Elephants: Earth's Largest Land-Animals

What the words in this puzzle mean

AFRICA

Home to two of the three living species, the bush elephant and the smaller forest elephant.

ASIA

Home to the third species, smaller-eared and the one most often trained to work with people.

BARK

Stripped from trees and eaten for its fibre and minerals, which reshapes whole woodlands.

BULL

An adult male, who leaves the herd as a teenager and lives largely alone.

CALVES

Newborns weigh about 120 kilograms and can stand within an hour of birth.

CHORDATE

The phylum elephants belong to — animals with a nerve cord down the back.

COGNITIVE

Describing their mental abilities: elephants use tools, mourn their dead and recognise themselves in mirrors.

COW

An adult female. Herds are made of related cows and their young, led by the oldest.

DESERT

Namibia and Mali hold desert-adapted elephants that walk enormous distances between water.

ELEPHANT

The largest land animal alive, and the only surviving member of the order Proboscidea.

GRASS

The bulk of their diet; an adult can eat 150 kilograms of plant matter a day.

HABITAT

The savannah, forest and scrub they need — and the thing they are steadily losing.

HERBIVOROUS

Plant-eating. Their digestion is inefficient, which is why they must eat almost constantly.

HERD

A family group of related females and calves, led by the oldest and most experienced cow.

INFRASOUND

Calls below human hearing, which carry for miles and let separated herds stay in contact.

JUNGLE

Dense forest where the African forest elephant and many Asian elephants live.

MAMMAL

Warm-blooded, milk-feeding; elephants carry a calf for 22 months, the longest of any mammal.

MUDBATH

Wallowing coats the skin in mud, which blocks sun and parasites better than bare hide.

PACHYDERM

An old grouping for thick-skinned animals; zoologists no longer treat it as a real category.

PINNAE

The external ears. Their huge surface loses heat, working as radiators as much as for hearing.

POWER

An adult can push over a tree, which is why elephants shape the landscape around them.

PROBOSCIS

The scientific name for the trunk, and the root of the order name Proboscidea.

SAFARI

The overland journey on which most people see elephants in the wild.

SAVANNAH

Open grassland with scattered trees, the classic African elephant country.

SEISMIC

Ground vibrations elephants detect through their feet, another channel for distant signals.

STRENGTH

A trunk alone holds about 40,000 muscle units and can lift several hundred kilograms.

THAILAND

A country where Asian elephants have worked with people for centuries and are a national symbol.

TRUMPETING

The loud blast made through the trunk, used in alarm, excitement and threat.

TRUNK

A fused nose and upper lip, used to breathe, smell, drink, grip and touch.

TUSK

An overgrown incisor tooth. Ivory demand is why tusked elephants have been hunted so heavily.