African bush elephant
Loxodonta africana
— Where the name comes from
Elephant comes from the Greek eléphas, which meant both the ivory and the animal. The genus name Loxodonta means “slanting tooth” (loxós, slanting + odoús, tooth), after the lozenges that pattern the grinding surface of the molars.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Elephants
- Habitat
- Savannah, bushland, semi-desert, open forest
- Range
- Sub-Saharan Africa, in ever more isolated populations
- Size
- 3–4 m at the shoulder, up to 6,000 kg
- Diet
- Herbivore — up to 150 kg of plant matter a day
- Lifespan
- 60–70 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The largest living land animal.
- 02
The trunk has some 40,000 muscle bundles and can lift a log or pick up a seed.
- 03
Herds are matriarchal: the oldest female keeps the map of the waterholes.
— What sets it apart
Elephants communicate with infrasound below 20 Hz, under the threshold of human hearing, which travels through the ground for more than 10 km. They receive it through their feet: fatty pads and bone carry the vibration up to the inner ear. One herd can “hear” another beyond the horizon, literally through the soil.
