The largest animals that live on land are the African Elephants. Their cousins, the Asian Elephants, have smaller ears that are more rounded. An elephants ears keep them cool because they radiate the heat. Another way they can keep cool is by drawing water up through their trunks and drenching themselves in a shower like fashion. Then to protect their skin, they mist a coating of dust all over them.

An elephant’s trunk contains about one hundred thousand different muscles and is used for breathing, smelling, drinking, grabbing things, and trumpeting. They can grab small things like peanuts due to two finger like features on the end of its trunk. An elephant’s tusks are made out of ivory, a substance that is so valuable to humans that some kill elephants just for their tusks, this makes them endangered.

Their main diet is roots, grasses, fruit, bark, and many more things of this nature. The amount of food an adult elephant can eat is around 300 pounds per day. Although these animals do not sleep much, they can travel across great distances. Cows, female elephants, live in herds with their young, whereas bulls, male elephants, tend to wander on their own. Having a baby elephant is a big responsibility because elephants have the longest pregnancy than any other mammal-which is almost twenty-two months. When born, some calf’s can weight about two hundred pounds and stand about three feet tall. Elephants are huge and interesting creatures that are still beautiful.