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The African elephant is the largest living land animal, renowned for its intelligence, memory, unique communication methods and amazing social behaviour. The heaviest elephant ever recorded weighed about 7,500 kg but on average they weigh about 5,400 kg. Initially there was thought to be the only two species of the Elephantidae family - the African elephant along with the Asian elephant. Recently a distinction was made between the African Bush Elephant »Loxodonta Africana and the African Forest Elephant »Loxodonta Cyclotis as two separate species (still collectively known as the African Elephant) - which means there are actually three living species of Elephantidae. In addition to being bigger than the Asian elephant, the African elephant has proportionately larger ears and tusks and a sloping forehead. It also has two "fingers" at the end of its trunk, whereas the Asian elephant has only one. An elephant's trunk is almost as capable as the human hand yet is remarkably strong - it can delicately pick up a seed pod or tear down a tree branch. They also use it to smell, for communicating with each other and sucking up water for drinking. Elephant tusks are actually just extremely elongated incisor teeth that keep growing throughout the elephant's life. Tusks function as multipurpose tools to dig for water, chisel bark off trees and as weapons to defend themselves against aggressors and predators. Elephants are nocturnal and diurnal, needing to forage for more than 14 hours a day to find a considerable quantity of food - an adult can consume as much as 300 kg in a day! It sleeps for just a few minutes whilst standing. They like to visit waterholes at least once a day to drink, bathe and wallow in mud. Typically, they drink between 70 to 150 litres a day. The elephant that roam the desert areas of the Kaokoveld and Damaraland in Namibiadrink once every few days.

Small family groups are led by a matriarch, an older female who has decades of knowledge accumulated from experiencing varying climatic conditions. She usually has other female relatives joining with their collective offspring.
Male African bush elephants.
2 tons or more or even less it depends on its growth and where it grows

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9y ago

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