Our Plastic Baby Elephant
This plastic elephant from Safari Ltd. is wonderfully detailed. Safari is known for its museum-quality plastic animals (solid plastic, not hollow) that are sturdy, life-like, and affordable. These plastic toys are great for school projects, dioramas, your personal collection, or the toy-room floor. Be sure to see our other African elephant toys and gifts.
About Elephants
Until recently, it was believed that there were only two species of elephant - African and Asian (Elephas maximus). However, in 2004, DNA evidence proved that there are actually two true species of African elephant - African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) and African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis). African savannah elephants are the largest elephant, African forest elephants are slightly smaller and Asian elephants are the smallest elephant. African elephants have larger ears than the Asian elephant. In the African species, both the male and female elephants have large visible tusks. In the Asian species only the males have large visible tusks. The females have small tusks called tushes that are not usually visible. African elephants only have one dome on the top of their head, and the flat forehead is slightly sloped. The Asian elephant has two distinct domes at the top of its head. There is a projection on the end of the elephant's trunk that is referred to as a "finger." African elephants have two "fingers" on the end of their trunk, and will use a grasping motion when picking things up. (This is much like the way we use our thumb and forefinger.) The Asian elephant has only one "finger," so it has to curl the end of its trunk around anything it wants to pick up. All three elephant species are endangered because of poachers who hunt them for their tusks.
