Who is the elephant in 'Horton Hears a Who!'?

The elephant in Horton Hears a Who! is Horton.

Horton is a kind, determined elephant who discovers that a tiny community of Whos lives on a speck of dust. Because the other animals cannot hear the Whos, they mock Horton and attempt to destroy or remove the speck, but he insists that every person matters, no matter how small.

Theodor Seuss Geisel published Horton Hears a Who! in 1954. The book’s famous setting is the Jungle of Nool, where Horton hears the Whos while splashing in a pool. He places their speck on a red clover and protects it from danger.

Horton first appeared in the earlier book Horton Hatches the Egg, published in 1940. He also appears in film and television adaptations, including the 1970 animated special and the 2008 feature film, in which Jim Carrey voices him. Babar and Dumbo are elephants from entirely different stories.