African elephants are the largest land animals in the world today. The average African elephant will weigh between 5,000 to 14,000 lbs. (2,268 to 6,350 kg), according to the National Geographic. However, the largest African elephant ever recorded was found in Angola, rocking in at a massive 24,000 lb (11,000 kg).
Male elephants can grow to be significantly larger than their female counterparts. Still a mighty animal, female elephants, or “Cows”, only grow to weigh from 6,000 to 8,000 pounds.
Asian elephants tend to be a smaller than their African counterparts, weighing between 4,400 to 11,000 Ibs (2,000 to 5,000 kg). African elephants are the largest land animals in the world today.
The average African elephant will grow to between 8.2 to 13 feet (2.5 to 4 m) tall, measured from shoulder to toe, according to the National Geographic. Male elephants can grow to be significantly larger than their female counterparts. Still a mighty animal, female elephants, or “Cows”, only grow to somewhere between 9 and 13 feet.
Asian elephants are smaller and tend to reach a shoulder height of between 6.6 and 11.5 feet (2 and 3.5 m) tall.
Asian And African Elephants
African elephants are the largest land animals in the world today. The average African elephant will grow to between 8.2 to 13 feet (2.5 to 4 m) tall, measured from shoulder to toe, according to the National Geographic.
Male elephants can grow to be significantly larger than their female counterparts. Still a mighty animal, female elephants, or “Cows”, only grow to somewhere between 9 and 13 feet.
Asian elephants are smaller and tend to reach a shoulder height of between 6.6 and 11.5 feet (2 and 3.5 m) tall.
Asian elephants, which tend to be smaller than their African counterparts, can weigh between 5,000 and 11,000 pounds (2,268 and 4,989 kilograms).
African elephants can range from 5,000 pounds to more than 14,000 pounds (6,350 kilograms). According to the World Wildlife Fund, an average African elephant weighs about 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms). Even a baby African elephant can weigh between 200-300 pounds (90.7-136 kilograms) at birth!
The largest African elephants can stand in excess of 13 feet (4 meters) tall at the shoulder. How does an African elephant grow to be 13 feet tall and weigh over 14,000 pounds? By eating a lot! Scientists estimate that the largest elephants can eat more than 300 pounds of food in a single day.
Despite their huge size, African elephants are still smaller than the heaviest animal in the world. To find that animal, you’ll have to look to the sea. The water in the oceans of the world helps to support the incredible weight of the blue whale. With a length of up to 100 feet (30 meters) from head to tail, the largest blue whales can weigh in excess of 400,000 pounds (181,437 kilograms)! Just imagine how small you’d feel swimming next to that
Elephants generally weigh between 4,500 and 11,000 pounds on average. How large an elephant gets depends on which of the three elephant species it is. However, the largest elephant on record weighed 24,000 pounds (more on this below!), so in very rare cases they can weigh truly extraordinary weights!
Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, but let’s dig a little deeper into the weight of different elephant species. The Africa forest elephant lives in the rainforests of west and central Africa. They have the fewest numbers and are considered endangered. As babies elephants start out at 200 lbs and grow to be 1-3 tons (4,400-8,800lbs). My mini-van weighs 4,600lbs so it is about the size of a small African forest elephant!
The truth is, ranking the African forest elephant and Asian elephant is an inexact science, as you could make an argument for either one being larger. Male Asian elephants typically weigh up to 8,800 pounds (similar to African forest elephants) while females weight up to about 6,000 pounds. The largest Asian elephant ever recorded weighed about 15,400 pounds. On the other hand, African forest elephants were only recently recognized as a distinct species, so it’s hard to say just how large they get!
The bottom line, both the elephant species that typically live in forest environments are smaller than the largest elephant on this list, the savanna (or bush) elephant that lives across African plains.
African bush elephants live in sub-Saharan Africa on the plains and savannas. Literally the biggest baby, African savanna babies weigh an average of 264 lbs with some starting out as big as 364 lbs! Makes sense because when they are adults they can reach 7 tons or more. They range in size from 2.5-7 tons (5,000-14,000lbs). A large African savanna elephant is about the size of your favorite street taco truck!
Elephant Body Parts And What They Weigh
Big Brain: 10 lbs
A research study showed that an African elephant’s brain weighs 10 lbs and has 257 billion neurons! That is three times bigger and has three times more neurons than a human brain.
Giant Tooth: 11 lbs
The back molars of an African elephant can weigh 11 lbs and get to be 16 inches wide!
Ginormous Ears: 100 lbs EACH
African elephant ears are used to help elephants stay cool. Their ears can be 6ft tall!
Heavy Tusks: 110-175 lbs EACH
Both male and female Africa elephants can grow tusks. The adult male tusks are 110-175lbs each and the female tusks are quite a bit smaller at 40-44lbs.
A Hungarian game hunter donated the hide of this enormous elephant in 1959. It was shot in Angola and the hide was preserved. The elephant on display has been given the name “Henry” and is carefully cleaned and maintained by museum staff. Most rooms have 8ft ceilings so Henry wouldn’t fit. A school bus weighs around 24,000 lbs, the same as Henry. Now that is a big elephant! Males way between 2 and 7 tons and females weigh between 3 and 4 tons. (This is for african elephants not asian.) a large bull african elephant can have a mass exceeding 6 tons
Interestingly elephants never stop growing, although their growth does slow dramatically after males reach 25 years old and females 20 years old.
Therefore one of the ways of estimating age in the wild is via stature and weight. This can done by measuring the diameter of the dung bolus or the length of the hind footprint, both of which correlate to to stature (up to 25 and 20 years for males and females respectively), or measuring the shoulder height or the back length. Shoulder height and back length are less accurate unless technology is used to determine accurate estimates.
Therefore, the average adult weight depends on the average adult age structure of the population in question.