of flesh. The trunk of an adult elephant measures about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long and weighs about 300 pounds (140 kilograms). An elephant breathes and smells with its trunk and uses it when eating and drinking. The animal sniffs the air and the ground almost constantly with its trunk. It carries food and water to its mouth with its trunk. It also gives itself a shower by sucking water into the trunk and then spraying it out again. The trunk of an adult can hold about 11/2 gallons (6 liters) of water.

An elephant grasps objects with its trunk much as a person does with a hand. The trunk can carry a log that weighs as much as 600 pounds (272 kilograms). The tip of the trunk can pick up an object as small as a coin. An elephant also uses its trunk to communicate with other elephants. When two elephants greet each other, each places the tip of its trunk in the other's mouth. A mother will comfort her calf by stroking it with her trunk. Young males play-fight by wrestling with their trunks. In a true fight, the trunk is usually protected by curling it under the chin. Tusks and teeth. An elephant's tusks are actually long, curved upper teeth called incisors. They are made of ivory. About two-thirds of each tusk extends from the upper jaw. The rest is in the skull. Elephants use their tusks to dig for food and water and to fight. The tusks can lift and carry a load weighing as much as 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms). Elephants also have four molars (back teeth). The molars of an adult may measure 1 foot (30 centimeters) long and weigh about 81/2 pounds (4 kilograms). These teeth have jagged edges that help grind food. One molar lies on each side of both jaws, and additional molars form in the back of the mouth. The molars in front gradually wear down and drop out, and the ones in back push forward and replace them. An elephant grows six sets of molars during its lifetime. Each set consists of four teeth. The last set of molars appears when the animal is about 40 years old.

Legs and feet. The legs of an elephant are pillarlike structures. The feet are nearly round. Each foot has a thick pad of tissue that acts as a cushion. The foot expands under the elephant's weight and contracts when the animal lifts the leg. Elephants may sink deep into mud, but they can pull their legs out easily because the feet become smaller when lifted. Senses. The trunk provides a keen sense of smell, and elephants depend on this sense more than on any other. They frequently wave their trunks high in the air to catch the scent of food or enemies. An elephant can smell a human being more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away. Elephants also have good hearing. They can make and hear sounds below the range of human hearing. These low sounds, called infrasound, travel farther than higher sounds. Elephants can communicate with each other at a distance of at least 21/2 miles (4 kilometers), and possibly twice that distance. The elephant's sense of touch is most keen in its trunk, especially at the tip. An elephant can recognize the shape of an object and whether the object is rough or smooth and hot or cold. Elephants have poor sight. Their eyes are small in relation to the enormous head. An elephant cannot turn its head completely, and so it can see only in the front and to the sides. The animal must turn around to see anything behind it. Intelligence. Elephants have a large brain and rank high in intelligence among animals. In the wild, their social lives are complex and involve learning many behaviors and communication skills. Studies of the African elephant have shown that these animals make at least 25 different calls, each with a specific meaning. Elephants have excellent memories, which they use both in their social activities and in their travels over large areas. It seems that the matriarch (ruling mother) is the carrier of knowledge for the whole family. She knows the migration routes, where to find trees with fruit, how to find water during droughts, and other information for survival. This knowledge is passed on to the younger females in her family and eventually one of them will become the matriarch.

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