Elephants are big and heavy. Just how big and heavy is that? The largest elephant on record was an adult male African elephant that weighed about 24,000 pounds and was 13 feet tall at the shoulder! African elephants grow larger than Asian elephants. African elephants are the largest land animals with body growth continuing for up to 30 years. Bulls (males) may reach a height of 9-13 feet at the shoulder and weigh between 9,000-13,000 pounds. Cows (females) are smaller in size, averaging 7-9 feet at the shoulder and weighing between 4,500-7,000 pounds. An adult elephant will be almost as tall as it is long. The ears alone can measure nearly 6 feet high and 4 feet wide and weigh almost 100 pounds. These numbers apply to elephants who are well cared for in a zoo or circus. Insufficient food and drinking water and a lack of medical care mean that Wild elephants usually weigh less and are not as tall.

Baby elephants aren't lightweights. New-born elephants weigh from around 170 pounds to 248 pounds. Even so, a baby female only weighs about 4% of her adult weight, and a baby male elephant only weighs about 2% of his adult weight.

Even an elephant's teeth are heavy. Elephants have 1 upper and 1 lower molar on each side of their mouth. Each molar can weigh about 5 pounds and is the size of a brick. Tusks are really just elongated incisor teeth which have about one-third of their total length hidden inside the skull. Both males and female African elephants have tusks, while only male Asian elephants have tusks. tusks that grow throughout life, so the older the elephant the larger the tusk The largest tusk ever recorded weighed 214 pounds and was 138 inches long. Tusks of this size are not found on elephants today, because over the years hunters and poachers have taken animals with the largest tusks. Since tusk size is an inherited characteristic, it is rare to find one now that weighs more than 100 pounds.

One way to find out an elephant's weight is by using a formula. First you have to measure the elephant around her body just behind her front legs. Then measure her length, then the circumference of one of her footpads. Take these measurements in centimeters and enter them into the following formula

(11.5 * heart girth) + (7.55 * length) + (12.5 * pad circumference) - 4016 = elephant weight in kilograms

A more accurate way to get the elephant's weight is to put it on a scale. Of course, not many people, even if they own elephants, have a scale that is large enough. There are portable truck scales (acually they weigh trucks and anything else that will fit on them) that have 6 to 12 load cells or more depending on the length of the scale. When the San Diego Zoo wants to weigh their elephants, the California Highway Patrol brings in their portable truck scales and the elephants stand on them.