Karen E. Saenz, age 9, of Tucson, Arizona, for her question

How big is an elephant's brain?

An elephant's brain weighs about 11 pounds    and so far as we know it is the biggest brain in the world. The brain of the mighty whale weighs about four and a half pounds and the brain of a grown man weighs about three pounds. A feathery little songbird has a brain that weighs about as much as an aspirin. No, the elephant is not a genius and the songbird is not too dumb to make a living.

Size does not make a brain smart. As a matter of fact, all nature's animals are smart enough to find their food and look after themselves. Even a tiny songbird is smart enough to make a living and tend to her chicks. An elephant weighs four tons. And for his total size, his brain is not extra large. The songbird's tiny brain makes up much more of her total weight, while the brain of a whale is only a very small portion of his great big body    which may weigh 100 tons.