The African elephant is the largest
living land animal and weighs up to 5,400 kg. It inhabits the Savannah,
brush, forest, river valleys, and semi-desert regions of Africa
south of the Sahara Desert. Besides its greater size, it differs
from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping
forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk,
compared to only one in the Asian species.
As vegetarians, elephants require much food, sometimes consuming
more than 225 kg of plant matter a day. Their trunk is employed
to pull branches off trees, uproot grass, pluck fruit, and to place
food in their mouths. The trunk is also used for smell, touch and
in drinking, greeting or throwing dust for dust baths. In both sexes,
the two incisor teeth of the upper jaw grow to form tusks, and it
is for this ivory, used at one time in the manufacture of piano
keys, billiard balls, and other objects, that hunters have slaughtered
thousands of these magnificent animals.
|
