THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



The weight does not ahvays depend on the age and size 

 of the animal. Not only do the different varieties of 

 elephants differ as to the average weight of their tusks, 

 but different members of the same family show dis- 

 similarity in this respect. The South African elephant's 

 tusks are considerably inferior in size and weight to 

 those of the elephant in equatorial Africa. 



Mr. Rowland Ward, in his book, Records of Big Game, 

 gives the weights and measurements of the biggest 

 tusks known to us. The African elephant exceeds the 

 antediluvian mammoth as well as the Indian elephant; 

 the biggest tusk is twenty-four and a quarter inches in 

 circumference, ten and a half feet long, and two hundred 

 and twenty-six pounds m weight. 



Elephants usually live in herds. But solitary males 

 are often met with; they are, for the most part, old 

 animals with big bodies and enormously developed 

 skulls. On this account, not because they are ferocious, 

 it is more difficult to kill them than smaller animals. 

 The most dangerous animals of a herd are the ones 

 without tusks. It often takes fifty or more shots to 

 kill a strong old male elephant. 



The elephants use their tusks not only as weapons, 

 but employ them largely in getting their food ; as, for 

 instance, in grubbing up edible roots, loosening the 

 roots of trees which they cannot otherwise tear from 

 the ground, and in barking trees. The bark of trees 

 is not only food for the animal, but the chewing of the 



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