About Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). Elephants are the largest land animals. The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms. They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years.The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. This male weighed about 12,000 kilograms, with a shoulder height of 4.2 metres, a metre taller than the average male African elephant. The smallest elephants, about the size of a calf or a large pig, were a prehistoric species that lived on the island of Crete during the Pleistocene epoch. The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world.