Depending on the season, wild elephants eat a wide variety of vegetative materials including bark, roots and fruits. They have to eat twice what they need because they digest only half of what is consumed. They are totally covered in hair, which is more noticeable when they are young. The trunk is an elongation of the upper lip and nose. The largest tusks recorded weighed 440 pounds, eight ounces and were 11 feet long.
Elephants get six sets of teeth over their lifetime.
Teeth wear away because their food is so coarse, and a new set will grow in. By 60 years of age, the last set of teeth is worn down and the elephant dies of starvation. Their large ears are used as a cooling system. By flapping their ears, elephants can cool the blood flowing through the many large blood vessels in them and transfer the cooled blood throughout their bodies. At birth, young calves stand about four feet tall and weigh 200-260 lbs.