Elephant Facts

African elephants are the favorite animals of many people around the world. Afican elephants are larger than Asian elephants. The males can stand 12 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh 12,000 pounds, while females are a bit smaller in the 8,000 to 11,000 pound range. They have four molars that weigh about 11 pounds each, and these are replaced six times throughout their lives as the front ones wear down and the back ones shift forward.

African Elephant tusks can weigh from 50 to 100 pounds and stretch up to 8 feet in length. Both cows and bulls have tusks. The two main african elephant species are the African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).

African elephant conservation efforts are underway throughout the world, but every once in a while african elephant communities grow too large and need to be culled to preserve the ecosystem. Just take a look around to find african elephant facts and pictures of african elephants. We also have created a directory of zoos that have African elephants and found a live African elephant camera!

AfricanElephants.com has a great unique feature: Ask the Expert! We have partnered with an expert in the field of African Elephants and he will answer many user submitted questions. Check out the questions and answers that he has already completed. Our african elephant expert Tim is an experienced researcher who often spends his summer in Africa studying elephants up close.

The scientific name for the African elephant is Loxodonta africana. There are currently two subspecies, the savanna or bush elephant Loxodonta africana africana and the forest elephant, Loxodonta africana cyclotis. Some researchers think these are actually two distinct species but this is still being debated.

According to the 2007 African Elephant Status Report, a document put out by a group of elephant researchers, there are currently over 550,000 elephants in Africa. It is not possible to know exactly how many elephants there are in the entire continent because individuals are born and die every day and sometimes animals are missed when a count is conducted. For example, if researchers are counting the number of elephants in a national park, they might miss some that are in dense brush or under trees. Also, the number above does not include African elephants in captivity.

Male African elephants can grow to be about 10.8 ft (3.3m) tall while females are smaller, growing up to about 8.5 ft (2.6m). The average height of humans is around 5.5 ft (1.7m) so elephants can be anywhere from 25% larger to double the height of people.