In the wild they are found in India, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia and southern China in forest habitats. They eat leaves, bark, 'bamboo, grass and fruit. They can live up to 60 years. They are excellent swimmers. They cross rivers by walking along the bottom using their trunks as a snorkel. Female elephants are pregnant for 22 months. A full sized adult weights up to 4,990kg. In the wild elephants travel all day looking for food creating tracks called elephant roads'. They use their trunks for hold food suck and spray and they have more than 40,000 muscles in the trunk.
Picture taken Whipsnade Zoo, July 2008.