Mysuru: Elephants are herbivorous and will almost eat anything vegetarian ranging from leaves, barks, twigs, shrubs and bushes, fruits, roots and flowers. As large animals it is understandable that they need large quantities of food. Elephants use their muscular trunks, a very versatile appendage, for digging roots and uprooting plants, plucking leaves and breaking branches off the trees.
Sixteen to eighteen hours, or nearly 80 percent of an elephant’s day is spent in feeding. They eat roughly 10 percent of their bodyweight in food every day. So, about 360 kg of food is required daily for an elephant weighing 3,500 kg. So if Howdah elephant Arjuna, housed now in Mysore Palace along with other elephants, is weighing 5,500 kg, he needs 550 kgs of food every day.
