African elephant Introduction

The African elephant is a genus comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant and the smaller African forest elephant. The African bush elephant is the largest known land mammal on Earth, with male African bush elephants reaching up to 3.5 metres in height and the females being slightly smaller at around 3 metres tall. The body of the African bush elephants can also grow to between 6 and 7 meters long. The tusks of an African bush elephant can be nearly 2.5 meters in length and generally weigh between 50 and 100 pounds, which is about the same as a small adult human. African bush elephants have four molar teeth each weighing about 5.0 kg and measuring about 12 inches long. As the front pair of molars in the mouth of the African bush elephant wear down and drop out in pieces, the back pair shift forward and two new molars emerge in the back of the African bush elephant’s mouth. African bush elephants replace their teeth six times during their lives but when the African bush elephant is between 40 to 60 years old, it no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, which is sadly a common cause of death of elephants in the African wilderness. Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark, and they eat a lot of these things. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds of food in a single day. They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins and can be identified by their larger ears that look somewhat like the continent of Africa. (Asian elephants have smaller, rounded ears.)