An elephant trunk is a long nose that is also its upper lip. African elephants have two finger-like tips on the end of the trunk, and Asian elephants have one. Elephants can store up to nine liters of water in the trunk, which works like a suitcase that expands when it needs to. A trunk can suck up 3.7 liters of water in 1.5 seconds, as much as 20 toilets flushing at once. Elephants also inhale at speeds that are comparable to Japan's 300-mph bullet trains, according to the Georgia Tech team.

Elephants make low rumbling sounds, and some of them are too low for people to hear. Other elephants can hear a rumble from more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) away. Wild African elephants address each other with name-like calls, a rare ability among animals. Smell and touch are very important senses for elephants, and they reach out with the trunk to smell things. Asian elephants have a vomeronasal organ that detects pheromones and other chemical signals, and they bring those signals to it with the trunk. Elephants touch each other with their trunks to greet and to reassure one another.

In elephant bones the inner cavity is lacking. A network of dense perforated bone fills the space, which makes the bones stronger. An elephant walks on its toes and has a thick, fibrous pad on the bottom of each foot that works as a shock absorber. It eats about 165 to 330 pounds (74 to 150 kilograms) of food a day because it digests only about 44 percent of what it eats. As of November 2026, the largest elephant on record was a male African savanna elephant that weighed about 24,000 pounds (10,886 kilograms) and stood 13 feet (3.96 meters) tall at the shoulder.

Elephants have gray, wrinkly skin. It can be up to about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) thick in places, but it is still sensitive to touch. Elephants cover themselves with mud, dust or water to protect their skin from the sun and from biting insects. They also spray water over themselves with their trunks. On hot days they flap their big ears to cool off. When an elephant flaps its ears, blood flowing through the many vessels in them cools down, and that helps cool the whole body.

A tusk is a long front tooth that keeps growing. Elephants use their tusks to dig for water and food. Scientists think elephants favor a right or a left tusk, just as people favor a right or left hand. In the dry season, elephants use their tusks to dig up dry riverbeds and make watering holes that many other animals can drink from. Elephant dung is full of seeds, which helps plants spread across the land. When elephants feed on trees, they make paths and gaps in the forest that smaller animals can use. For these reasons elephants are called a keystone species, which means they play a critical role in their ecosystem.

Three kinds of elephants are recognized: African savanna elephants, African forest elephants and Asian elephants. African elephants live on the savannas and in the rain forests of Africa, and Asian elephants live in India and Southeast Asia. Savanna elephants have curving tusks, and forest elephants have straighter tusks. African elephants have big ears shaped a bit like the continent of Africa, and Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants live in family groups called herds. An African elephant herd is led by an older female called the matriarch, but Asian elephant herds do not have a matriarch the way African elephant herds do.

Let's look at how herds raise their young. A newborn elephant, called a calf, stands about 3 feet (1 meter) tall. A newborn African elephant weighs roughly 90 to 120 kilograms (about 200 to 260 pounds). An elephant mother carries her calf for about 22 months before it is born. Other members of the herd help look after calves. When a predator comes near, elephants in a herd clump together to protect the young. Adult male elephants, called bulls, tend to live alone or in small groups of other males.

The Great Elephant Census found a 30 percent decline in African savanna elephants over seven years. A 2016 IUCN report estimated about 415,000 African elephants, savanna and forest elephants together. As of November 2026, Asian elephants hang on in only about 5 percent of their historical range, and there may be fewer than 50,000 in the wild. Illegal ivory poaching is one of the biggest threats to African elephants. Elephant habitats shrink as people spread out and turn land into farms and towns. Fences with live beehives help keep elephants away from farms, because elephants avoid bees and fear being stung.

Words to know

• pheromones: chemical signals
• keystone: a key kind
• matriarch: lead female
• census: a head count
• poaching: illegal hunting