Hannibal had 40 elephants and 30 to 40,000 troops. 10,000 men and 36 elephants died during the 15 day journey across the Alps. With a relatively small army of select troops he set out to invade Italy by the little-known overland route. He fought his way over the Pyrenees and reached the Rhône River before the Romans could block his crossing, moved up the valley to avoid their army, and crossed the Alps. He was as they say a great general. In a winter camp in 217 BC he suffered a serious eye infection and eventually lost his eye. Hannibal never made others do what he wasn’t willing to do himself. Not much is known about him and all the writings on him were done by his enemies. They too, knew he was a great military leader. No one knows whether Hannibal took African or Asian elephants. The Roman Emperor Septimus Severus issued coins depicting elephants which appear to be a combination of the two species. From the net.

When Hannibal announced his intention to Carthage's ruling Oligarchy that he intended to cross the Alps, he was met with guffaws and insults, with one leading citizen asking him how he intended to find a way through. Hannibal's response was typical of the man. "If I cannot find a way, I will make one." We don't know specifics of the crossing beyond a few details, such as the number of troops Hannibal had at his disposal, which are currently in dispute. (The earlier response gives a fairly reasonable number, but the number of elephants, in particular, is pretty hotly disputed). We do know that Hannibal took his army from Spain, marched upwards through the Pyrenees into France, and then headed south again through the alps - he did not take the obvious passes, as these would have been watched by the Romans, and apparently made use of local goat paths, which were known to hill tribesmen friendly to the Carthaginians. Once again, the specific route is in question. However, Hannibal certainly had two massive advantages. In the first place, his army was heavily assisted by cavalry; while this was a liability when crossing the mountains, it also meant that he could send a mobile portion of the army ahead to scout for possible pathways before moving the bulk of his forces through. Secondarily, the very fact that Hannibal was -willing- to use cavalry scouts was, by Ancient standards, absolutely revolutionary. Reconaissance by horseback was not a typical tactic of Ancient warfare, and in fact we don't have any records of the Romans using the tactic prior to the collapse of the Western Empire in 476 A.D.. It simply wasn't done. But then again, Hannibal did many things that "simply weren't done". Aside from his cavalry and elephantry component, Hannibal did his best to reduce unnecessary baggage. There was no baggage train accompanying Hannibal's army - every man carried his own supplies - and siege equipment, ballistas, and war machines (all well known to the Carthaginians of the era) were left behind. He certainly brought along a fairly skilled number of engineers, however, and we know that they were able to construct bridges for the crossing of gorges and rivers. Several of the elephants were lost during flash floods during some of these river crossings Nevertheless, the trek was quite difficult. It has been estimated that upwards of 30% of Hannibal's troops were lost during the crossing, and only three of Hannibal's elephants actually survived to make it to Italy. A few reinforcements (including more elephants) were landed by the Carthaginian fleet, but these did not completely replace his losses. In many instances, Hannibal was massively outnumbered - and this makes his string of victories all the more incredible. Of course, you didn't ask about the campaign, so I won't dwell on it - but I can't really stress enough what an incredibly difficult voyage it must have been for Hannibal and his men. In fact, at least two Roman armies later tried to re-trace this route, and the results were disastrous for them on both occasions. The earlier answer expressed doubt about what sorts of elephants Hannibal used. In fact, archaeology has identified this species as the African Forest Elephant, a now extinct species of elephant about half as high as the Asian (which would make it, according to Roman sources, about five hands higher than a man - not a particularly large beast, but certainly bigger than any horse). During his campaign in Italy, he probably used the same. The final battles in Africa were fought with Asian elephants imported from India and with African Forest Elephants. The larger species we now know African Elephants (the big ones you're used to hearing about) weren't used in warfare - they were tempermental, violent, and incredibly dangerous (even more so than typical elephants, which were frequently more trouble than they were worth when used in combat), ill suited to warfare. At any event, Hannibal crossed the Alps through pluck, the courage of his men, the aid of hill tribesmen, and simple luck. Beyond that, it's difficult to say just how he accomplished the march in any great detail. The event was so legendary, and the results so lionized by the Romans (who tried unsuccessfully to recruit Hannibal after the fall of Carthage) that precise details - beyond what I've just summarized - are just about impossible to come by. Unfortunately, the fact that Carthaginian Civilization was obliterated not long after Hannibal's campaign makes the matter of finding more information problematic.

actually hannabal used african elephants because the romans took over africa so they got all the african animals. thats why they used tigers and lions in gladiator fights