What Does An Elephant Use Its Tusks For?

The full-grown African elephant carries a big set of tusks, which it uses in several ways.

One of the most unusual of these is a digging tool to get at water the elephant knows lies just beneath the surface of the ground. Tusks are also used to debark trees, to dig into baobab trees to get at the pulp inside, and to move trees. They are occasionally used for marking trees to establish territory and sometimes as weapons.

Six hundred pounds of food a day is eaten by one of these African adults, which is just about 4 percent of the elephant’s body weight.

The Indian elephant is smaller than its African cousin and has an arched back and domed head. The Indian elephant’s ears and tusks are smaller, too. Interestingly enough, the Indian elephant has only one finger at the tip of its trunk, while the African has two.

They like to live in different types of surroundings, also. The Indian elephant prefers the jungle, and the African elephant prefers grassy plains.