The Largest Land Mammal, Elephant.

One of my favorite animal is elephants. I started to like elephant because Tulus's song, Gajah. I thought the lyric is meaningful, i mean it has a deep meaning. And yeah that the reason why i love Elephant. I hope you will love elephant  and care about them after reading this post because you know theirs habitats are being destroyed. So here we go!

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Subkingdom: Bilateria 

Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia 

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Infraphylum: Gnathostomata 

Superclass: Tetrapoda 

Class: Mammalia 

Subclass: Theria

Infraclass: Eutheria

Order: Proboscidea

Family: Elephantidae      

Genera & species: Loxodonta africana (African savannah elephant), Loxodonta cyclotis (African forest elephant), Elephas maximus (Asian elephant)

Elephants are the largest land mammal on earth. At the turn of the 20th century, there were a few million African elephants and about 100,000 Asian elephants. Today, there are an estimated 450,000 - 700,000 African elephants and between 35,000 - 40,000 wild Asian elephants.They have characteristic long nose, or trunks; floppy ears; and wide, thick legs.

Male elephants are called bulls and females are called cows. After mating, the cow will be pregnant for around 22 months. When the baby elephant is finally born, it can weigh around 200 lbs. (91 kg) and stand about 3 feet (1 m) tall.

A baby elephant is called a calf. As the calf grows, it will gain 2 to 3 lbs. every day until its first birthday. By the time they are 2 or 3 years old, calves are ready to be weaned. The baby stage of the elephant's life extends from birth until complete weaning, which can be anywhere between 5 and 10 years of age. Newborn babies weigh approximately 100kg and are about 90 cm high at their shoulders. Male calves will wander off on their own, while females will stay with their mothers. When they are 13 to 20 years old, they will be mature enough to have their own young. Elephants live 30 to 50 years in the wild. 

There are two species of elephant. The asian elephant and the african elephant live on seperate continents and have many unique features. There are several subspecies that belong to one or the other of these two main species, though there is disagreement over just how many subspecies there are.

African elephants are the larger of the two species. They grow 8.2 to 13 feet (2.5 to 4 meters) from shoulder to toe and weigh 5,000 to 14,000 lbs. (2,268 to 6,350 kilograms), according to the National Geographic. Asian elephants can grow up to 6.6 to 9.8 feet (2 to 3 m) from shoulder to toe and weigh up to 2.25 to 5.5 tons (2,041 to 4,990 kg).

Elephants eat grasses, roots, fruit and bark. They use their tusks to pull the bark from trees and dig roots out of the ground. An elephant has an appetite that matches its size. An adult can eat 300 lbs. (136 kg) of food in a day, according to the National Geographic.

African elephants live in sub-Saharan Africa, the rain forests of Central and West Africa and the Sahel desert in Mali. Asian elephants live in Nepal, India and Southeast Asia in scrub forests and rain forests. Elephants are able to survive in a variety of different locations because of the huge variety of food sources that they consume. Many people assume that elephants that are in the wild only live in the grasslands. While that is one of their main habitats, they can also be found in the desert of the Savannah, forest areas, where there are swamps, and everything in between.

According to the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Asian elephant is endangered. Though it is not known exactly how many Asian elephants remain, it is believed that the population is decreasing. The African elephant is considered vulnerable. Overall, its populations are increasing. According to the African Wildlife Foundation, there are around 470,000 African elephants roaming the globe.

So what do you think guys? I hope you like this post and started to care about them!