Hungry, Hungry Elephants
Have your parents ever told you to eat your fruits and vegetables? Well, to have a balanced diet, elephants need to do the same thing! An elephant's diet is made up of grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. A favorite food of elephants is tree bark, which is a great source of calcium. Elephants also love to eat fruit, especially bananas. What about in zoos? Zookeepers may give elephants cabbage, apples, bananas, and other fruits and vegetables to eat.
Elephants eat more than 330 pounds of food every day. That's a lot of salad! The average human eats only four pounds of food per day. Elephants also use their tusks to dig up salt and minerals from the ground. They place the pieces of soil in their mouth to get nutrients and extra vitamins. |
Sources: http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/elephants/diet.htm, http://www.macroevolution.net/what-do-elephants-eat.html#.UU_F-RysiSo