Elephant Riddles: 30 Giant Riddles with Answers for Kids on Riddlepedia
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Elephant Riddles: 30 Giant Riddles with Answers for Kids

30 riddles · tap Hint or Answer to reveal

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Elephants are the biggest animals that walk on land, and almost everything about them is surprising. Their trunk is a nose that can pick up a single peanut, their tusks are actually teeth, and their giant ears work like built-in fans. They live in close family groups, and the leader is usually the oldest female.

These 30 elephant riddles mix real elephant facts with a few classic elephant jokes. The easy round is perfect for young animal lovers, the medium round compares African and Asian elephants, and the tricky round has the facts that surprise grown-ups too. Every fact in the answers is true, so kids learn something while they guess.

Easy Elephant Riddles

I’m the biggest animal that walks on land. I’m gray, I’m wrinkly, and I have a very long nose. What am I?

Hint
Some of my cousins live in Africa and some live in Asia.
Answer
An elephant

I’m a nose, but I’m also a hand, a straw and a hose. I hang down from an elephant’s face. What am I?

Hint
It’s also the name for the storage space at the back of a car.
Answer
The trunk

I’m a baby elephant. I stay close to my mom and drink her milk. What am I called?

Hint
Baby cows and baby giraffes share my name.
Answer
A calf

Why do elephants have trunks?

Hint
Think about what people pack for a trip.
Answer
Because they’d look silly carrying suitcases.

Elephants flap me back and forth on hot days, and I’m much bigger than yours. What am I?

Hint
An elephant hears with these.
Answer
Ears. Elephant ears are full of blood vessels, and flapping them helps cool the blood, so the whole elephant cools down.

What do you call an elephant that doesn’t matter?

Hint
Mix “elephant” with a long word that means “not important.”
Answer
Irrelephant

I’m what elephants eat all day long: grass, leaves, bark and fruit. They never eat meat. What kind of eater are they?

Hint
Cows, rabbits and pandas are this kind too.
Answer
A plant eater. Elephants are herbivores.

Elephants roll in me and splash me all over their backs. I’m wet and brown, and I protect their skin from the sun and from bugs. What am I?

Hint
Pigs love me too.
Answer
Mud

How do you know an elephant has been in your fridge?

Hint
Look for clues in something soft and yellow.
Answer
Footprints in the butter

An elephant can hold a lot of me in its trunk, then squirt me into its mouth or spray me over its back like a shower. What am I?

Hint
Elephants visit the water hole every day for me.
Answer
Water

Medium Elephant Riddles

I’m a long, curved tooth that grows out of an elephant’s mouth. Elephants use me to dig, lift and strip bark. What am I?

Hint
Walruses have a pair of me too.
Answer
A tusk. Tusks are really giant incisor teeth.

I’m the oldest female in an elephant herd, and the family follows my lead to food and water. What am I called?

Hint
My title starts with the same letters as “mother.”
Answer
The matriarch

A grown-up male elephant often leaves his family herd and lives alone or with other males. What is he called?

Hint
A male cow shares the name.
Answer
A bull

Which elephant has bigger ears: the African elephant or the Asian elephant?

Hint
Think of the bigger continent.
Answer
The African elephant. Asian elephants have smaller, rounder ears.

In one kind of elephant, both males and females can have tusks. In the other kind, only some males do. Which elephant is the one where only some males have tusks?

Hint
These elephants have smaller ears, too.
Answer
The Asian elephant

The tip of an African elephant’s trunk has two little “fingers.” How many does an Asian elephant’s trunk have?

Hint
It has fewer.
Answer
One. African elephants have two finger-like tips on the trunk, and Asian elephants have one.

My trunk can sniff out water and food from far away. Which of my five senses is one of the strongest in the whole animal kingdom?

Hint
You use your nose for it too, just not as well.
Answer
Smell

Elephant tusks are made of me. Poachers kill elephants to sell me, so buying and selling me is banned in many countries. What am I?

Hint
Old piano keys were sometimes made of me, but now they’re plastic.
Answer
Ivory

Why are elephants so wrinkly?

Hint
Think about laundry.
Answer
Have you ever tried to iron one?

An elephant mom carries her baby for almost two years before it’s born. Is that longer or shorter than a human mom?

Hint
Humans carry a baby for about nine months.
Answer
Longer. Elephants have one of the longest pregnancies of any animal: about 22 months.

Tricky Elephant Riddles

My trunk is my nose joined together with another body part that sits right above your mouth. What is that body part?

Hint
You have one on the top and one on the bottom.
Answer
The upper lip. An elephant’s trunk is its nose and upper lip, joined together.

Elephants use these to talk to each other over long distances. Some of them are so low that people can’t hear them at all. What are they?

Hint
It sounds a bit like faraway thunder.
Answer
Rumbles

Elephants can “hear” the rumbles of other elephants far away, even when they’re too low for ears to catch. Which part of their body feels the vibrations in the ground?

Hint
It’s the part of the elephant that is always touching the ground.
Answer
Their feet

An elephant’s matriarch remembers where the water holes are, even during a dry season years later. Which famous saying about elephants does this fit?

Hint
It’s about what elephants supposedly never do.
Answer
“An elephant never forgets.” Elephants really do have excellent memories.

I’m an elephant tooth, but I’m not a tusk. I’m flat and huge, and I grind up plants. Elephants wear me down and grow new sets of me during their life. What am I?

Hint
You have these at the very back of your mouth.
Answer
A molar. Elephants get six sets of molars in their lifetime.

Elephants can walk, run and swim, but there’s one move a grown-up elephant can’t do, even to reach tasty fruit. What is it?

Hint
Think of what kangaroos do all day.
Answer
Jump

There are two kinds of African elephant. One lives on the open grasslands, and the other lives deep in the forest. What are these two kinds called?

Hint
One is named after the grassy plains.
Answer
The savanna elephant and the forest elephant

Why do elephants paint their toenails red?

Hint
It’s a classic joke about hiding.
Answer
So they can hide in strawberry patches. Have you ever seen an elephant in one? It works!

When an elephant is excited or upset, it blasts a loud call through its trunk. The sound shares its name with a shiny brass instrument. What is it called?

Hint
The instrument has three valves and a bell at the end.
Answer
A trumpet. Elephants “trumpet” through their trunks.

Elephant brothers leave home when they’re teenagers, but sisters usually stay with their mom for life. What do we call the family group they stay in?

Hint
Cows and zebras travel in one too.
Answer
A herd

Elephant Riddle Games for Kids

  • True or joke? Read each riddle and ask kids to guess first whether the answer is a real fact or a joke. Jokes get a laugh; facts get a point.
  • Herd relay: split into “herds,” each with a matriarch who reads the riddles. The herd that answers five in a row gets to pick the next animal for riddle time.
  • Classroom compare: use the medium round for a quick African vs. Asian elephant chart: ear size, tusks and trunk tip. Kids can draw both elephants side by side.
  • Make it move: before answering, everyone has to stomp like an elephant, flap their “ears” or swing a “trunk” arm. It’s a great wiggle break.

Want more wild animals? Try our giraffe riddles, these lion riddles or our rainforest riddles.