What does an elephant look like?

Elephants have flexible and muscular proboscis and large flapped ears, which have the function of winding and are powerful tools for self-defense and feeding.

The average elephant is tall at the shoulder and weighs tons; Female common African elephant with an average shoulder height of meters and a weight of tonsThe common African elephant is larger, with a gray coat, a hind rump as high as the front shoulders, and extremely long tusks that curve upward. The elephant's ears are large, with abundant blood vessels to dissipate heat, a short tail, and a bristle at the tip.

The elephant has 100 pairs of developed incisors in the upper jaw, which grows for life, the incisors of African elephants can be as long as meters, and the tusks of Asian elephants are not exposed. There are 6 buccal teeth on each side of the upper and lower jaws, which grow sequentially from front to back, with high crowns, and complex structure.

According to historical records.

Elephants live a long lifespan, generally living to be around 70 years old, it is sexually mature between 10 and 15 years old, and the gestation period is up to 22 months. Elephants are extremely widely distributed, about 40 million years ago, with the exception of Oceania and Antarctica, there are two main groups of elephants, Asian elephants and African elephants.

The main external features of elephants are the flexible and muscular proboscis and large flapped ears, which have the function of wrapping around and are powerful tools for self-defense and feeding.

Asian elephants are 2 to 4 meters tall at the shoulder and weigh 3 to 5 tons. African elephants are 3 to 4 meters tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 8 tons. The average height of African forest elephants does not exceed a metre and their weight is tonn.

The elephant's head is large, the ears are as large as a fan, the limbs are as thick as a cylinder to support the huge body, the knee joints cannot be flexed and extended freely, and the nose length is almost equal to the body length, which is cylindrical and can be extended and flexed freely.

The trunk is made entirely of muscles, with nostrils opening at the end and finger-like protrusions at the tip of the nose that can pick up objects, and the trunk is very flexible and can pick up objects weighing up to 1 ton, as well as small foods as small as peanuts.

Elephant habits

Elephants are herbivores that eat plants such as leaves, branches, fruit covers, bark, grass, and roots. Due to its large size and strong digestive capacity, it requires a large amount of food every day. Elephants can consume 150 kg of food a day, or 1 2 of their own body weight.

Elephants feed for a long time, about 16 hours a day, mainly in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

Elephants are heavily dependent on water and need to take a bath in addition to drinking to cool down. Elephants drink about 150 litres of water a day. In search of food, water and minerals, elephants may move hundreds or even thousands of meters.

When water is scarce during the dry season, they may emerge in habitats that are not very preferred, or even degraded.