Mwanza Guide
'The Gallery'
African
elephant (Loxodonta africana) Swahili name: Tembo
The African elephant is the largest living land animal and weighs up to 5.400
kg. It inhabits the Savannah, brush, forest, river valleys, and semi-desert
regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Besides its greater size, it differs
from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead,
and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one
in the Asian species.
As vegetarians, elephants require much food, sometimes consuming more than 225
kg of plant matter a day. Their trunk is employed to pull branches off trees,
uproot grass, pluck fruit, and to place food in their mouths.
Mwanza - ‘the
wildlife’
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2003 - 2007 by Mwanza-guide 'online', P.O. Box 10738, Mwanza, Tanzania. All
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