African savanna elephant

Physical features

• African elephants are Earth’s largest land animals. They are sexually dimorphic as far as size, with males being larger.

• Males weigh 10,000-14,000 pounds, equal to the weight of around three mid-size pickup trucks. Females weigh 7,000-9,000 pounds on average.

• Females can reach 10 feet tall, around the same height as a regulation NBA basketball hoop. Males are taller, reaching up to 13 feet. Most females are closer to 8 feet tall, while most bulls are closer to 10-12 feet.

• Male and female African elephants have tusks, although a lack of tusks in females does sometimes occur naturally. An elephant’s tusks can grow 1-3 inches a year, occasionally reaching 10 ft. in length and 200 lbs in males.

• Elephant tusks are two upper middle teeth. Young elephants have temporary tusks, much like human baby teeth, that fall out at around 3 years of age and are replaced by the adult tusks. The tusks grow throughout the elephant’s adult life.

• Elephants have four molars at one time. They go through six sets of teeth during their lifetime. They experience heavy wear as they chew on woody plants. The teeth are pushed forward as they wear and are replaced by the next set of new teeth developing behind them.

• Elephants use their tusks for digging, offense and defense, displaying/visually communicating, and in gathering food.

• The trunk serves as both upper lip and nose. It is boneless and contains around 100,000 muscles and tendons. It is powerful enough to kill an animal with a single blow or push down a small tree but also nimble enough to pick up a dime.

• A series of long muscles runs along the length of the trunk to raise, lower, or move it from side to side. Other, shorter muscles are perpendicular to the length of the trunk, while others are wrapped like a barber pole along the length of the trunk, producing the trunk’s unique twisting abilities.

• An elephant’s trunk can hold 1 ½ gallons of water. To drink they first suck up the water into their trunk and then squirt the water into their mouth.

• The skin along an elephant’s back may be 1 ½ inches thick but is still sensitive enough to feel a fly land on it.

• Bristly, coarse hairs sparsely grow on the elephant’s body, with more on the chin and trunk. They also have longer hair growing from the end of the tail that can be up to 1 ½ feet long.

• Elephants’ ears contain many blood vessels, and they will flap their ears to cool their blood which will then flow through their body and cool their body core.

• The large size of an elephant’s ears helps to pick up distant or faint sounds. This is the same concept as a radar dish. The larger the dish, the more sounds it can pick up.

• An elephant’s brain weighs around 10 ½ lbs on average.

• Recent research suggests that African elephants have more than 2,000 genes dedicated to scent discrimination – that’s twice as many as dogs have, and more than five times what humans have.

Diet: Herbivore

• Wild – Elephants are non-ruminating herbivores, eating 200-300 lbs. of food a day. Their diet consists of 50% grasses supplemented with bark, leaves, twigs; roots, and some fruits, seeds, and flowers. Elephants can drink 20-30 gallons of water a day.

• Zoo – Hay, grain, browse, plus fruit and vegetable treats such as apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, and romaine lettuce.

Reproduction

• Male elephants are called bulls, female elephants are called cows, and baby elephants are calves. Groups of elephants are herds. Family groups that inhabit the same area may socialize with one another.

• Elephants reach sexual maturity between 10 and 15 years of age.

• Females produce offspring around 12 – 14 years old and in some cases will continue to reproduce into their 40s. Males often do not reproduce until they are in their 20s, and older males are more successful than younger males.

• Mature bulls enter into a period of heightened sexual and aggressive behavior called musth. There is a significant increase in testosterone levels during this time and musth males seek out and approach estrous females for breeding, although they do not have to be in musth to breed. Males usually enter their first musth by the age of 30. Each male has his own cycle and males in musth usually rank above non-musth males. When two males that are both in musth meet, interactions are aggressive, even if a female is not present. Outside of musth, interactions between related and non-related elephants are usually amicable and non-confrontational, unless there are limited resources like food and water.

• Elephant gestation is 22 months, which is more than twice that of humans, and the longest of any mammal.

• A cow will generally give birth to a single calf, typically standing, but they may also lie down. Twins are very rare.

• The calf is born weighing 200 - 250 lbs. and stands only up to his mother's knee. The calf will stand, with assistance, in about 30 minutes, and can travel with the herd in 2 to 3 days.

• Infant elephants will nurse for six to 18 months, but some calves may continue to nurse for well over five years. Young elephants will learn from adults what plants to eat and will even put their trunk in an adult elephants mouth for a sample of what they are eating.

• It takes several months to a year for a calf to gain full control over its trunk and be able to use it purposefully.

Interpretive Information

• Elephants communicate with one another in a number of ways. They will use their trunk, ears, body postures, and movements as a visual means of expressing a diverse array of messages. They can also communicate chemically, with secretions from a gland (the temporal gland) between the eye and ear, glands in the feet (interdigital glands), anogenital tracts, and eyes. They communicate vocally with low-frequency sounds, but also trumpeting, snorts, screams, barks, cries, and roars.

• Elephants can detect sounds over great distances, detecting these sounds with their front feet. They have large fat pads inside the bottoms of their front feet, placing their feet in solid contact with the soil. Low-frequency sounds can be airborne or carried in the soil and are not audible by humans. These very low frequencies, like whales communicating in the ocean, can communicate across miles and elephants can recognize the “voices” of others they know.

• Elephants live in family herds, ranging from a few individuals to over 100 that are usually, but not always, related and led by a matriarch. The matriarch is usually an older, more experienced female. Males leave the group at age 12 – 15 and may live a solitary life or join a bachelor herd with other males.

• Sparring is a critical way elephants build social bonds and establish their place in the herd. Bull elephants will often spar while playing. This important behavior establishes dominance, builds strength, is practice for future competition, and is fun!

• Elephants respond to the death of another of their species in ways that are rare in the animal kingdom. They show great interest in the bones of other elephants who have died and will examine them, touching them with their trunks. They show particular interest in tusks especially and also in skulls. Recent research has shown that they respond to the remains of both related and non-related deceased elephants in this way and do not respond in the same manner to the remains of other species.

• Elephant graveyards (specific places elephants intentionally travel to at the end of their lives before passing) are a myth. When concentrations of elephant bones have been found in the same area, it is likely due to a hunting incident, drought, food shortage, etc.

• Elephants apply water and mud to their skin for natural protection from the sun. Mud also provides a built-in layer of protection from biting insects. Water and mud also help to cool them down.

• Elephants are a keystone species and keep vegetation from becoming overgrown. They help disperse seeds through their poop and help to re-plant their environment.

• Lions and hyenas are natural predators, but they prey primarily on calves and young elephants.

• Elephants can swim and will hold their trunk up so that they can breathe. They will also walk along the bottom in shallow water.

• Differences between African and Asian elephants include:

  • • Skin: African elephants have more wrinkled skin.

    • Size: African elephants tend to be larger, both in height and weight.

    • Ears: African elephants have much larger ears with a different shape.

    • Head shape: African elephants do not have the “bulges” on the top of the head like Asian elephants.

    • Back shape: African elephants’ backs are concave, while Asian elephants’ backs are convex or flat.

    • Trunk: African elephants have two “fingers”/digits on the end while Asian elephants only have one.

    • Toenails: African elephant front feet have 4 – 5 and 3 – 5 on the back feet, Asian elephants have 5 on the front feet and 4 – 5 on the back feet.

Created July 2019

Updated June 2025 - added note about sparring