Elephant

Elephants are among featured San Diego Zoo animals. The elephant is the largest animal that lives on land. A male elephant can grow to be thirteen feet tall. Elephants weigh between ten and fourteen thousand pounds.

San Diego Zoo elephants

Elephants at San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California

San Diego Zoo has both African elephants and Asian elephants. You can get pretty close to the elephants. But, if you get too close to them, you might get dust on you. In San Diego Zoo, African elephants and Asian elephants roam the same space of the San Diego Zoo, so watch out for their ears to spot which are Asian elephants and which are African elephants!

• Click here to read more about African elephants.
• Click here to read about Asian elephants.

Why do elephants flap their ears?

An elephant 's ears are like air conditioners. On a hot day, you will see that elephants often flap their ears. This cools the elephants' large bodies.

What do elephants eat?

Elephants eat all types of vegetation such as grass, small branches, fruit, and bark from trees. Elephants especially like leaves from the top branches. Each day, an elephant can eat about 220-440 pounds or 100-200 kgs. An elephant drinks about 30 gallons of water each day (or 113.5 liters).

The San Diego Zoo elephants and the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park elephants eat less. Elephants at San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park eat about 125 pounds (57 kilograms) of food each day. Most of their diet is hay, herbivore pellets, and acacia browse.