One of the best known “big five” is the Elephant which is part of the Proboscidea family and is the class of Mammalia. They were once classified along with other thick skinned animals in a now invalid order, Pachydermata.

At the moment there are three living species – the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant. Mammoths of course are part of the same family, however since the last ice age around 10,000 years a go they have become extinct.  At that time the Mammoth was the largest land animal alive but today it is the Elephant. An Elephants gestation period is around 22 months and this is the longest of any land animal. At birth an elephant calf is commonly around 120 kg in weight and can live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer.

Many people are aware that Elephants are big animals but the largest recorded elephant that was shot in Angola in 1956 was male and weight an astonishing 12,000 kg! It’s shoulder height was 4.2 meters which is about 1 meter taller than the average male African Elephant. (more…)

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