Elephants are clean animals. They bathe regularly when possible and take mud or dirt baths when water is unavailable. An elephant's hide can be more than 1 inch thick. Ninety different tree species in Africa depend on elephants to prosper. Because their digestive tracts are fairly inefficient, elephants must consume up to 600 pounds of food and 75 gallons of water each day.
Elephants go through six sets of teeth in a lifetime.
Elephants use their trunks to detect smells up to 5 miles away. They use chemical signals as one of several methods of communication. A full-grown African elephant can reach over 12 feet in height and weigh more than 6 tons. An elephant's trunk alone weighs more than 300 pounds and contains approximately 40,000 muscles. An elephant's brain weighs up to 10 or 12 pounds.