Special charactristics:

Cool ears
Elephants' ears are a little like an air conditioner. As elephants flap their wet ears on a
hot day, the blood flowing through the many blood vessels in the ears is cooled. This,
in turn, cools their large bodies on warm days. -

• Elephants often spray

themselves with water or roll in
the mud or dust for protection
from the sun and biting insects.
 Tooth and tusk
• Tusks are an elephant's incisor teeth and are the only incisors an elephant has. They
are used for defense, digging for water and food, and lifting things. The tusks present
at birth are milk teeth, which fall out after a year when they are about 12 inches (5
centimeters) long. Permanent tusks extend beyond the lips at about two to three
years and grow throughout the animal’s life. -
• Elephants also have four molars, one on the top and one on the bottom on both
sides of the mouth. One molar can weigh about 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) and is
the size of a brick! Each elephant can go through up to six sets of molars in its
lifetime.
 Life in a herd
All elephants live in close social groups called herds, usually made up of related females
and their offspring. The leader of the herd is known as the matriarch; she is usually the
oldest and most experienced female in the group. The matriarch remembers where and
how to find food and water, how to avoid predators, and the best places for shelter. She
also keeps the younger elephants in line and teaches them how to behave in elephant
society. In some cases the group may include one of the matriarch’s sisters and her
offspring. When groups get too big, “bond groups” split off but maintain a loose
association.
Adult males don't usually live in a herd. Once male elephants are old enough to find their
own food and protect themselves, they leave the herd and live on their own or form
bachelor herds with other males. Only after they become adults do they visit herds of
females, and that is only for short periods of time to breed. Bulls do not take part in
caring for the young.
-
 A unique nose
• An elephant's trunk is both an upper lip and a nose. There are 8 major muscles
on each side of the trunk and 150,000 muscle fascicles (portions of muscles) for
the entire trunk. There are no bones or cartilage in this unique appendage.

• The trunk is still a nose, too, and has two nostrils at the end that suck air up
the long nasal passages and into the lungs. Elephants also use their trunks to
drink, but the water doesn’t go all the way up the nose like a straw; instead,
the elephant sucks water only part way up the trunk, curls it toward its
mouth, tilts its head up, and lets the water from the trunk pour in. -
 Sound off!
Elephants make many different sounds; humans cannot hear some of these
sounds, as their frequency is too low for our ears.
Elephants use these sounds to communicate with each other over long distances.
Have you ever had your stomach growl at an unfortunate moment? Well, stomach
growls are a welcome sound in elephant society;
a stomach that makes loud rumbling and growling noises seems to signal to others
that everything is “okay.