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Baby Elephants
By: Isa

      Have you ever wanted to know about baby elephants? Well, if you
have here are some facts about them. When elephants are born they
weigh 170-293 pounds. But that is only 4% of an adult female elephant’s
weight and 2% percent of an adult male elephant’s weight.
      Female elephants will be able to breed at the age of 13. At that
time, they will find a male to mate with. After a 22-month pregnancy the
mother will give birth to the baby elephant. The newborn must be able to
stand up for survival. The reason is that if it can’t stand up then it will
not be able to drink the milk from its mother. Mother elephants care for
and interact differently depending on the gender of the baby. Not only
will the mother take care of the baby but the other females of the herd
will take care of the baby. Usually a mother elephant takes care of its
child for about 10 years whereas the African elephant baby is completely
dependent on its mother for only 3 to 5 years.

      The brain of the newborn is 30-40% of the size of an adult’s brain so they are pretty smart. When the elephants are born they can’t really use their trunks, but as the elephant gets older it starts to learn how. We can compare the way that a baby elephant must learn how to use its trunk to the way that a human baby must learn how to walk.

      As the elephant gets older it spends less time resting and
traveling and instead spends more time feeding. Lions and spotted hyenas are
predators of baby elephants, but they rarely have a chance to get them because
the herd protects the baby elephants so well.

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