BELA-BELA, South Africa (AP) — Tuesday is World Elephant Day. Here are five things to know about the largest land animals on our planet.
There are three species of elephants: the African savanna or bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. The African savanna elephant and the Asian elephant are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The forest elephant is critically endangered.
The easiest way to tell the difference among the species is the ears. African elephants have larger ears that are shaped, conveniently, like the African continent. African elephants also have two finger-like prehensile extensions at the tips of their trunks to grip things with, while Asian elephants have one.
The African savanna elephant is the biggest of the three species and the largest land animal on Earth. Adult males weigh around 5,000 to 6,000 kilograms, which is 11,000 to 13,000 pounds — or about six tons. Savanna elephants already weigh about 120 kilograms — 265 pounds — when they're born, heavier than your average NFL player.
There are around 150,000 muscles in an elephant's trunk, making it an “incredible piece of equipment,” according to Sean Hensman, an elephant specialist at the Adventures with Elephants sanctuary in South Africa. Because their trunks have no bones, elephants can curl or twist them in all sorts of directions, and even make them shorter or longer. They use them to suck up water to blow into their mouths and to pick up food, or just about anything else they need to do.
Elephants can't jump. That's because of the enormous weight they are carrying. Elephants need at least three feet on the ground at any one time in order to move. They can, however, stand on their back legs if they need to reach food like fruits or leaves high on a tree.
One of the most popular presumptions is that elephants have an incredible memory. That is true, Hensman said. They have a huge temporal lobe — the part of the brain that controls memory. Elephants need a good memory of the locations of numerous food and water sources to survive in some of the harshest climates.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
A keeper gives a watermelon to 21-month-old Sumatran elephant Kama as its mother Nurhayati looks on during a special feeding session to celebrate the World Elephant Day at Bali Zoo, in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Elephants roam in Tsavo West National Park, near Voi town in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya, on Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
An elephant eats grass in Tsavo-East National Park, near Voi town, Taita-Taveta County, Kenya, on Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.
Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.
Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
