Elephants eat in their main mass, vegetable food such as: grass, leaves and branches of trees, fruits, bark, various shrubs, as well as marsh vegetation. Elephants kept in captivity eat hay, grain, vegetables, bread and adore various sweets (sweets). Basically, they are dictated by the habitat where they live, and also depends on the rainy season or drought.
For a day, an adult elephant eats up to 300 kg of grass and leaves, which is about 5% of their weight, and absorbs up to 200 liters of water, and in very hot weather even more. Forest elephants, water are obtained from the juicy fruits that they eat, so they go to the watering place only in the dry season. Elephants feed up to sixteen hours a day.
When the wet season begins, elephants eat mostly herbs like papyrus and cattail. Older elephants prefer marsh vegetation, which is softer, but less nutritious. In a drought, elephants begin to dig holes in the beds of dried up rivers, so that water from aquifers of the earth gathers there. These small ponds are used besides elephants even buffalo and rhinoceroses.
In search of water and food elephants can overcome considerable distances, up to 500 kilometers, overcoming about 12 kilometers a day, and leaving behind trampled trails. Seasonal migration of elephants through savannahs occurs annually. Currently, the migration of elephants is limited, due to increased human activity. Now you know what elephants eat.
Elephants are the largest mammals on land, they inhabit Asia and Africa. Elephants were listed in the Red Book, as they were under threat of extinction, because of hunting for ivory. African elephants are larger than Asian elephants, they have huge tusks weighing about 100 kg, and for them special reserves have been created in Africa, where they can live peacefully.
