African Elephants
Thump. Thump. Thump. Hear that? That’s the sound of an African elephant. Let me tell you about them.
Elephants are the largest living land animal. They have long trunks, a huge head, and wide flat ears with
medium sized tail. Elephants are grayish brown in color and have sharp white round tusks. They mostly
live in savannas, grasslands, forests, deserts, swamps, and highlands in tropical regions of Africa and
Asia.
Some elephants weigh up to 8,000 pounds or 9 tons. They stand up to 3 to 4 meters tall or 10 to 13 feet.
Elephants are herbivores meaning they only eat plants. There are many different elephants and some of
them have wider ears than others. Elephants use their ears to dissipate body heat. The elephant’s trunk is
one of the most versatile organs that have evolved among mammals. About 150,000 muscles have been
counted through the cross section of a mammal.
The elephant’s trunks are made of ivory. Elephants us there trunks to lifting, digging, defense, offence,
and stripping bark. When they charge they tuck there trunk in-between there tusks. In an elephants life
time they have up to 6 sets of cheek teeth. At birth they only have 3 rows of cheek teeth. As they fall out
the new teeth get longer, wider, and much heavier. Their molar teeth can grow up to 16 inches long.
There molars can also be there up to 60 years old!
"Elephant." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2016. Web.
<http.//school.eb.com/levels/high/article/32357>.
1 Mar. 2016
Using the website we chose as the best, we discovered that elephants are one animal that is endangered
out of many other animals. It could affect the food chain a little because tigers eat young elephants and
without that food they could starve. So, if they went extinct they could affect the food chain a little and
anything else that eats young or old dying elephants. Poachers hunt elephants down and take their tusks
and skin. The IUCN is threatening elephants in the habitats. The IUCN is the International Union for
Conversation of Nature. Baby elephants are really big when they are born almost the size of Michael
Jordan. There around six feet or bigger once there born and are also very social creatures
1. Using the summary can you give more than five facts about African elephants? Cite evidence
using the summary and website.
2. What would happen if elephants went extinct? Cite evidence using the summary, the hyperlinked
website and the novel.
Live cam
Knell, Gary. National Geographic. Ed. Gary Knell. Visonaries, 27 Jan. 1888. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
<http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/elephants/>.