Elephants are in big trouble and I would like to show you what the problems are and what a day in the life of an elephant is like. There are only 600,000 African elephants and 50,000 Asian elephants(20% of those are in captivity. The African elephant dropped by 50%, from 1.3 million to 600,000, between 1979 and 1989, because of poaching. About 8 elephants an hour (70,000 a year) were poached during those years until CITES started the ivory ban in 1989. The IUCN(International Union of Conservation of Nature) says that the elephant population will only grow about 6% a year. IUCN believes that the more people know about elephants the more they will do to help them. I agree completely so I'm going to give you some information you may not have known.

#1 There is no difference between the Indian elephant and the Asian elephant. They are actually the same animal. In the past they were called the Indian elephant and now they are called the Asian elephant.

#2 Elephants very rarely have more then one baby. There have been at least two cases of twins being born in the past 20 years. In the Portland Zoo there was just a birth of twins.

#3 The elephants memory are like other intelligent mammals. They do have a good memory, but not as good as dogs, cats and humans but they are smart enough to remember old migration routes.

#4 Even elephants show joy. You can see in there eyes when they are happy. They usually hold there tail out and flap there ears when they are happy, and sometimes make noises

#5 An elephant is at its full size when it is between 20 and 25 years of age.

#6 The term the white elephant came from ancient times in Thailan and other Asian countries. To keep a white elephant was very expensive task because you had to provide the elephant with special food, and keep up the service for people to come worship it. So if the Thai king became unsatisfied with a subking .He would give him a white elephant. The white elephants in Thailand are not white, but has different special marks and caracters. which are considered white.

#7 An elephants life span is about the same as for humans. In the wild, they normally die at about sixty years old. In the wild elephants end up losing there teeth and die because they can't chew any more. The elephants in captivity become a bit older because of softer food but allot of them die early because they have to adjust to the zoo and they never do.

#8 A male elephant is a bull and a female is a cow.

#9 They like to eatgrass, leaves, fruits and skin from trees. What they eat also matters to where they live. There favorite foods are sweet fruits like bananas and apples, or cabbages, like carrots.

As you can see elephants are genteel creatures that are in trouble and they need are help. If you want to help try calling the IUCN. We need your help, more importantly the elephants need your help so please help.