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						<p class="date">7 July 2011</p>
						<p><h3 id="featured-animal">&mdash; Elephants &mdash;</h3></p>
						
						<h4>Species of Elephant</h4>
						<p>The African Bush Elephant, <i>Loxodonta africana</i>, is the largest species of elephant.
						It lives on the savannahs and in the deserts of Africa. It has very large ears and tusks, which
						are really the elephant's two front teeth, and they grow throughout the elephant's life.</p>
						
						<p>The African Forest Elephant, <i>Loxodonta cyclotis</i>, used to be considered the same species
						as the African Bush Elephant. It is smaller than the bush elephant, and as its name says, lives
						in Africa's forests. The tusks of the forest elephant are smaller, yellowish-brown, and point
						downward. Its ears are also smaller. These elephants are harder to reach and therefore less is
						known about them.</p>
						
						<p>The Asian Elephant is also smaller than the African Bush Elephant. It lives in India and
						Southeast Asia. The female Asian Elephant's tusks stay small, not growing to be the size
						usually associated with elephants.</p>


						<h4>An Elephant's View of the World</h4>
						<p>Elephants have poor eyesight. Their small eyes are on the sides of their heads like many
						herbivores, giving them a wide but imprecise view of the area around them and allowing them
						to spot potential threats. Elephants can not see clearly more than 60 feet away and bright
						sunlight worsens their vision.</p>
						
						<p>It is lucky, then, that elephants have other senses for learning about the world. They have
						a good sense of smell, with their nostrils located at the tip of the trunk. Their hearing is
						also exceptional. They can hear a much broader range of sounds than people, and they use a variety
						of sounds while communicating that people cannot hear.</p>


						<h4>An Elephant's Tools</h4>
						<p>There is a reason why African Bush Elephants have such huge ears, and it is not necessarily
						to give them better hearing. The ears help to control body temperature, which is essential for
						the elephants living in such a hot climate. Many small blood vessels in the ears release heat,
						cooling blood down before it leaves the ears and travels throughout the rest of the body.
						Therefore, the forest elephants, living in shade, do not need such large ears.</p>
						
						<p>Elephants use their tusks in defense and when fighting over a mate. They also use them for
						digging up roots, mining for salt, and digging to find water (especially the elephants that live
						in the desert). Tusks are also useful for when the elephants has to lift and carry heavy objects.</p>
						
						<p>Perhaps the most important tool an elephant has is its trunk, which is the combination of the
						nose and upper lip. The trunk has no bones but about 100,000 muscles, making it strong and flexible.
						It is also very sensitive and precise, so that elephants can pick up something as small as a seed.
						The trunk can hold about 2 gallons of water, which is useful as elephants use their trunks as a
						showerhead, filling up their trunks with water and spraying it at themselves or other elephants.
						They drink by filling their trunks with water and squirting it into their mouths, and by spraying
						mud on themselves, they protect themselves from the sun and from insects.</p>


						<!--<h4>Elephant Communication</h4>
						<p></p>-->

						<div id="sources">
							<h5>Sources:</h5>
						
							<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Book-Ian-Redmond/dp/0763616346/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF&&qid=1309967588&&&sr=8-2"><h6>The Elephant Book</h6></a>
							by Ian Redmond
							
							<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Africa-Gail-Gibbons/dp/0823422992/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=130989163&sr=8-1"><h6>Elephants of Africa</h6></a>
							by Gail Gibbons
						</div>


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