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 The
African elephant is the king among the animals on land.
It is the largest living land mammal! There are other
kinds of elephants called the Asian elephant and the Indian elephant.
But they are much smaller than the African elephant.
Male African elephants usually weigh about 7,425 kilograms
and are about 3 meters tall.
They eat roots, grasses, fruits, and
bark. An adult elephant can
eat up to 136 kilograms of food in a single day! In one year,
an elephant can drink 57,000 liters of water.
An elephant’s trunk is actually a long nose used
for smelling, breathing, drinking,
and also for grabbing things. The trunk
has about 100,000 different muscles! African elephants
have two finger-like features on the end of their
trunks. Asian elephants have only one.
 Elephants
have only four teeth. They can lose and replace their teeth up to
six times. Both male and female African elephants have tusks. They use their tusks
to dig for food and strip bark from trees. Males
use their tusks to battle one another, too. So far,
many elephants have been killed for their tusks. This is because ivory is very valuable. To protect elephants, many countries
ban ivory trade today.
Elephants have a longer pregnancy than any other
mammal - almost 22 months! Female elephants usually give birth to
one baby every two to four years. At birth, baby elephants already weigh about 91 kilograms
and stand about 1 meter tall. African elephants can live as long as
70 years. |
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