Magnificent Elephants

Elephants are peaceful, and they get along with almost all other animals. They live in herds of 10 to 50 or more. The leader of a herd is usually a female. Elephants need a climate that ranges from warm to very hot. They don't have a layer of fat under their inch-thick skin to protect them from the cold. They get stomach cramps if the temperature drops close to freezing.
Elephants sometimes travel long distances. They may leave a region in search of a better supply of food and water. Elephants usually travel in single file at a speed of about 6 miles an hour. They have only one gait, a sort of gliding shuffle. An elephant herd makes little noise as it shuffles single file through the jungle. When going down steep hills, elephants like to slide on their bellies.
Elephants are among the best swimmers of all land animals. They bathe in lakes and rivers, and like to wallow in muddy water. An elephant cools off on hot days by giving itself a shower with its trunk.
The trunk of an elephant is amazingly strong and useful. It is a boneless, flexible mass of flesh and muscles that measures about 6 feet long and weighs about 300 pounds. The elephant smells, drinks, and feeds itself with its trunk. No animal has a better nose. The elephant depends more on its sense of smell than on any other sense. Their trunks are almost always sniffing, either high in the air or down along the ground. The elephant uses its trunk to carry food and water to its mouth. It can even give itself a shower by shooting a stream of water through its trunk. An elephant's trunk can hold about 1 and a half gallons of water.
Elephants feel with the sensitive tips of their trunks. They can tell the shape of an object, and whether it is rough or smooth and hot or cold. The elephant also uses its trunk to caress its mate or its young.
An elephants legs are great round pillars. Its feet are nearly round. Part of each foot is a tough, spongy material that acts as a cushion. The foot swells under the elephant's weight, and becomes smaller when the weight is removed by lifting the foot. An elephant may sink deep into mud. But it can pull its leg out easily because the elephant's feet become smaller when the animal lifts them.
A mother elephant carries her young inside her body for 20 to 22 months, longer than any other animal. She almost always bears only one calf (baby elephant) at a time, but occasionally may have twins. At birth, an elephant weighs about 200 pounds and stands about 3 feet tall. The calf nurses by curling its trunk over its head so its mouth can reach the mother's breasts. The calf drinks its mother's milk until it is 3 or 4 years old.
Elephants eat grass, leaves, small branches, and bark. They do not eat the flesh of other animals. Tender leaves at the tops of small trees are a favorite food. Elephants get these leaves by either knocking the trees down or pulling them up out of the ground. Using their head as a battering ram, an elephant can knock down a 30-foot-high tree with a diameter of almost 2 feet. Elephants rip off the bark of trees with their tusks. Other favorite foods include berries, mangoes, coconuts, corn, and sugar cane. Elephants also like salt. They seem to eat almost all the time. Their stomachs rumble noisily as they eat. To drink, an elephant sucks up a trunkful of water. Then it puts its trunk into its mouth and squirts the water down its throat. The water goes down with a gurgling sound.
An elephant reaches full size when it is about 20 years old. Females can bear young at the age of 14 or 15. Elephants begin to show signs of old age at about 40. Most of them live about 60 years.
The World Book Encyclopedia Volume 6, 1964 USA Field Enterprises Education Corp.
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