Elephants

Elephants are the largest mammal of the Elephanatidae family that having the most distinct
features of their large ears and trunk. The closest relatives that still exist include Sirenia and
Hyrax. Elephants are herbivorous animals that eating a lot of different types of plants, mostly
eating leaves, bark, fruits of trees and shrubs. They can be found in various habitats, such as
savannas, forests, deserts, and swamps. They tend to be near water. The species of elephants are
classified according to anatomy and morphology.
Asian elephants, or Elephas maximus can be identified by their smaller, rounded ears. In
addition, Asian elephants also have a huge body, convex back, smoother skin, horizontal abdomen
and sometimes curved in the middle, and the tip of their trunk has only one extension. They have
one more toenail on each foot than the others that having five toenails on the front feet and four
on the back. The males develop tusks but the female don’t. Full grown males are approximately
12 feet tall and weigh up to 11,000 pounds, while the females are smaller than the couple.
The Asian elephant is one that is very domesticated in a variety of ways. They are used by
humans daily for working purposes and treated very well. They are also a part of various
ceremonies that take place around Asia.
Asian elephants are further classified into four sub-species. They are Sumatran elephants,
Sri Lanka elephants, Indian elephants, and Borneo elephants. All of these sub-species are named
for the locations that found. They have different color and depigmentation levels.
The second species of elephants is African elephants, or Loxodonta Africana. They have
concave back, wrinkled skin, slanted belly areas, and two finger-like extensions at the tip of the
trunk. Moreover, the African elephants have extremely large ears and both the males and the
females grow tusks. They can grow more than 12 feet tall and weigh about 14,000 pounds.
Although most of them live in Savannah desert, they also live in the thick forests.
African elephant interactions with humans is not as good as the Asian elephants. They seem
to be more aggressive towards humans than the Asian elephants. The majority of them live in the
wild. Only a few of them are used by humans daily for working purposes in the forests of Africa.
The African elephants are further classified into two sub-species. They are Savannah
elephants and Forest elephants. Both of them are named for the locations that are their natural
habitat. The Savannah elephants is also called the Bush elephants. The Forest elephants have
smaller and rounded ears, whereas the tusks are straighter and thinner than the other.