Largest Land Animal: African Elephant

The largest African elephant weighed 13.5 tons (27,000 pounds) The world record holder weighed this much and stood 13ft/4m tall at the shoulder. There are other species of elephants, namely the Asian and the Indian, but they are much smaller than the African. The African elephant is the king among the giants on land. No other land animal comes close to the size of these creatures. It would take 165 full-grown men to make up the same weight as the world's record African elephant. The noise of an elephant digesting its food (when its tummy's growling) can be heard up to 600ft/183m away. Elephants actually have control over their digestive processes because they are able to stop the sounds of digestion when they sense danger. Here are some other cool elephant factoids:

· In one year an elephant can drink 15,000 gal/57,000 liters of water

· Male elephants usually weigh about 16,500 lbs/7,425 kgs and are about 20 ft/6.1m long

· Elephants have only four teeth, which they can lose and replace up to six times

· Elephants are herbivores, meaning they eat only plants and vegetation

· African elephants can live as long as 70 years

· Female gestation (length of pregnancy) in elephants is 22 months - almost 2 years!

· Both male and female elephants have ivory tusks, which they use to dig for water, strip bark off trees, and the males used to 'spar' with each other

An Elephant Never Forgets

Elephants are very intelligent animals, with a sophisticated system of communicating. Like whales, they can create sounds that are outside the range of human hearing (called subsonic* sound). By blowing air through large chambers in their nasal passages they can create low rumbling sounds that can carry as far as five miles (8kms). No matter how loudly you screamed, even through a megaphone or a public address microphone, you couldn't be heard by another person five miles away! Being able to communicate with other groups of elephants helps the elephants to detect danger and warn others, as well as to find water, which is extremely scarce in some parts of Africa. African elephants are intelligent enough to be able to detect water flowing underground and have been seen digging up water in a riverbed that has run dry. Elephants really are amazing animals!!!!