Most of the continent's elephants live on savannas and in dry woodlands. In Congo and other equatorial countries, forest elephants live in dense tropical rainforest. A dexterous trunk and large, rasping molars allow African elephants to gather and process a wide variety of vegetation. During the rainy season, savanna elephants usually seek out grasses and herbs. During other times of year, they frequent forests, especially those by streams, where they also eat leaves, fruit, and bark from a variety of plants.
Elephants supplement the sodium in their food by visiting mineral licks.
Each day at the Zoo, elephants eat 125 pounds of hay, ten pounds of herbivore pellets, ten pounds of vegetables and fruits, and a few leafy branches. Gestation lasts 22 months, and usually only one calf is born. Female African elephants can usually breed by age ten and give birth to one young every four years. The average life span of an African elephant in the wild is 60 years. Females and young males live in cohesive herds of about ten related adults and their offspring.