The elephant's most dangerous predator is the human. Besides our species, no other animal eats or hunts them. The elephant acts as a separate part of the grassland food web that consumes bark. The elephant eats more than bark though. They also consume grass, leaves, twigs, various types of fruit, and seed pods (2). Elephants can also feast upon farm crops (1). Elephants drink up to 30-50 gallons of water per day (2). Molars give elephants the ability to chew their food (1). Elephants have a large appetite. They can consume 300-400 lbs of food a day!
During youth, the elephants learn how to manuver their trunk to properly feed themselves (2). Elephants can react and communicate to each through sounds. The sounds produced are loud and can be heard from miles away (1). Sound travels a different way. When an elephant makes a sound, the "rumble" produced travels through the ground and reaches other elephants skin. The sound travels faster through the ground than the air, but both ways are used (4). Elephants also have a powerful memory (4). Matriarchs use their memeory to guide their herd to water holes they have found in the past (4). It is said that elephants display human emotions such as "grief and joy" (4). Here's some more information about the herds- As said before, the matriarch leads the herd and is usually the largest and oldest female. The herd can range from eight to two hundred elephants (4). Male elephants will eventually leave the herd and wander alone or join other herds. The matriarch provides the strongholds of the herd and family.
Elephants differ from other mammals in strength, not only for their size, but this particular physical characteristic-the trunk. The trunk has multiple purposes. Not only can the trunk lift objects, they can virtually tear limbs off trees (1). The AWF Wildlife foundation defines the trunk "as a nose, hand, extra foot, signaling device and tool for gathering food, siphoning water, dusting, and digging" (2). Elephants use their trunk as a hose to spray themselves to keep cool (3). The trunk has the ability to dig holes during the dry season (3). Elephants do this to find water in underground springs and receive important minerals (3). Elephants can revive forests! When they consume fruit they excrete seeds and produce more trees (3). Therefore elephants keep trees growing in their habitat and trees depend on elephants to survive.
Did you know that tusks are used to identify a specific elephant? Similar to our right and left hand, elephants can be either right or left tusked. Elephants use their "favored side" more often to prevent damage for the other tusk (2).
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Picture sources: http://www.kenyatravelideas.com/images/Elephant_tusks.jpg- tusk picture