Elephants are the largest land animals now living

Elephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantine: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant. All other species and genera of Elephantidae are extinct, some since the last ice age: dwarf forms of mammoths may have survived as late as 2,000 BC.Elephants are the largest land animals now living.The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms. They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years.This male weighed about 12,000 kilograms,with a shoulder height of 4.2 metres, a metre taller than the average male African elephant.

African Elephant
The Elephants of the genus Loxodonta, known collectively as African elephants, are currently found in 37 countries in Africa.African elephants are distinguished from Asian elephants in several ways, the most noticeable being their much larger ears. In addition, the African elephant is typically larger than the Asian elephant and has a concave back. In Asian elephants only males have tusks, but both males and females of African elephants have tusks and are usually less hairy than their Asian cousins.African elephants have traditionally been classified as a single species comprising two distinct subspecies, namely the savanna elephant and the forest elephant, but recent DNA analysis suggests that these may actually constitute distinct species.This split is not universally accepted by experts and a third species of African elephant has also been proposed.

Asian Elephant
The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, is smaller than the African. It has smaller ears, and typically, only the males have large external tusks.The world population of Asian elephants are also called Indian Elephants is estimated to be around 60,000, about a tenth of the number of African elephants. More precisely, it is estimated that there are between 38,000 and 53,000 wild elephants and between 14,500 and 15,300 domesticated elephants in Asia with perhaps another 1,000 scattered around zoos in the rest of the world.The Asian elephants' decline has possibly been more gradual than the African and caused primarily by poaching and habitat destruction by human encroachment.

Diet
Elephants are herbivores, and spend up to 16 hours a day eating plants. Their diet is highly variable, both seasonally and across habitats and regions. Elephants are primarily browsers, feeding on the leaves, bark, and fruits of trees and shrubs, but they may also eat considerably grasses and herbs. As is true for other non-ruminant ungulates, elephants only digest approximately 40% of what they eat.They make up for their digestive system's lack of efficiency in volume.

Skin
Elephants are colloquially called pachyderms, which means thick-skinned animals. An elephant's skin is extremely tough around most parts of its body and measures about 2.5 centimetres thick. However, the skin around the mouth and inside of the ear is paper-thin. Normally, the skin of an Asian is covered with more hair than its African counterpart. This is most noticeable in the young. Asian calves are usually covered with a thick coat of brownish red fuzz. The species of elephants are typically grayish in colour, but the Africans very often appear brown or reddish from wallowing in mud holes of coloured soil. Wallowing is an important behaviour in elephant society. Not only is it important for socialization, but the mud acts as a sunscreen, protecting their skin from harsh ultraviolet radiation. Although tough, an elephant's skin is very sensitive. Without regular mud baths to protect it from burning, as well as from insect bites and moisture loss, an elephant's skin would suffer serious damage. After bathing, the elephant will usually use its trunk to blow dirt on its body to help dry and bake on its new protective coat.