Did
you know....
1. African Elephants can get a big as 10 feet tall and weigh
up to 15,000 pounds. They have larger ears and tusks than Asian Elephants.
Their habitat is rapidly diminishing and they may become endangered.
2.
Asian Elephants can get a big as 8 feet tall and weigh up to 11,000
pounds. Asian Elephants are endangered.
3. Elephants can live up to seventy years old and sometimes
past that age. Elephants can have babies until around fifty years
old. Usually they have 1 baby every 4 to 5 years.
4.
Elephants eat about 150 to 350 pounds of food per day. During the
rainy season they graze on the abundant grass and fruit from small
bushes. When the rainy season has passed, Elephants will eat the leaves
and bark from trees.
5. Elephants have a wide range of emotions.. they play.. laugh..
and welcome members of their group back when they've been away for
a while. They "talk" to each other with low rumble noises
and are very vocal with members of their own group.
6. They use their trunks as a hose to drink.. they fill their
trunk with water and use it to pour the water into their mouth.
7. Elephants live in the open grassland plains of Africa, the
rain forests of Asia and some live part of the day in the caves of
Kenya.
8. Asian Elephants are more closely related to the extinct
mammoth than African elephants.
9. Elephant's skin is not really thick except around the back
and sides, where it is 1 inch thick. Their skin is very sensitive
to the sun and therefore the babies are constantly shadowed by their
mothers to prevent sun burn.
10. Elephant families are led by female matriarchs, the oldest
and most experienced elephant in the herd. The group consists of herself
and her female offspring and their young. Sometimes also including
the matriarch's sister and her young.
11. Bull elephants live together in "bachelor" herds.
12. Three cycles to the elephants life include:
