016b Desert adapted elephant dust bathing in Damaraland Photo by Giles Laurent🐘

Photo: Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesProboscideaElephantidae
Mammals

🐘Elephant

Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach, 1797)

非洲草原象(学名:Loxodonta africana)又名普通非洲象,體型較大,毛色為灰色,後臀與前肩同高,象牙極長,並向上彎曲。 非洲象是象科的一个属,于1825年由乔治·居维叶男爵命名。成年非洲雄象高于3.5米,最高更可达4.1米。体重约为4至5吨,最重记录有7.3吨。它们的长牙最高记录有102.7公斤重。非洲象的化石仅在非洲有发现。 其种加词“africana”意为“非洲的”。 牠們一個亞種非洲沙漠象分布於納米比亞一帶。

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
2,583
Photos
9
Measurements
16
vs you
≈ 74× your weight
Also called
African bush elephant, African elephant, African Elephant, African Bush Elephant
Conservation status
ENEndangered

IUCN Red List assessment, 2022.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
4,565 kg
Body length
7.5 m
Shoulder height
2.8 m
Top speed
25 km/h
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
80 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Elephant

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
4,565 kg
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 4,800 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length
7.5 m
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height
2.8 maverage2.4–3.2 m · range across sexes
Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

  • Male3.2 mNowak, Walker's Mammals of the World (1999)Bulls; cows average ~2.6 m.
  • Female2.4 mLaursen & Bekoff 1978, Mammalian Species 92, p.1Height at the shoulder.
Top speed
25 km/h
Details ↓

Elephants never leave the ground; this is a fast walk, not a run. MEASURED by photosensor timing and video over 188 trials, but in ASIAN elephants. The compilations disagree -- 34.0 (Bejan & Marden 2006) and 35.0 km/h (Garland 1983) -- and Hutchinson has publicly attributed those to speedometer-based anecdote. A measurement of the wrong species beats an estimate of the right one, but this needs a reviewer's decision.

Source: Hutchinson et al. 2003, Nature 422:493 (measured 6.8 m/s in Elephas maximus) · see citation

Brain mass
5,277 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
80 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 65 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Generation length
25 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
14 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
1.8 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1.8 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Litter size
1
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Trophic level
Herbivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Crepuscular / mixed
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Home range
588 km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Population density
0.56 per km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Wild population
415,000
Details ↓

Savanna and forest elephants combined; see note on IUCN licensing.

Source: IUCN African Elephant Status Report 2016 (continental estimate) · see citation

Volume l
4,565 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Elephant yet: bite force.

More

More about the Elephant

Closest relative on this site
🐘 Asian elephant — last shared an ancestor ≈ 4.9 million years ago.
Watch them together →
What it eats
leaves, roots and other plants95%
fruit5%
In other languages
Afrikanischer Elefant (de), éléphant de savane d'Afrique (fr), Loxodonta africana (es), Loxodonta africana (it), 非洲象 (zh), słoń afrykański (pl) … and 28 more languages

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