Elephants

=Elephants=

African elephants are the largest land animals in the world. Adult males weigh between 4,000 and 14,000 lbs. Females are smaller, weighing btween 6,000 to 8,000 lbs. The two different classifications for elephants are African elephants and Asian elephants. African elephants are slightly larger than Asians. They can be easily identified by their larger ears. These ginormous creatures have a trunk, which is an extension of the upper lip and nose. They use their trunks for communication and handling objects like food or water, which they will suck up in their trunk and spray on themselves or others. Tusks are the big pointy things that stick out of the elephants side of their mouth. They have one on each side, both of which grow throughout their life and are used for fighting, marking, feeding, and digging. The subspecies of African elephants are the Savanna elephant and the Forest elephant. Savanna's are larger than Forest's and their tusks curve outwards. A Forest elephant is darker and has straighter tusks that grow down. They are both a brownish gray color.

The Savanna elephant is found throughout grassy plains and bushlands while Forest's are found more in the western and central parts of Africa. We are most likely to see a Savanna elephant. At the turn of the 20th century, there were only few million African elephants and about 100,000 Asian elephants. The estimate for today is about 450,000-700,000 African and 35,000-40,000 Asian elephants.

With their appearence comes great benefits. Their trunks, as said before come in handy with food and water. But they also come in handy with many other things. They can pick things up with them, such as sticks or logs. This can help if a fellow elephant in a herd gets stuck under trees. They also use it for smelling and breathing. The smelling can help with finding food easier. Being an herbivore, they have to find plants to eat, mostly the leaves on trees. Breathing is an obvious necessity that everything needs in life to survive. The final thing that they use with their trunk is trumpeting. When an elephant trumpets it is either alerting other elephants of a dangerous predator, or calling for help because it is being attacked.