Elephant


Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Two species are traditionally recognised, the African elephant and the Asian elephant , although some evidence suggests that African bush elephants and African forest elephants are separate species . Elephants are scattered throughout subSaharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mammoths, and mastodons. Male African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial animals and can reach a height of 4160m and weigh 7,000160kg . All elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants large ear flaps help to control their

The African bush elephant can be found in habitats as diverse as dry savannahs, deserts, marshes, and lake shores, and in elevations from sea level to mountain areas above the snow line. Forest elephants mainly live in equatorial forests, but will enter gallery forests and ecotones between forests and savannahs. Asian elephants prefer areas with a mix of grasses, low woody plants and trees, primarily inhabiting dry thornscrub forests in southern India and Sri Lanka and evergreen forests in Malaya. Elephants are herbivorous and will eat leaves, twigs, fruit, bark, grass and roots. They are born with sterile intestines, and require bacteria obtained from their mothers feces to digest vegetation. African elephants are mostly browsers while Asian elephants are mainly grazers. They can consume as much as 150160kg of food and 40160L of water in a day. Elephants tend to stay near water sources. Major feeding bouts take place in the morning, afternoon and night. At midday, elephants rest und

Source: Wikipedia