Want to know how to identify elephants in the wild?

There are many ways to identify elephants, here we will show you. But stay tuned to see the rest. Original content from source at the bottom.

Here’s what to look for when identifying elephants.

Sex and Size



Photograph Courtesy of ElephantVoices

The general body size and shape, thickness of the tusks, and, of course, the genitalia are important factors to consider when aging and sexing elephants. This photograph shows an adult male with an adult female and her offspring in Amboseli, Kenya. Ed (at left) has just mated with Erin (second to left). Males grow to be twice the size of females. “Ed is only six years older than Erin,” Poole noted, “but he is twice her weight.”

Adult males like Ed have more massive, rounded foreheads and thicker tusks, while adult females like Erin have breasts between their front legs, slender tusks, and more angular foreheads.

Other members of Erin’s family are, from her right, an eight-year-old female, a two–year-old with emerging tusks, and an infant. (An infant is less than a year old and has no tusks.) The adult female at the far right has recently entered adulthood, but still has much growing to do. Elephants are unusual among mammals in that they continue to grow through much of their life, making body size a convenient characteristic for determining elephant age.

Source: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/16/name-that-elephant-how-to-identify-elephants-in-the-wild/