Elephant facts
Beyond the facts that they have the longest nose and the best memory, elephants are the largest and heaviest land animals. Despite their multi-ton weight, they can move rather fast. In the forest, they can move quietly if needed. These “gentle giants” are sensible beings that live in strong connections with their family members and with the other members of the herd.
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Elephants are herbivores. Beside the forest or savanah grasses they eat other soft stalked plants, tree leaves, fruits and flowers, even branches and roots. They have to eat very much to satisfy their enormous body energy need. They spend most of the day searching for food to ensure the body’s needments of vitamins and mineral salts. In a day an elephant can eat up to 225 kilograms of food.
The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms. They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years.
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African elephants are distinguished from Asian elephants in several ways, the most noticeable being their much larger ears. Also, the African elephant is typically larger than the Asian elephant and has a concave back. In Asian elephants only males have tusks, but both males and females of African elephants have tusks and are usually less hairy than their Asian cousins. The world population of Asian elephants—also called Indian Elephants—is estimated to be around 60,000, about a tenth of the number of African elephants. Source
The elephants' tusks are in fact elongated teeth which they use to digg roots out of the ground and to crack tree bark. Males use their tusks in battles for establishing hierarchy, fights that precede the mating season. Unlike teeth, tusks grow continuously. A male African Elephant can have tusks of over 3 metres.
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Size does matter. Rhino running away from elephant.
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Roaming family