De Wayne Justice, age 11p of Phoenix, Arizonia

What does an elephant eat?

Of all the animals, only the sea‑going whale is bigger than the elephant No land animal, however, can compete with Jumbo's size or strength, What's more, he is a very active animal and can work for long hours without tiring, You would think that such an animal would need lots of meat to keep up his mighty strength. Not at all. The elephant is a strict vegetarian ‑ he never touches a bite of meat.

In the wild, he dines on leaves, grasses, fruit, root tubers and tree bark. He needs about 500 pounds of this food every day, which keeps him very busy foraging. In captivity the elephant does very well on hay. He needs about 150 pounds of hay a day, The big fellow needs fifty gallons of water each day to wash down his diet of salad and vegetables,

Jumbo has a most fascinating way of eating. He uses his amazing trunk as an arm and a hand. It would be very hard for him to knuckle down his huge bulk to eat grass, He gathers his food as he walks along, pulling up bunches of leaves from the ground and high twigs from the trees. He uses the end of his flexible trunk to stuff the food into his mouth. He has huge molars to grind each mouthful. The big fellow has a trick of his own for getting at the delicate foliage high on a tree top. He presses his massive forehead against the tree trunk and rocks it back and forth, One mighty shove, and down comes the tree,