Elephants
Scientific Name: Loxodonta cyclotis
Habitat
Elephants live in four places.The first is in zoos around the world. The second place is in Africa. The third place is in Asia. And finally, the last place is India. In Africa, elephants live on the beautiful plains with other animals such as zebras, giraffes, and rhinos. There the grass is long, golden, and free. Every here and there there are acacia trees, which is where the elephants get their leaves from. There is also an occasional watering hole that the animals share, which is where the elephants bath. In Asia, the elephants live in tropical rain forests from very moist, evergreen forests to dry, semi-deciduous forests to cooler mountain forests. They also feed on the leaves from the trees there. The nights there are relatively warm, but the days are even hotter. In India, they also live in the same types of varying forests.
Diet
Elephants eat a small range of things, but mostly leaves. However, they also eat fruit bark, grass, shrubs, and a variety of plants. They eat it by picking it up with their trunks and setting into their mouths. That's also how they drink.
Description
Elephants are big, gray colored giants. They have long, wrinkly trunks and big, floppy ears. Their feet are large and have 3-5 nails (depending on the breed) on the front and back feet. They also have tiny little tails with big dark colored hair tufts at the end. You've probably seen these guys at the zoo. If you haven't, they are HUGE with a capitol H. An adult male elephant can weigh 9,000-13,000 pounds. Those are big boys!
Types
Elephants come in three breeds. There's the Indian elephant, the African elephant, and the Asian elephant. Each are different in their own way. The only one that I'm going to list is that they all live in different parts of the world!
Fun Facts
- Elephants' tusks are made of ivory and are actually just large intercessors, or sharp, pointed teeth.
- Elephants normally walk at about 4 miles per hour.
- Elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating and they can consume about 495 pounds of food in a single day!
- All breeds of elephant are on the endangered list because they are hunted so often by poachers for their ivory tusks.