Recently at Kenya’s Mpala Research Centre a family of some 35 elephants grazed and played at the Hippo Pool and Tranquility Glade, the field adjoining the pool. Live Cam viewers enjoyed the special experience of watching a large, healthy elephant family with a new-born baby in its midst. The infant was about three days old! The matriarchs, surrounding it protectively as it moved about, were in vigilant attendance. The baby elephant would have weighed between 265 and 365 pounds at birth, and mom was pregnant with it for an extraordinary 660 days!
Ellies are the largest land mammal (males can weigh 13,335 lb /6,048 kg) and spend 60 percent of their day eating. An adult consumes as much as 300 pounds a day and drinks 42 gallons of water.
Here are some fun facts on how these Giants have adapted to sustain themselves:
• Elephants have a pouch at the base of their tongue that can store 1.2 gallons (4.5 l) of water
• Using the nearly 100,000 muscles in its trunk, an elephant can use the tip of it to pick a single leaf off a branch.
• An elephant goes through six sets of teeth throughout its lifetime! As teeth wear out, they fall out and are replaced by larger ones.
Learn more about elephants and other animals you see on the live cams in our online Field Guide.
