Elephants spend up to 18 hours a day eating over 300 pounds of vegetation.

An adult African bush elephant can weigh up to 13,000 pounds and requires an immense caloric intake to maintain its body mass. Research from institutions like the Smithsonian National Zoo indicates that these herbivores consume between 150 to 300 pounds of food daily. Because their digestive systems are relatively inefficient, only about 40 percent of what they eat is actually processed. To compensate for this low efficiency, elephants spend between 12 and 18 hours every day foraging and feeding. Their diet is incredibly diverse, consisting of over 100 different species of plants depending on the season and location. They use their trunks, which contain over 40,000 muscles, to strip bark from trees and pluck high-reaching fruits. This constant consumption serves a vital ecological purpose beyond the elephant's own survival. As mega-herbivores, they act as primary seed dispersers across African and Asian landscapes. A study published in 'Biotropica' found that some seeds are more likely to germinate after passing through an elephant's digestive tract. By moving across vast distances, they help maintain the genetic diversity of the forests and savannas they inhabit.