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 Homeland: Africa, south of the Sahara desert Eats: Up to 1,000 pounds of vegetation a day in the wild! I'll bet your parents wish you'd eat your vegetables like this! (Actually we mostly eat grasses, fruit, twigs, and leaves. Almost anything green will do.) Fun facts: • We elephants are extremely social, intelligent creatures, and are as close to our families as you are to yours. We have the largest ratio of brain size to body weight of any animal except humans. • We try to bathe just about every evening! If there's not enough water around for taking a dip, we'll take a shower by spraying our bodies with water. But we don't use shampoo! In fact, after bathing, we cover our bodies with dirt. (Don't try this at home. Your parents may not appreciate this.) The dirt helps protect our very sensitive skin from the sun and from insects. • Elephants have only four teeth, each about 12 inches -- the length of a ruler! These teeth can fall out and get replaced up to six times. That's a lot of visits from the elephant tooth fairy! • Elephants can live to be 70 years old! |
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