INTRODUCTION MEET THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT A family of African elephants gathers in a shallow river The young elephants wrestle in the mud and grab sticks with their trunks As the young elephants play the adults keep a careful watch African elephants are a kind of animal called a mammal Other kinds of animals include insects fish amphibians reptiles and birds African elephants play in the mud
African elephants are vertebrates and have warm blood just like all mammals Mammals belong to a larger group of animals called vertebrates All vertebrates have backbones Mammals are warm blooded which means they can keep their bodies warm even in cold weather All mammals have hair or fur on their bodies All mammal mothers make milk for their babies African elephants are similar to other mammals in many ways But African elephants also have traits that make them unique
CHAPTER 1 WHAT DO AFRICAN ELEPHANTS LOOK LIKE The African elephant is a huge mammal with gray skin enormous tusks and a long trunk Adult males or bulls can weigh as much as 14,000 pounds 6,350 kilograms Females or cows reach about half that weight African elephants are the largest living animals on land Both male and female elephants have tusks Tusks are a kind of teeth They grow longer as the elephant grows older African elephants use their tusks to dig for water in dry riverbeds They also use tusks to defend themselves DID YOU KNOW ASIAN ELEPHANTS have smaller bodies than African elephants An Asian elephant's back is rounded but an African elephant's back dips in between the animal's shoulders and hips
African elephants use their long trunks to smell breathe find food suck up water and greet other elephants Two projections at the tip of the trunk act like fingers An elephant can lift whole trees or pick up very small objects The ears let heat escape the elephant's body This helps the animal keep cool under the blazing African sun Male African elephants measure from 20 to 24 feet 6 to 7 3 meters in length Female African elephants usually measure about 2 feet 0 6 m less than that
