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Animals in the Wild 



A LOT OF ANIMAL 



The African elephant, weighing five or six tons, is bigger than its Indian cousin 

 in fact the largest of all land animals. It grows to a height of eleven or twelve 

 feet, and has two tusks that average about ten feet in length and 250 pounds 

 in weight. It has been claimed that the powerful but delicate trunk contains as 

 many as forty thousand muscles! Indian species has smaller, less fanlike ears. 



Training an Elephant: You see the Indian elephants far more 

 frequently in zoos and circuses than the African species; the Indian 

 animals, aside from being smaller, are obtained more easily and 

 can be trained more rapidly. For thousands of years the natives 

 of eastern India have been skilled in the training of elephants, 

 and the knack has been handed down from father to son. 



An important factor in their success lies in the use of the human 

 voice: The trainer first wins his charge's trust by softly chanting 

 an "elephant song," after which he bribes the beast with its 

 favorite foods. (Wild elephants eat leaves and grassperhaps half 



