The African elephant is different from the Asain elephant even though you might not think so. The most noticible differences are the tusks, the skin and the ears. These animals are herbivores, meaning they eat only plants. All two species put together make up the largest land animal on the planet. The elephant's trunk has 40,000 muscles in it, and it is NOT used for drinking. The elephant can just suck water into it, and then spit it out. Both the Asian and the Afircan elephants are between 5 and 14 feet tal and are 30 feet long. They weigh between 6,000 and 15,000 pounds. They can live up to 70 years of age. At the turn of the 20th century there were a few million African elephants and 100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are 450,000-700,000 African elephants and and between 35,000 adn 40,000 wild Asian elephants. That decline is because of poaching.