The Asian Elephant is different from the African one, even though you might not think so. The most noticible differences are the tusks, the ears and the skin. Together, both the Asian and the African elephants make up the largest land animal on the planet. It is an herbivore, meaning it only eats meat. The elephant's trunk has 40,000 muscles in it, and it is NOT used for drinking. The elephant can just suck in water and then spit it out again. Both the Asian and the African elephants are between 5 and 14 feet tall. They are 30 feet long from trunk to tail. At the turn of the 20th century, there were a few million African elephants and 100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are 450,000 to 700,000 African elephants and 35,000 to 40,000 Asian elephants. That decline is an effect of poaching.