e for elephant

E for ElephantE for Elephant

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum:

Vertebrata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Proboscidea

Family: Elephantidae

Animal Description

An elephant is a large gray mammal. Elephants weigh around 16,000 pounds

and stand thirteen feet tall. They have gray skin which is wrinkled and

thick. Female elephants lead the herd and help

protect the babies. Elephants have many interesting features

including their eyes, trunk, tusks and huge floppy ears.

The Trunk

Trunk, is a fusion of the nose and upper lip The elephant's trunk may have over forty thousand individual muscles in it making it sensitive enough to pick up a single blade of grass, yet strong enough to rip the branches off a tree. Elephants always use their trunks to tear up their food and then place it in their mouth. They will graze on grass or reach up into trees to grasp leaves, fruit, or entire branches.

The trunk is also used for drinking. Elephants suck water up into the trunk and then blow it into their mouth.

Elephants also inhale water to spray on their body during bathing. On top of this watery coating, the animal will then spray dirt and mud, which act as a protective sunscreen.

Familiar elephants will greet each other by entwining their trunks, much like a handshake.

An elephant also relies on its trunk for its highly developed sense of smell. Raising the trunk up in the air and swivelling it from side to side, like a periscope, it can determine the location of friends, enemies, and food sources.

Trunk…

An elephant wipes its eye with its TRUNK

Tusks The tusks of an elephant are

its second upper incisors. Tusks grow continuously; an

adult male's tusks will grow about 18 cm (7 in) a year.

Tusks are used to dig for water, salt, and roots; to debark trees to eat the bark to dig into baobab trees to get at

the pulp inside to move trees and branches

when clearing a path. In addition, they are used for

marking trees to establish territory and occasionally as weapons.

Ears Elephant ears are about

one—sixth the size of its entire body and primarily function as a cooling mechanism.

The ears contain extensive networks of tiny blood vessels, which are visible at the outer margins, where the skin is only about one to two mm (0.04 – 0.08 in.) thick. 

Protection

The elephants size helps it protect itself. The elephants enemies are people because they shoot

them and lions and tigers eat the baby elephants. The elephant will kick a predator as it comes near it

and it does not feel safe They move their legs to kick an animal or human. Humans kill the elephant but some people also

protect the animal.

They are vegetarians (they don’t eat meat)

Although proportional to their body-weight elephants eat

less than mice.

The diet of elephants includes

Roots, Bark

Grass, Leaves

Berries, Seedpods

and other fruits.

Diet

Diet .....

Elephants will uproot trees to obtain tasty treats from the top, or delicately pluck a single berry from a branch.

Elephants never roam far from water, and will travel great distances in search of it.

They may drink up to 189 Litre of water a day. After drinking their fill, will splash themselves

with water and mud, wash their young, and sometimes play, and roll in the mud.

Populations of these water-loving creatures may inhabit desert areas, using their tusks and trunk to dig for water under dry river beds.

The knowledge of where to find water is handed down from one generation to another.

How much do they eat and drink?

They eat up to 650 pounds a day (3000 hamburgers)

They drink about 200 liters of water a day (100 bottles of soda)

Do they work?

Yes Asian Elephants are intelligent (smart) They are used by Asian people to knock

down trees and carry them out of the jungle

Elephants live on the continent of Africa and Asia.

Classification

There are three living species: There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as

the Indian Elephant).

Asian and African elephantsAsian and African elephants.. Asian and African elephantsAsian and African elephants..

African Elephants

African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa. The long trunk is used to get food and water. The male and female both have ivory tusks. Their skin is wrinkly gray-brown and almost hairless.

Asian Elephant

The Asian elephant is smaller than the African elephant.

Only male Asian elephants have tusks.

Just like the African elephant, the Asian elephant has big ears.

The ears not only help the elephant to hear well, but they also use them to help get rid of excess body heat.

The flap them back and forth like a fan. Their skin is wrinkled, gray-brown with almost no hair.

How big do they get?

African Height: 13 feet (2

men) Weight: 16,500

pounds (4 large cars) Babies weigh 265

pounds (6 Gisselles) Asian / Indian

A little smaller

Baby Elephants A baby elephant is called a calf. A newborn elephant weighs about 110kg. It is covered in hair. Baby elephants stay in the group until they are about ten years old.

Babies

Elephants feed and bathe and protect their babies.

The mother gives birth to a baby every 5 years and it only has one at a time.

Calves continue nursing for at least two years. The mothers feed their babies by giving them milk.

Nursing means they give milk.

When a baby elephant is born, it spends most of its time underneath its mother.

The entire herd takes care of all the babies.

Facts About the African Elephant

The African elephant is the largest land animal.

They are excellent swimmers. The have few natural enemies, with

the exception of man. They are in danger of extinction due

to loss of habitat and poachers after their ivory tusks.

Facts About the Asian Elephant

The Asian elephant is used mostly for labor, few live in the wild.

They can live up to 70 years old. They are excellent swimmers. They are in danger of extinction due

to loss of habitat and poachers after their ivory tusks.

Are they an endangered species?

Yes There are only about 600,000

African and 40,000 Asian Elephants

People kill elephants so they can use their tusks (2 long front teeth made of ivory) to make Jewelry Piano keys Weapons

1979 to 1989 about 700,000 elephants were killed (over half of the population)

Elephants are beautiful animals.

People are trying to save their habitat and protect them.

Without help all the world’s elephants will die.

Hand-coloured engraving drawn by H.Gobin and engraved by Ramus