1. There are three different species of Elephant – the African Savannah Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant. Elephants are known for their large ears, tusks made of ivory and their trunks – which are actually a fusion of their nose and upper lip.
2.Elephants are the world’s largest land animal! Male African Elephants can reach 3m tall and weigh between 4,000 -7,500kg. Asian Elephants are slightly smaller, reaching 2.7m tall and weighing 3,000– 6,000kg. They are known for their large ears, tusks made of ivory and their trunks – which are actually a fusion of their nose and upper lip.
3. There’s an easy way to tell the African Elephants apart from their Asian cousins – their ears! African Elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa! Asian Elephants’ ears are smaller and shaped like India. Cool, huh?
4.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.
5. Until recently, African Forest Elephants were thought to be a subspecies of the African Elephant, but new research discovered that they are actually a separate species entirely. These Elephants live in the tropical forests of Africa’s Congo Basin. They have straighter tusks and more rounded ears than Savannah Elephants.