Elephants

Appearance

    The elephant is an unusual yet interesting animal. Generally, the elephant is 19-24 feet wide and 10-13 feet to the shoulder. It weighs 5 and a half to 7 tons. The elephant has a brown-gray skin that is 1 inch thick. Also they have large ears. Though most unusual, the elephant has a trunk and tusks. The trunk is long and and is made of all muscles.

Adaptations

    The elephant has adaptations that help with its daily lives. The trunk is used as a nose. The elephant has a strong sense of smell. The trunk helps to pick up things. Most of the time, the elephant picks up food. The trunk is very flexible because it is made up of 40,000 to 100.000 muscles. With its large ears, the elephant can hear very low sounds. The elephant can hear sounds lower than we can hear. Also, its large ears fan its self on hot days. Because the elephant is so large, it does not worry about predators. The only threat an elephant has is a few people that hunt them.

Behavior

     Elephants live in groups of 8-15 for protection. The groups are lead by dominant females. Usually, only 1 or 2 babies are born at a time.

Diet

    Elephants are vegetarians. They eat 100 to 1,000 pounds of plants a day. Although the elephants eat so much, only 40% of their food is digested.