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🐾 African Elephants
The biggest land animals on Earth, with trunks that can pick up a single leaf — and ears shaped like Africa.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
📍 Where is it?
📍 Serengeti, Tanzania — see it on the big map →
African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. A big male can weigh as much as six cars and stand about 3 metres tall at the shoulder. They roam the grasslands of Africa, including the Serengeti in Tanzania, in family groups led by a wise grandmother elephant.
An elephant's trunk is one of the most amazing tools in nature. It has about 40,000 muscles and no bones at all. With it, an elephant can pick up a single leaf, suck up water to drink, or pull down a whole tree branch. Elephants also use their trunks like a snorkel when they swim, and to trumpet hellos to each other.
Look at an African elephant's big ears — people say they are shaped like the map of Africa. Elephants flap them to keep cool in the hot sun, like fanning themselves with giant fans.
🤩 Wow fact!
An elephant's trunk has about 40,000 muscles and no bones — it can pick up one leaf or pull down a tree branch.
🧠 Quiz time!
What are an African elephant's big ears said to be shaped like?