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Why are elephants so big but aren't carnivores?

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Being big suits herbivores better than it does carnivores, contrary to what you might think. At least, on land it does. Giants of all sorts need more food than their smaller brethren, but for a plant-eater, being big allows access to food difficult to reach for smaller animals. read more

Being big is an intrinsic benefit for a prey species. Elephants are not often successfully hunted by leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, and so on. Only the very largest predators (lions) can attack an adult elephant, and even then only as a group. By becoming big, elephants gained immunity from the vast majority of local predators. read more

Elephants evolved to their current size over the course of tens of millions of years; this size adaptation is likely a survival mechanism because a full-sized, adult elephant faces very little threat from predators, though baby elephants are much more vulnerable to predation from big cats such as lions and wild dogs. read more

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