Large grazing mammal with thick, grey wrinkled skin, large ears, a long flexible trunk, and huge curving tusks. There are fingerlike projections at the end trunk used for grasping food and carrying it to its mouth. The trunk is also used for carrying water to the mouth. The elephant is herbivorous and, because of its huge size, much of its time must be spent feeding on leaves, shoots, bamboo, reeds, grasses and fruits and, where possible, cultivated crops such as maize and bananas. They are the largest living land animal.

Elephants usually live in herds containing between 20–40 females (cows), led by a mature, experienced cow. Most bull elephants live alone or in small groups; young males remain with the herd until they reach sexual maturity. Elephants have the longest gestation period of any animal (18–23 months between conception and birth) and usually produce one calf , which takes between 10–15 years to reach maturity. Elephants can live up to 60 years in the wild, but those in captivity have been known to reach over 65. There are two species of elephant, the African and the Indian or Asian elephant.

Elephants have one of the lowest metabolic rates among placental mammals. Their tusks, which are initially tipped with enamel but later consist entirely of ivory, continue growing throughout life. They are preceded by milk tusks, which are shed at an early age.

Species differences
The African elephant is much the larger of the two species, growing to heights of 4 m/13 ft and weighing up to 8 tonnes compared with the 2.7 m/9 ft and 4 tonnes of the Indian elephant. The African elephant has larger ears and longer tusks than its Asian relative (many Asian elephants, particularly the females are tuskless). The African elephant has a sloping forehead and a hollow back, whereas the Asian elephant has two domes on its forehead just above its ears, and an arched back. The trunk of the African elephant is ridged with two fingerlike projections; the Asian species only has a smooth trunk with one finger. The African species has four nails on its front foot and three on its hind (back) foot, whereas the Asian elephant has five on its front foot and four on its hind. African elephants live only in Africa, south of the Sahara desert. The Indian or Asian elephant can be found in parts of India and Southeast Asia.

Young Asian elephants are hairy, and in this respect somewhat resemble the extinct mammoth genus; the adults have smooth, nearly naked skin. The African species is of fiercer disposition and can move rapidly over rough ground.

Endangered species
Elephants are slaughtered for ivory, and this, coupled with the fact that they reproduce slowly and do not breed readily in captivity, is leading to their extinction. In Africa, overhunting caused numbers to collapse during the 1980s and the elephant population of East Africa is threatened with extinction. There were 1.3 million African elephants in 1981; fewer than 700,000 in 1988; 600,000 in 1990; and fewer than 580,000 in 1997. They were placed on the CITES list of most endangered species in 1989, and a world ban on trade in ivory was imposed in 1990, resulting in an apparent drop in poaching. In 1997, at the 10th CITES convention, the elephant was downlisted to CITES Appendix II (vulnerable) and the ban on ivory exportation was lifted.

The Asian elephant was also listed on the CITES endangered list; its wild population in 1996 was only 35,000–54,000. There are about 10,000 working elephants in Asia, most of which are caught from the wild and 'tamed' by starvation and brutality.

It was estimated in 1997 that in Sri Lanka alone elephants might be extinct within ten years. The country's government maintained that there were 4,000 animals left, whereas the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka claimed there were only 2,500.

Classification
Elephants belong to the phylum Chordata, class Mammalia (mammals), order Proboscidea, family Elephantidae. There are two species, the African elephant(Loxodonta africana), and the Indian or Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).