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Taxonomically the Eutheria clade is split into mainly two groups: the Euarchontoglires, the well-known mammals, and the Atlantogenata, with the Elephantidae family. Like all mammals, the Atlantogenata produce milk with nutrients for growth and development of their neonate. However, the milk of elephants is hardly comparable with the milks of the Euarchontoglires, and it is unknown whether this is typical of Atlantogenata. Elephant milk has been studied for the past half-century, and unique properties are still being discovered. Some elephant milk nutrients are unique, and changes over lactationmmakes it impossible to define a typical elephant milk composition. The current research has shown that African elephant lactation may be divided into three stages: the colostrums of two or three day’s post-partum, a twelve-month period of constant milk composition change, and mature milk thereafter until the end of lactation. The specific changes in milk composition of the individual elements of African elephant milk over lactation were observed to follow a particular trend. The milk density was almost constant over lactation. The milk ash and content of the major minerals, Na, K, Mg, P and Ca, increased over lactation. Vitamins were present in low concentrations, and increases over lactation might be dependent on the milk fat content. Vitamin E occurred in quantifiable amounts, with traces of vitamins A, D3 and K. The total protein content of African elephant milk increased with progressing lactation, with caseins as the predominant protein fraction. The milk carbohydrates of African elephant consisted of high amounts of lactose, isoglobotriose and oligosaccharides. The total carbohydrates steadily decreased over lactation, with the oligosaccharides becoming the major fraction, due to the decrease of lactose, which reached an equal level as isoglobotriose. The milk fat of African elephant increased with advancing lactation. The total content of saturated fatty acids changed, National Research Foundation (NRF)