Elephants
Size and strength
The African elephant is the biggest animal on land. Often, an adult African elephant is as heavy as 70 men.
The biggest elephant ever found was as heavy as 150 men!
As an adult elephant is big, it is very strong. It is so strong that it can push over trees.
Elephant family
Elephants live in small family groups called herds. The oldest and biggest female is the leader of the herd. The adults in the herd look after the young elephants.
Male adult elephants live on their own or in their own groups.
Fantastic fact
A baby elephant can weigh 120 kilograms. This is as heavy as 5 7-year-old children.
The elephant's body
Elephants use their ears a bit like fans. Flapping them helps to cool them down.
Photo from Pixabay is in the public domain.
Its trunk is its most important tool. It is used for touching, breathing, smelling, and more.
Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons.
Elephants have an incredible sense of smell. The elephant sniffs smells carried on the wind.
They sometimes hug by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection.
An elephant can use its trunk to lift heavy things and push big trees over.
Its trunk can suck up water and squirt it out. It can squirt the water into its mouth for a drink. Or it can squirt the water over itself to keep cool.
Photo by Doc.Akshat. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
The elephant likes to roll about in mud to get rid of insects. It sucks dust and sand up its trunk and then blows it out to stick it to its muddy body.
It rubs itself against a big tree to squash any insects left on its skin.
Elephants use their trunks to help them eat. Their trunks grab food (such as grass and leaves) and put it into their mouths. Their trunks can reach leaves high up in trees.
Elephants use their trunks to help them eat. Their trunks grab food (such as grass and leaves) and put it into their mouths. Their trunks can reach leaves high up in trees.
Photo by Charles J Sharp. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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They also eat the bark, branches and roots of bushes and trees. Elephants need strong teeth to chew parts of trees. They grow six sets of teeth in a lifetime. New teeth grow as the old ones are worn down. |
Fantastic fact
An elephant's tusk is a tooth. It is the biggest tooth of any living animal.
Elephants use their tusks for stripping bark off trees, and even for digging for water when it is very dry.
Photo by Yathin S Krishnappa. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Other animals with tusks
Walrus
Walruses live in the Arctic Ocean.
A walrus uses its tusks to climb onto ice.
It also uses its tusks to make breathing holes in ice. As a mammal a walrus cannot breathe underwater.
Narwhal (say nar-wall)
Narwhals are relatives of dolphins. A male narwhal has a long, straight tusk. Females sometimes grow a short tusk. They are called the 'unicorns of the sea'.
Credit: NOAA/OAR/OER. Photographer is Dr. Kristin Laidre, Polar Science Center, UW. Photo is in the public domain on NOAA.
We do not know what a narwhal uses its tusk for.
Like walruses, narwhals live in the Arctic Ocean.