Like the growth of animals generally, several factors can contribute to the weight and height of a baby or mature male and female elephants.
Elephants are large herbivorous mammals, and they are the largest animal on land, and the third largest animal in the world.
Adult elephants can weigh between 5,000 to 14,000 pounds, with African elephants weighing more than Asian elephants on average.
Factors that Impact the Weight and Height of Elephants
As large as elephants are, you should expect them to have a complex digestive system. Sure, the feeding and diet of elephants are proportional to their weights and sizes.
Elephants are heavy eaters that can eat plant materials up to 350 pounds or 153 kg daily. They primarily eat grasses, fruits, leaves, and bark of wood.
They have complex digestive tracts that enable them to extract as much nutrients as possible from plant materials.
They have a fermentation chamber that enables intestinal organisms to break down food nutrients from their fibrous diet.
Other factors that influence their weights and sizes are species, heredity, availability of food, health, environment, etc.
How much does a baby elephant weigh?
First, there are 3 main species of elephants: The African forest elephant, the African savanna elephant, and the Asian elephant.
At birth, both male and female elephants of different species can weigh about 100kg or 210 pounds on average. The African savanna newborn baby elephant can weigh much more, up to 370 pounds.
African elephant weight in Kg and Tons?
Both the African forest and the African savanna elephants weigh more than the Asian elephants, while the African savanna elephants are the largest among them.
The male African savanna elephant can be up to 13 feet (4 meters) tall at the shoulder while standing and weigh up to 2,000 pounds/9,071kg or 10 US tons.
What is the Average Weight of an elephant?
The average weight of elephants can be a bit complicated, however, when we factor in the species and gender, we can have a relatively accurate weight.
An average male African elephant weighs between 10,000 to 13,000 pounds (4,500 to 6,000 kilograms) while adult female African elephants are a bit smaller, typically weighing between 4,000 to 6,000 pounds (1,800 to 2,700 kilograms).
Since a ton is 2,000 pounds, an average African elephant weight in tons is 5 to 6 tons for males and 2 to 3 tons for females.
Asian elephant weight is a bit less than the African tusker. The male Asian elephants weigh between 3,500 to 5,000 kg or 4 to 5.5 tons.
For the cow ( female), their weights range from 4,000 to 6,000 pounds or 1,800 to 2,700 kgs.
Conclusion
Elephants are fast-growing large mammals, especially at the early stage of life. While a calf is born relatively small and twice the size of a newborn cow, they grow quickly due to the rich, nutrient-dense milk provided by their mothers.
In the first year, a calf can more than double its birth weight of around 250 pounds.
Also, elephants continue to grow throughout their lives, but their growth rates slow down as they get older.
As I said earlier, many factors can influence the weight of elephants, but the most important factors are species, age, heredity, and the environment.
