How Much Food Does An Elephant Need?

Elephants are mammals and are the largest land animals alive today. The elephant's gestation time is 22 months ~ the longest gestation period of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weight 265 pound. An elephant can live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer. The largest ever elephant recorded was shot in Angola in Angola in 1956 and weighted a massive 26,300 pounds!

Elephants are herbivores and spend 16 hours a day collecting plant foods. Their diet is 50% grasses and this is supplemented with leaves, bamboo, twigs, bark, roots and fruits. Elephants only digest 40% of what they consume, so they have to make up for their digestive system's lack of efficiency in volume. An adult elephant can eat around 270 pounds of food every day. 60% of that food will leave the elephant's body undigested and turn into elephant poo. However, all is not lost. Elephant poo is an excellent source of manure for the plants that the elephant will eat again!

They  need lots of water and plenty of food

Elephants need around 300kg of food per day.