Elephants are giant living land animals. They belong to the family Elephantidae. They occupy a diverse range of habitats such as deserts, swamps, and highlands in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa.

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Their skin color varies from grayish to brown. There are two species of elephants: African Elephants and Asian Elephants. Both have some structural differences, such as the ears of African elephants are much larger than Asian elephants. Moreover, the trunk of Asian elephants has one finger at the tip of the trunk, whereas African elephants have got two. The trunk is large enough to accommodate 8 liters of water in it.

What Elephants Look Like?

Elephants have an elongated nose known as a trunk. The trunk combines the upper lid and nose, and nostrils are present at the end of the trunk. Elephants are enormous creatures with columnar legs and large heads with wide flat ears. There exists a finger-like projection at the end of the trunk. These finger-like projections have nerve endings and can grasp smaller objects. 

The African elephant can weigh up to 8000kg with a shoulder height of almost 4 meters. On the other hand, Asian elephants usually weigh less than 5500kg with a shoulder length of 3.5 meters. Elephants have two enlarged, slender, downward-pointing incisor teeth called tusks. Tusks grow throughout the life span of Elephants. 

Elephant’s ear is about 1/6th the size of the whole body. Interestingly the size of the ears varies according to geographic distribution. The Elephants’ ears function as a cooling mechanism. Elephants communicate through vibrations. Their skin has got folds and wrinkles with sparse and coarse body hair. These folds and wrinkles help to cool them down by retaining more water. The structure of the elephant foot is angled with a large pad of fat and connective tissue at the heel.