How Heavy Is An Elephant?

The average weight of an elephant is around 12,000 kilograms. Originally called the Elephantidae they are from the pachyderm family. They come under the class Mammalia.

There are three types of Elephantidae species currently on planet earth. They are African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant. The other species have died out since the last ice age which was about 10,000 years ago. Elephants are the biggest living mammals on land alive today. At birth an elephant calf weights around 120 kilograms. They generally live for seventy years or more.

The elephant population has been decreasing regularly from the past few decades, mainly because of poaching. In 1970 there were around 1.3 million African elephants but were reduced to 60,000 in 1989. They have now been declared as protected species throughout the world and restrictions have been put on their capture and hunting.