English: A size chart showing the average size, based on shoulder height, of adult Loxodonta africana (African bush elephant), both male and female, with the largest recorded male in the background.

---

• The elephants are scaled to shoulder height data in Larramendi 2016. The average heights are based on information in Table 8; The average shoulder height listed for males is 304-336 cm with a mean average of 320 cm, which is shown here. The average shoulder height listed for females is 247-273 cm with a mean average of 260 cm which, is shown here.

• The largest recorded shoulder height for an African bush elephant came from a male shot by a big-game hunter in 1974. It was measured as 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m), from the top of the shoulder to the outstretched foot whilst laying on its side. When laying on their side, the elephant's weight causes the body to spread out, artificially lengthening the shoulder height measurement; the actual standing shoulder height would have been slightly lower. Some authors chop off about 5%, producing an estimated shoulder height of ~3.96 m, shown here. The overall body length was said to be 35 ft (10.67 m) measured from the tip of the outstretched trunk to the tip of the outstretched tail. Some claims of very large elephants have been found to be inaccurate upon further scientific inspection. Even if the claim of this elephant is accurate, individuals of this size are extremely rare.^[1][2]

• Newborn females are usually between 80 and 90 cm tall at the shoulder, 80 cm shown here, and newborn males 90-95 cm, 90 cm shown here.^[3]

• The elephant silhouettes are redrawn primarily from a photo by Ian Sewell,^[4] with the female modified based on information and photos on Elephant Voices Blog.^[5][6] Newborn silhouette drawn from multiple images found online.

• Humans scaled to 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) and 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) respectively.

References