As the largest land mammals on the planet, elephants have an equally extensive diet to support their massive bodies on long hikes in their natural habitat.
Incredibly, these gentle herbivorous giants usually graze for up to 18 hours a day, using their powerful trunks and fangs to haul out and eat hundreds of pounds of various grasses, shrubs, fruits and other plant material! In addition to their sheer size, their digestive system is not particularly efficient, so they only digest and use 40% to 60% of the food they eat every day.
Today biologists recognize three unique species of elephants: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. Let’s find out what each species of elephants eats, as well as where they live, as well as their morphological and dietary differences.
What elephants eat: a complete list
Elephants eat foods that include:
- Tree bark
- Savannah herbs
- Fruits (such as mango and figs)
- Roots
- Flowers
- Leaves
- Soil (for salt and minerals such as iron and potassium)
- Stems and roots
- Herbs
- Local crops such as rice, bananas and sugarcane.
However, a list of what elephants eat would be incomplete without an analysis of what different types of elephants eat. After all, Asian elephants that live in dense rainforests have a very different diet than African elephants living in sub-Saharan Africa! Let’s take a look at the diet of each type of elephant individually.
What do African bush elephants eat?
The African bush elephant, also known as the African savannah elephant, is one of the two remaining African elephant species.
These elephants inhabit 37 different African countries, most of which are located in sub-Saharan Africa. Their habitat mainly consists of grasslands, forests, wetlands, and agricultural land at different altitudes. Many will climb mountain ranges in search of food; they have even been found at over 8000 feet!
Because these elephants often move between different types of habitat, they have a very varied diet of plants that they find during their extended daily grazing. The food of African elephants usually consists of the following types of plant material:
- Tree bark
- Savannah herbs
- Leaves
- Fruits (such as mango and figs)
- Roots
- Flowers
- Soil (to consume its salt and other minerals such as iron and potassium)
With sturdy trunks and large flat teeth, these animals are perfect for plucking bark from trees and pulling whole branches into their mouths! They will also use their fangs and feet to dig in the ground to find underground sources of water, or near trees to pull out their roots and mineral-rich soil to eat.
What do African forest elephants eat?
The African forest elephant is very similar to the African bush elephant; In fact, for many years, these two species were thought to be simply African elephants.
However, in recent years, scientists have discovered that there are more differences between the two species than they originally thought! Namely, African forest elephants are smaller and shorter than African bush elephants and have differently shaped tusks, skulls, and skeletons.
As you can imagine, their diet is also very similar to that of African bush elephants, mainly consisting of various types of leaves, twigs, fruits and tree bark. They also use their canine teeth to scoop up roots and soil to supplement their diet with salt and other minerals found in the ground.
African forest elephants also inhabit much of sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in densely forested countries such as Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since they have not been studied as thoroughly as their African bush cousins, we don’t know much about their behavior and diet, but this is slowly changing!
What do Asian elephants eat?
Asian elephants are the third currently recognized elephant species. They live in 13 different countries and mainly live in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Nepal, although they are occasionally found in parts of China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Since they tend to live in grasslands and densely forested areas throughout Asia, Asian elephants typically eat a wide variety of plant materials found in these areas. Specifically, the Indian elephant diet includes:
- Herbs
- Bamboo
- Leaves
- Tree bark
- Stems and roots
- Local crops such as rice, bananas and sugarcane.
- Mineral-rich soil
Although they look the same, these elephants are smaller than both types of African elephants and have smaller and less powerful tusks. Other differences include smoother skin than African elephants, rounder ears, and a longer, more pointed lower lip.
Although Asian elephants are slightly smaller than their African counterparts, they are known to eat over 300 pounds of food every day! They prefer to eat smaller plants, such as grasses and twigs, rather than the bark and roots of trees, as their trunks are not as strong and flexible as those of African elephants.
