elephants...elephant tusks •you can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks!...

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Elephants

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sri_Lanka_Elephants_03.jpg

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Page 2: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

Elephants are the largest land animal.

• Elephants are enormous and can weigh up to 11 tonnes.

• African elephants are bigger than Asian elephants.

• Male African elephants can be as tall as 3 metres.

• They can live for between 60 and 70 years old.

Page 3: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

Where do elephants live?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

http://greenhumour.blogspot.in/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Page 4: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

African elephants

• The African elephant is the

world’s largest land animal and they can

be more than 7 metres long, 3

metres high and the biggest of the

species can weigh more than 6 tonnes!

Page 5: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

• African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa!

• African elephants can be differentiated from Asian elephants from their more wrinkled skin, their larger size, their larger ears which reach up over their neck, their concave back (Asian elephants have a straight back), and having more rings on their trunks. The African elephant also has an extra pair of ribs (21 pairs instead of 20).

Page 6: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

Asian elephants

• Asian elephants have smaller rounded ears.

• Asian elephants inhabit grasslands, forests and scrublands.

Elephant tusks• You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant

tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant. Both male and female African elephants grow tusks, but only male Asian elephants grow them. A tusk-less adult elephant is likely to be a female Asian elephant.

• Elephant tusks are made from ivory.

Page 8: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

What do elephants eat?

• These magnificent mammals spend between 12 to 18 hours eating grass, plants and fruit every single day! They use their long trunks to smell their food and lift it up into their mouth – yum!

Page 9: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

All that eating means one thing - an awful lot of poo! Each elephant creates about one tonne of poo per week, which keeps the soil fertile and disperses tree seeds. Elephants also dig waterholes and create footpaths, literally changing the landscape around them!

Page 10: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

Elephant Ears

• The elephant’s large ears are there to serve many different purposes.

• The size of the ears create a wide surface area to radiate excess heat in hot climates.

• They also help to improve the elephant’s hearing to make out sounds from up to 4km in distance, and finally they are also used as a communication tool with other animals.

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-elephants-have-big-ears-2/

Page 11: Elephants...Elephant tusks •You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant

The ears, along with the tail, eyes and trunk of an elephant are also used for communication. Rapid ear flapping can mean excitement or aggression, a swishing or wagging tail can signify happiness, and head shaking can mean that they feel threatened and/or are trying to intimidate. But please don’t be too alarmed if you spot any of these actions on safari as sometimes elephants will flap their ears to cool themselves down – so it’s all about reading their body language as a whole.