African Elephants

This post is for my brother’s friend, Ian. He might be a wildlife biologist someday!

Do you know the difference between African and Asian Elephants? Asian Elephants have smaller ears, and both male and female African Elephants have tusks. Only male Asian Elephants have tusks.

African Elephants have very useful trunks! Since they live where it’s almost always really, really hot, they get a trunk full of water and spray it on their backs. Then, they do the same thing with dust. It works like sunscreen. The ends of their trunks work like little fingers. They use them to pick berries, grass, and other plants to eat.  To drink, African Elephants can suck up to two gallons of water in their trunks, then curl them up and squirt it into their mouths. If they sense danger, they use their trunks to make a loud warning sound. They even hug other elephants with their trunks.

African elephant tusks are ivory teeth that grow their whole life. Their tusks can grow as long as seven feet. They use them to dig up roots and other things for food. They also use them to fight and protect themselves and their babies.

African elephants can live a long time. Some live to be around 70 years old.  They can grow to be twelve feet tall and weigh more than 6 tons! The best thing about being so big is that they don’t have predators, but sometimes people kill them and take their ivory tusks. That makes me sad.

Bald Eagle

Did you know that  bald eagles can have a 7 foot wingspan? They have such good eye sight that they can see a mouse from a mile away.  They build giant nests. In fact, they hold the record for building the biggest nest ever! One nest discovered in Florida was over 9 feet deep, more than 6 feet wide, and weighed almost 3 tons!  Bald Eagles live in  North America and even on Catalina Island, the same place I lived with my family when I was born.