KidZone Animals
Elephants: Science
Asian Elephant
Photographer: Dennis Jarvis; License CC BY-SA
Elephants come from the mammal family Elephantidae within the taxonomic order Proboscidea (also part of this order are wooly mammoths!).
Within this mammal family, there are two main species, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).
In recent scientific research, it has been discovered that within the African elephant species, its two "subspecies," the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant are actually two separate species altogether. So, for our purposes, we have split elephants into three main special categories: the Asian elephant, the African bush elephant, and the African forest elephant.
However, no matter the subfamily or species, all elephants are herbivores. This means they eat plants.