Why Are Elephants so Large?

The elephant is one of the most unique animals alive on the planet today – and it’s also officially the largest, at least on land. With bodies that can measure up to 8 yards long and 4 yards tall, and weights easily landing in the thousands of pounds, elephants are truly impressive – and sometimes somewhat baffling. Why exactly are elephants so large.

Elephants are large because they need to be to survive their lifestyle, and because they evolved to be that way. Some specific reasons why elephants are so large are listed below:

Wet and Dry Hot Climates

Elephants are found on the continents of Africa and Asia, and are usually categorized into two types based on which of the two they inhabit. African elephants are usually divided again into bush and forest elephants depending on their specific habitats. In a general geographical sense, elephants live in extreme climates, and have done so for as long as archaeologists are able to tell. Some of those climates are dry heat, such as the savannas and grasslands of Africa; others are dense tropical heat like the equatorial rainforests. The climate is a major contributor to the size of the elephant.

Bigger Might Be Better

It might seem contradictory that a larger animal would exist in a hot climate. When most people think about large animals, they assume the size is created by layers of fat on the body, which tend to evolve in order to provide warmth in a cold area. But for elephants, the opposite is true: their large bodies are in fact a disadvantage in terms of the climate. Evolution knows what it’s doing, however. While the elephant’s size may cause it to suffer a bit more in the heat, the advantages it gains by being so large far outweigh that drawback.

Defending Against Predators

Consider the age of the elephant species, which is estimated to have walked the earth for over 50 million years. In order to do this, they have had to defend themselves against untold amounts of predators, and in the vast majority of situations, size wins. The elephant has natural predators, of course – lions being the main concern – but for the most part their sheer size makes them invulnerable to other species (except humans, anyhow). Thus, their size is at least partially a matter of being bigger than the enemy.

Eating Food

Another reason for the size is quite easy to see if you observe an elephant eating. While they have long trunks in order to successfully reach for food, they still need to be huge animals in order to reach leaves on the tops of the highest trees. An elephant’s trunk as well as its body are the size they are because it lets him access food even as baby elephants, even in environments where plant life closer to the ground might be scarce – or taken up by other, smaller animals.

Evolution

As a final note, it’s interesting to consider that, because the elephant’s size is a disadvantage in the hot climates it inhabits, evolution stepped in with a fix: the gigantic ears of an elephant act as fans in the heat, moving air and lowering his body temperature.

So, now you know why the elephant is so large and how it helps the elephant to be that size.