How Big is a Baby Elephant?

How Big is a Baby Elephant?

By Kate Wilkinson-Brindle
Illustrated by Amy Robinson

Introduction

The elephant is Earth’s largest living land
animal. A male African elephant can grow up
to 3 metres tall and weigh between 4,000 and
7,500 kilograms (kg).
An average 10 year old human weighs around
32 kg, so it would take about 230 Year Five
pupils to equal the weight of one large African elephant!
In Africa there are two species of elephants – the African bush
elephant Loxodonta africana and the African forest elephant
Loxodonta cyclotis. The scientific name Loxodonta means ‘slanted
tooth’ in ancient Greek. The Asian elephant, or Elephus maximus,
lives in southeast Asia.

Anatomy

Trunk

There are around 150,000 separate muscles in an adult
elephant’s trunk. Elephants use their trunks to pick up food
or suck up water when eating or drinking. They also use
their trunks to smell, touch and make sounds.

Tusks

Male and female African elephants and male Asian elephants
have tusks. Each tusk is actually a huge elongated tooth.
Elephants use their tusks for defence and to dig for food or water.

Skin

Elephants have thick but sensitive skin. They take care of their skin
by bathing regularly in mud or dust, which protects it from biting
insects and prevents sun damage.

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The Life Cycle of an Elephant

Elephants are mammals: they give birth
to live babies, which feed on their
mother’s milk.

A female elephant is usually ready to
mate between the ages of 15 and 18
years old. A male elephant can tell if a
female is ready to mate by her scent.

A female elephant stays pregnant with

her baby for around 22 months. This is

called the gestation period. Elephants baby elephant by Derek Keats (flickr)

have the longest gestation period of all mammals!

Female elephants stop having calves at around 50 years old, but
they continue helping to protect the younger members of the herd.
Elephants live for about 60–70 years in the wild.

A Newborn Elephant

A baby elephant is called a calf. An average calf weighs around

100 kg at birth – that’s the same as about three Year Five pupils!

A newborn calf is about 1 metre tall, and it can stand up within

20 minutes of being born. After

only one hour, the elephant calf

can begin to walk around, but it

may be unsteady for a few days.

After two or three days, the calf is

strong enough to join the herd.

An elephant calf feeds on its

mother’s milk for the first three to

five years. As it begins to eat more a newborn Asian elephant
vegetation, the baby is weaned calf feeding
off its mother’s milk.

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Elephant Behaviour

Elephants live in a family group called a herd, which is led by the
oldest female – the matriarch. The other females and their babies
all trust the matriarch and follow her lead. Adult male elephants
either live alone or in small herds of males called bachelor herds.
Elephants are very sociable. They make a wide variety of sounds;
they also use body language, touch, scent and vibration to
communicate with each other.
Scientists think that elephants
are at least as intelligent as
apes. They have been observed
using tools, comforting each
other, and they seem to
recognise themselves in
a mirror.

Elephant Gardeners

Elephants have an important role in the ecosystems that they
live in. They are herbivores, so they spend most of their day
grazing. All of this eating results in huge amounts of elephant poo
or dung! Thankfully, this dung improves the soil, helping plants
to thrive.

African forest elephants are known as the gardeners of the forest
because they create pathways through the thick woodland, which
allows light to reach the ground so that new plants can grow.

Final Fun Fact

The seeds of many African trees will
not grow successfully unless they
have passed through an elephant’s
digestive system first!

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