Lisa Patten, age 9, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, for her question:

Is it true that an elephant lives a hundred years?

Andy sent his scouts around the world to find the oldest elephant alive. They reported many grand daddy elephants who had celebrated 50 birthdays. One huge fellow in India claimed to be 70 years old. But no elephants aged 100 were found. None were even 80 years old.

The Indian elephant never grows quite as big as the African elephant. But as a rule he lives at least 20 years longer than his bigger cousin. He also is the most famous kind of elephant. In India and other parts of Asia, he is trained to work with his human friends. The Indian elephant also is the famous performer who does those clever tricks at the circus. If the bulky fellow has tusks, he is a bull or male ftlephant. The female African elephant has tusks also, but the lady Indian elephant does not.

The mother Indian elephant carries her baby inside her body for a whole year. She is called a cow elephant and her new born baby is called a calf. As you can imagine, the youngster is not one of the world's smallest babies. He weighs about 200 pounds. He is about as heavy as a tall man who weighs a bit more than he should. The sturdy young elephant calf measures three feet tall from the ground to his shoulder level. As a rule, he is an only child. But once in a while a cow elephant gives birth to a set of twins.

In the wild state, the new elephant joins a herd of friends and relatives. There may be 200 of them and all of them treat the new arrival with kindness. In a few days, the sturdy youngster can keep up with the herd as they wander around in search of greenery. However, he does not feed on greenery. He is fed on mother's mill and his mother feeds him until he is two years old. By then he has learned to, eat greenery with the rest of the herd, and his mother is thinking about having her next baby elephant.

The young elephant grows at a great rate and when he reaches teenage, he is ready to become a parent. His tusks go on growing all his life. But with years of chewing tough vegetation, his grinding teeth wear down ands=fall out one by one. He can replace a lost tooth with another one. But he can do this only 24 times. When he has worn out his 24 teeth, the elephant can no longer chew the food he needs and his life must come to an end. The Indian elephant may live 74 or even 75 years. The African elephant as a rule lives only about 50. There does not seem to be a record of an elephant who has lived a whole century.

The splendid Indian elephant may stand nine feet tall at shoulder level. His huge tusks may be more than eight feet long and together may weigh 150 pounds. His total weight may be four tons. The African elephant is bigger, but he cannot learn as well arid he is not so likely to be friendly. He stands about 12 feet tall and his massive tusks may be more than 11 feet long. The big fellow may weigh as much as six tons.