The elephant eats various plants such as herbs, shrubs, fruits, and twigs, but his favorite food is the bark of trees, which especially contains calcium and fiber that help him digest, and he also gets salts and minerals from the soil; the elephant puts dirt in his mouth to get the necessary nutrients from it.
What does an elephant eat?
The elephant spends more than three-quarters of its day eating, which is about 16-18 hours a day, and the amount of food it eats reaches 149-169 kg, and the elephant needs between 68.4 - 98.8 liters of water per day, but its consumption can reach 152 liters, and it is worth noting that an adult male elephant can drink about 212 liters of water in less than 5 minutes.
How does an elephant eat
The elephant gets its food through several adaptations in its body, and the following is an explanation of how the elephant uses its body to eat its food:
Khartoum
The elephant uses its hose to tear herbs and tree leaves and put them in its mouth, and also uses it for drinking; it absorbs water using its hose and pushes it into its mouth, and the hose is a long nose used for breathing, smelling, and making sounds, and contains 40 thousand muscles, and it is worth noting that African elephants have finger-like parts connected to the end of their hoses, which helps them pick up small items, while Asian elephants have hoses connected to only one finger.
Fangs
The elephant picks up food and collects it using its tusks; its tusks help it tear the bark of trees, it also uses its tusks to dig the ground to obtain important soil in its diet; it should be noted that because elephants dug the ground, caves appeared over time in their places; African elephants dug caves in the foothills of the mountains, while Asian elephants in India carved Hills in search of salts and minerals.
The elephant is characterized by developed tusks, and the elephant can be left-nosed, that is, the left Tusk is mostly used, or right-nosed, that is, the right tusk is mostly used, and the most commonly used Tusk is more worn, and all elephants have tusks except Asian elephants, as a small percentage of males have tusks, and it is worth noting that the elephant uses its tusks to lift its body, and protect it from enemies.
Teeth
The elephant usually has 4 very large and strong molars, which help him to break wood and uproot large amounts of plants, and also help to remove the bark of trees, and these molars are replaced several times during his life, up to about 6 times.[Ù¥]
Other adaptations
The elephant has a short neck that limits its ability to eat; but large, heavy feet and strong nails support its body when eating, as the elephant kicks dirt and short grass, which helps it to pick them up with its hose, and it also has a strong sense of smell that allows it to sense food and water miles away and determine its direction.[Ù¥]
Video about the elephant animal
To get to know the elephant animal more, you can watch the following video:
