African elephants are the largest land on Earth. They are slightly larger their Asian cousins and can be identified by their larger ears that look somewhat the continent of Africa.
Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes the heat is too much. Elephants love water and enjoy showering by sucking into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves. Afterwards, they spray their skin with a protective coating of dust.
An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things - especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles. African elephants have two fingerlike features on the end of trunk that they can use to grab small items.
Both male and African elephants have tusks they use to dig for food and water and strip bark from trees. Males use the tusks to battle one , but the ivory has also attracted violence of a far more dangerous sort.
Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark, and they eat a lot of things. An adult elephant can consume up 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food a single day.
Female elephants (cows) live in family herds their young, but adult males (bulls) tend to roam on their own.
Having a elephant is a serious commitment. Elephants have a longer pregnancy than any other mammal - almost 22 . Cows usually birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants weigh some 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and stand about 3 feet (1 meter) tall.