ELEPHANT BIO FACTS
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Weight: 5,000 to 14,000 lbs (2,268 to 6,350 kg)
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Height at the shoulder, 8.2 to 13 ft (2.5 to 4 m)
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The Africa Elephant is the largest of all land mammals
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They consume as much as 300-495 pounds of food per day
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One ear from a bull African elephant weighs more than 100 pounds
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Their tusks are of ivory and are actually enormously enlarged incisors
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They have the largest brains in the animal kingdom
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The elephant's eyes are small and its eyesight is poor
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The elephant's foot is a spongy pad with four or five toes and toenails. The pad acts like a cushion with each step, absorbing the impact and taking some strain off the leg.
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Life Span - elephants can live for up to 70 years
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Elephants are able to swim for long distances
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Elephants do not have sweat glands.
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An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things-especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles. African elephants have two fingerlike features on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items.
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Elephants can give birth every three to four years. Gestation period is almost two years. Babies are roughly 250 pounds when born
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Elephants have 6 sets of molar teeth; when the last set is lost, the animal is unable to eat and eventually dies.
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Elephants normally walk about 4 mph
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Elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating
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Males leave the herd between the ages of 12 and 15
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They live in tight social units led by an older matriarch