Elephants are huge, wise and beautiful animals. I got to see them close up in Malawi, in a national park called Liwonde. They are native to Malawi, and the country is trying to protect them. Seeing elephants in real life was a dream come true!
Elephants are massive! Male elephants are 10 feet high and can weigh up to 15,000 pounds. That’s hard to imagine! If you weigh 50 pounds, then an elephant is 300 times your size. Female elephants are two feet shorter and smaller. Both males and females have tusks. Elephants have long trunks that they drink water through like straws. They also use their trunks for grabbing food, cleaning themselves and making noises.
I was so excited to see elephants in the wild! They seem like gentle giants.
There are two types of elephants: the African elephant and the Asian elephant. The African elephant lives in sub-Saharan Africa. This means the part of Africa south of the Sahara desert. Malawi is in sub-Saharan Africa.
