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How big is an Elephant?

3.2 metres!

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Elephant

Three kinds of elephant are usually recognized, and one of them, the African savanna elephant, is the largest mammal living on land. Elephants are measured by their height at the shoulder: a fully grown male African savanna elephant stands about 3.2 meters (10.5 feet) tall and weighs about 6 metric tons (6.6 US tons). Females are smaller, standing about 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) tall.

Size

An elephant's size is usually given as its weight and its height at the shoulder, measured from the ground to the top of the shoulder while the animal stands. A 2016 study of elephant sizes, by Asier Larramendi, estimated that about 90 percent of fully grown male African savanna elephants stand 3.0–3.4 meters (10–11 feet) at the shoulder and weigh 5.2–6.9 metric tons. The same share of fully grown females stand 2.5–2.7 meters and weigh 2.6–3.5 tons. The San Diego Zoo gives similar averages: 3–3.2 meters for males and 2.4 meters for females.

As of 2026, the largest elephant on record is a bull shot in Mucusso, Angola, in 1974. Measured lying on its side, it would have stood about 3.96 meters (13 feet) at the shoulder.

Size comparisons

  • An average bull's shoulder is nearly twice as high as a person 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inches) tall.
  • A basketball rim, 3.05 meters (10 feet) above the floor, would reach to about 15 centimeters (6 inches) below an average bull's shoulder.
  • The record bull stood about a quarter taller than an average bull.
  • The legs of the largest measured Japanese spider crab spanned 3.7 meters, a little more than an average bull's height at the shoulder.

Three kinds of elephant

The three kinds are the African savanna elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa, and both males and females have visible tusks. Asian elephants have smaller ears, and usually only the males have visible tusks.

The other two kinds are smaller than the savanna elephant. A fully grown male Asian elephant averages about 2.75 meters (9 feet) at the shoulder, and a female about 2.4 meters. Male African forest elephants average about 2.2 meters (7.2 feet), roughly two-thirds the height of a savanna bull.

Trunk, ears and tusks

An elephant's trunk serves as both its nose and its upper lip. It has no bones, but it holds about 150,000 fascicles, small bundles of muscle. It is strong enough to lift a large tree trunk and nimble enough to pick up a single piece of straw.

The large ears work like a radiator: when an elephant flaps them on a hot day, blood flowing through the ears cools down. Tusks are an elephant's incisor teeth, and they grow throughout its life.

Calves

An elephant calf is born after a pregnancy of 20–22 months. At birth it stands 66–107 centimeters (2.2–3.5 feet) tall and weighs 50–120 kilograms (110–260 pounds). Even the tallest newborn reaches only about a third of the way up an average bull's shoulder.

Sources

Scale of the Universe > Elephant
Wandering Albatross
The Wandering Albatross is the bird with the largest wingspan! They fly almost all the time, only stopping to eat and make babies. Their population is slowly decreasing. Now it is only at 26,000, which isn't very much.
FM Radio Wavelength
F and M are the sixth and thirteenth letters of the alphabet. Six is a perfect number, while thirteen is not. We all have our differences, and we have to learn to accept them. That's the only way we'll live in harmony.
Sunflower
Did you know that the "flower" of a sunflower is not a single flower, but actually a flower head made up of thousands of small flowers? These small flowers are called florets. The florets in the center become sunflower seeds, which are currently invisible at this scale.
Japanese Spider Crab
The Japanese Spider Crab is the largest arthropod. However, not all Japanese Spider Crabs get to be this size. Some are only one meter across. Unfortunately, fishermen have killed many of them. That's a lot of crab meat!
Giraffe
The giraffe is the tallest land mammal at a mind-boggling 5.5 meters! Its neck alone is almost half of its entire height. Adult giraffes are so tall that the only way for predators to kill them is to push them onto their side!
Saguaro Cactus
Not all Saguaro cacti grow to be 14 meters tall, unfortunately. Some may only be a measly five meters tall. Some are armless - those are called spears. It takes saguaro cacti 75 years to fully grow an arm, while it takes humans less than 20.

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