Elephant  
Afrikaans name : Olifant
Scientific name : (Loxodonta africana) / order Probiscidea / family Elephantidae.

Region : Natural range across entire sub-Saharan Africa.
Description : The African elephant is the largest living land animal. They have grey,  almost hairless, wrinkled skin.
Habitat : Range varies from a min. of 14 square km. in subtropical forest to 3500 square km. in arid zones.
Weight : max.  6000 kg.
Height : max. 3.3 meters
Tusks : max. 3.5 meters long and weighing up to 135 kg. The elephant's tusks consist of ivory, a material which is like chitin or cellulose.
Food : A totally versatile herbivore, elephants consume 150 kg of food and enormous quantities of water each day and travel great distances looking for water and food. Elephants squirt water into their mouths at seven litres a sip! In a full drinking session elephants take up to 50 litres of water. Elephants spend 16-18 hours a day grazing and browsing, from ground level to 6 meters or more into the trees.
Habits : Family herds are made up of  female relatives and their young. Females stay with their families for life, but males must leave the on reaching puberty to temporarily join bachelor herds of up to 140 adolescents . Older bulls generally live alone. Elephants mate at any time of the year. Post menopausal Matriarch rules the oldest and most experienced female of the herd).
Young :  At birth, an elephant calf weighs 118kg. A cow has 1 calf every five years. They are reared by their mothers and by other young females in the herd. Maturity : 12/16  years. Gestation period 22 months, (the longest gestation period in mammals),. 
Predators : Calves are potential prey to Hyena and Lion.

There are great similarities between the adult elephant and the adult human, such as age-related illnesses, puberty, adolesence and menopausal time frames, longevity and social similarities.
Elephants are among the most intelligent of animals with complex social  and  communication systems.
Elephants Purr, (a subsonic infrasound that travels for kilometers across the savanna).
Elephants can 'talk' to each other from a distance of almost 10 kilometres, within a 100 square kilometre range.
Elephants can be very destructive feeders and often push large trees over. If too large a population are confined to too small an area, massive damage and deforestation can and does often result. They eventually modify their habitat by converting savannah and woodlands to grasslands.

Links
http://elephant.elehost.com/