 | The elephant is the largest animal to walk on Earth. An elephant can carry a load of 1200 pounds. They eat 300 pounds of food a day. An elephant baby can weigh 200 pounds at birth. Elephants can live up to 70 years. |
| Elephants can be trained to carry logs with their trunks, and have been used in the forestry industry in Asia for many years. |  |
| Elephants also use their trunks for drinking water, bathing, and eating and communicating. |  |
 | Recently it was discovered that elephants can communicate over a distance of several miles using infrasonic sounds inaudible to humans. |  |
 | Elephants use their ears as a cooling system. Blood flows through veins in the ears and as the elephant flaps his ears, the blood cools and flows through his body to cool off other parts. |
 | Elephant feet are large and round. They distribute the large animal's weight effectively. In the past, elephants were killed and their feet were made into umbrella stands and small tables for tourists. Now elephants are protected by special laws. |
| There are two kinds of elephants: the African elephant and the Indian elephant. African elephants can be identified by the larger ears. The African elephant grows up to 10 feet tall and weighs as much as 12,000 pounds. |  |
 | The Indian elephant grows up to 9 feet tall, and weighs up to 8000 pounds. It's easier to identify because of its smaller ears. Most circus elephants are Indian elephants. Another name for the Indian elephant is the Asian elephant. |
 | Unfortunately, there is a growing conflict between elephants and humans as more of the elephants' habitat is developed. Elephants can destroy the crops of an entire village in a single night, and this also causes conflict. At the moment, there are about 600,000 elephants remaining in Africa. |
The greatest threat to elephants is the
ivory trade. Most commercial ivory comes from elephant's
tusks. From 1979 to 1989 was a bad time for African elephants. About 70,000 wild elephants were killed for ivory each year. In 1989 an international treaty limited the trade in ivory, decreasing the number of elephants killed, but elephants are still being killed for ivory. Please don't
ever buy anything made from ivory! Don't even buy anything that
looks like ivory!