![]() And an elephant uses it to do all sorts of clever things. Weighing 9 to 13 pounds, the elephant brain is bigger than any other land animal’s brain. And the elephant can blow air through the trunk to make loud trumpeting noises that can be heard from far away. An elephant also uses its trunk to spray water and dust over its body to cool off, protect its skin from the sun, and remove pesky insects. That means it can grasp things.īy sniffing with the two nostrils at the end of the trunk, an elephant can smell food or water several miles away. At the tip of the trunk, there’s a “finger” that is prehensile (pree-HEN-sul). It is also strong enough to knock down trees. In fact, it has many more muscles than an entire human body has! The trunk can pick up and hold an object that weighs hundreds of pounds. The trunk is also like a really strong arm-but without bones. It’s needed for basic survival: eating and drinking and breathing. TERRIFIC TRUNKĪn elephant’s trunk has an incredible number of jobs. All the cows in a herd share the work of caring for the calves. But sometimes a tiger will capture a calf, so the cows keep their babies close. It had time to get that big: Its mom was pregnant for more than a year and a half! It’s hard for a predator to take down an adult elephant because of its size. They then live alone or with a few other bulls.Īn Asian elephant calf weighs about 220 pounds at birth. The males, or bulls, leave their herds once they reach 8 to 13 years old. ![]() They can drink more than 50 gallons of water each day, so they stay near rivers and lakes.įemales, or cows, and young elephants, or calves, hang out together in groups known as herds. An adult needs to eat up to 330 pounds of plants per day, and it will spend up to 18 hours doing so! Elephants usually walk a few miles every day, searching for leafy snacks. But sometimes they wander onto roads and into farms, villages, and even cities! (More on that later.) As you can imagine, an animal as big as an elephant has a GIANT appetite. A DAY IN THE LIFEĪsian elephants usually hang out in the grassy areas, forests, and other wild places of 13 countries (see map). There are other differences, too (see diagram). But the prize for Earth’s biggest land animal goes to its cousin, the African elephant. The Asian elephant is the largest land animal in Asia. Keep reading, and let’s find out why it’s so important to help these incredible creatures survive. Sadly, there are only half as many Asian elephants in the wild as there were about 60 years ago. The answer: All of these things and more. Their intelligence? Elephants are known for making tools and solving problems. Their trunks? That one-of-a-kind body part can be used as an arm, a hand, a nose, a hose, and a loud trumpet. Their size? An adult male weighs more than two medium-sized cars. But what is it about these giant creatures that’s so fantastic? If you had glimpsed the elephants in the photo above, you rush of amazement and wonder. The sunlight breaks through the trees, and you see them: more than a dozen Asian elephants, a cloud of dust swirling around them. ![]() You hear the ground rumbling, leaves rustling, branches cracking. Let’s travel to Asia to discover the wonders of these massive, majestic mammals. Elephants: Roaming with the HerdBy Anne Cissel
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