What is the largest land animal?
The African bush elephant is the largest land animal. Adult males stand about 3 to 4 meters tall at the shoulder and usually weigh around 6,000 kilograms.
African bush elephants live in savannas, grasslands and forests across sub-Saharan Africa. They are larger than African forest elephants and Asian elephants. Their large ears help them stay cool, and their trunks, containing tens of thousands of muscles, are used for breathing, smelling, drinking and grabbing food.
To maintain their size, elephants eat about 150 kilograms of plants every day and drink up to about 200 liters of water. They live in close family groups led by older females called matriarchs. Males leave the herd as teenagers and often live alone or in small bachelor groups.
Tallest and heaviest
The giraffe is the tallest land animal, reaching up to about 5.5 meters, but it weighs much less than an elephant. The white rhinoceros and hippopotamus are the next heaviest land animals after elephants. The blue whale, a marine mammal, is the largest animal on Earth.
Did You Know?
An elephant's trunk can hold about 8 to 10 liters of water at once.