The African Elephant
Widely recognized as the most impressive animal in Africa, the African Elephant soars 11 feet into the air and weights an astounding 6.5 tons. The elephant's trunk serves as a multipurpose tool for eating, cleaning, signaling, drinking water, digging, dusting and even as an extra limb when needed. Capable of reaching up to 23 feet, the elephant's trunk is a strong muscle that is capable of twisting tightly around objects and is mostly used for tearing wood from trees or when fighting. The second most recognizable feature of the elephant is no doubt its tusks. Essentially the tusks are elongated incisors which grow for most of the elephants life and are thus good ways to check the elephant's age.
Elephants are herbivores and thus dedicate their energies in pushing over trees to eat. Elephants usually eat around 270-300kg's of food every day. The elephant's digestive system isn't very thorough. Thus a lot of the food that the elephant eats doesn't get properly digested and its value or nutrients are lost. That is why the elephant needs to consume so much food in order to keep itself alive and healthy.
Elephants don't generally wander in large herds. Small 'families' of the older elephant and then 3 or 4 young will stick together in groups. As opposed to previous concepts regarding elephant herds, the male elephant or 'bull' is quite a solitary animal and will only visit a herd to find a female elephant in estrus. Thus the typical elephant herd will consist of primarily females and their young.
These majestic animals are by no means stupid. In many countries elephants are used as work animals because of their high levels of intelligence and their ability to communicate with each other and memorize human commands.
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