Elephant

An elephant in general is the largest existing land mammals and elephants have the biggest brains in the animal kingdom. Elephants are magnificent zoo animals. Both African elephants and Asian elephants always draw attention of zoo visitors.

The Asian elephant has been captured, tamed and worked by people for more than 4,000 years. Elephants can easily move through swamps or climb mountainous terrain that is too difficult for a horse. The elephants' hearts beat 28 times a minute.

Elephant trunk

Elephants are endowed with versatile trunks, which have over 100,000 muscles units that make it extremely dexterous.  The trunk of an elephant has no bones or cartilage except for a tiny bit of cartilage at the tip of the trunk which separates the nostrils. Each elephant nostril is lined with a membrane.

The elephant septum is a partition dividing the two nostril cavities and it is composed of tiny muscle units. There is a single “finger” at the tip of the Asian elephant’s trunk whereas the African elephant has two “fingers”.  Elephants do not use their trunks like a straw to drink through. The elephant sucks water into the trunk and squirt it into their mouths. Female elephants are usually smaller than male elephants and can be easily distinguished by the two mammary glands located on the chest.

Pictures of elephants

Below are some pictures of elephants zoo animals.

An elephant zoo animal at a zoo

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