Elephant-facts

African elephant

   Of all the animals that live on land today, the elephant is the biggest. Jumbo, a famous circus elephant, was 11 feet tall and weighed six and a half tons. Elephants are strong, too. In circuses they often help push heavy wagons.
   Jumbo was an African elephant, but most of the elephants in circuses and zoos are Indian elephants. Indian elephants are also called Asiatic elephants. African ele­phants have much bigger ears than Asiatic elephants. In Africa there are also pygmy elephants. "Pygmy" means "dwarf," but pygmy elephants are not really small. They are just small for elephants.
   Asiatic elephants are more easily trained than African elephants. In Asia people have for years used elephants for working and hunting. Rulers there have been proud of their elephants. Royal elephants often have beautiful trappings.
   An elephant's trunk is really its nose and upper lip, but the elephant uses it as a kind of hand. With it the elephant puts food in its mouth and sprays water on its back.
   Elephants are plant eaters. They gather grass with their trunks and dig up roots with their sharp tusks. A circus elephant eats about 150 pounds of hay and drinks 50 gallons of water a day.