Elephants

by martha | Posted on

Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth

Show me a person who doesn’t love elephants?? The oldest representative of the trumpeters lived about 60 million years ago. Those majestic  animals brings admiration and respect just by looking at them.

The elephant is the largest and heaviest animal on Earth. Elephants are a land mammal that comes from the proboscis family. They are incredibly sensitive animals. They like to be with people very much, only when it does not hurt them. They are very emotional and intelligent.

Types of Elephants??

There are three different species of elephants.

  • the African savanna elephant
  • the African forest elephant
  • the Indian elephant.

What do elephants eat?

Elephants are powerful animals. An adult individual can weigh up to 6 tons. Such an animal must eat a lot. These mammals are herbivores. They eat mostly grasses, leaves, smaller branches, and fruit. They have few teeth to help them chop food. Usually, they starve to death after the age of 70. It is around this age that elephants lose their teeth. Their lack prevents them from eating.

Where do elephants live?

Elephants mainly live in South and Southeast Asia, as well as Africa. They can be easily found in Kenya, Nepal, Gabon, Congo, Burma, India, and Sri Lanka.

Herd animals

They belong to herd animals. One herd can count up to 50 individuals. Every day they travel long distances in search of food and water. The herd is led by the oldest and most experienced female.

Why Do Elephants Have Big Ears?

Elephants live in warm areas, so they have to somehow cope with overheating of the body. Here their big ears come to the rescue. By swinging their ears, they can somehow lower their body temperature. They can be up to 1.5 meters long.

Proboscis – a characteristic feature

The hallmark of elephants is their long trunk. It mainly functions as an organ of smell and touch. It also helps them with proper body care. It is also used to defend against threats. They are able to grab a heavy object with it and move it to another place (even a whole tree).

The teeth of elephants

Elephants have 26 teeth – 12 premolars and 12 molars. Two of them called punches (often mistakenly confused with fangs) are extended incisors. They grow throughout life. They can reach a length of up to 3.5 meters and weigh up to 120 kg. These animals use them to break bark from trees or dig holes in the ground to find water.

***INTERESTING FACTS***

  • Elephants are able to hear another elephant’s trumpet from 5 miles (8 kilometers) away.
  • The heaviest elephant in the world weighed 10,886 kilograms. It measured 3.96 meters.
  • Elephants can be sunburned. Instead of suntan oil, they use sand. It is supposed to protect their skin from the sun.
  • Every day, around 100 elephants are slaughtered to obtain the ivory.
  • Apart from humans, elephants are the only mammals to have a chin.
  • An adult elephant eats 661 lb. (300 kg) of food and drinks 160 liters of water each day.
  • Elephant tusks can weigh as much as 441 lb. (200 kilograms).
  • These animals are able to distinguish between the sex of humans. When they hear a voice, they can even identify ethnicity.
  • Elephants have three times as many neurons as humans.
  • An adult Asian elephant is able to hold 8.5 liters of water in its trunk. What’s more, his proboscis alone has as many as 40,000 muscles. For comparison, a person has only 639 muscles.
  • An elephant’s heart beats about 27 times a minute.
  • These animals live in places covered with trees and close to water.
  • Elephants are endangered animals. The main threat to them is man. Poachers hunt them to obtain valuable ivory.
  • They can reach speeds of up to 35 km / h.
  • So far the largest elephant encountered was 13.64 feet (4.16 meters) high and 27.52 feet (8.39 meters) long. Its weight is not fully known. Its weight is 25,400 lb. (12.7 tons).
  • The main cause of elephant death is missing teeth. Without them, they are unable to eat.
  • Ivory is a valuable jewelry raw material. It is also used in art in artistic works.
  • In ancient times, elephants were used as fighting animals.
  • Elephants are herd animals; they live in family groups. The female is at the head of the herd.
  • They are herbivores.
  • These animals are very clever. They can both learn and feel emotions. If a family member is injured, the rest of the group can come and help. They also know when a family member is no longer in the herd.
  • While African elephants are closely related, the Asian elephant is quite different from the African elephant.
  • Elephants love water, soaking in it and diving is a real paradise for them, it is also worth noting that they cool down in this way. But sitting in the water for too long causes joint disease in elephants.
  • Little elephants suck their proboscis just like children suck their thumbs. It is undoubtedly a reflex learned in the womb.
  • When you see an elephant at a watering hole, you should know that an elephant can drink up to 5 liters of water at a time.
  • Elephants can be left-handed and right-handed. It all depends on which side the elephant prefers.
  • The elephant’s trunk has over 40,000 muscles. For comparison, a person has only 639 total muscles!
  • The African elephant’s ears are much larger than those of its Asian cousin. The ears of the former are said to have the shape of Africa, while the ears of the latter look like India.
  • African elephants can disperse with their dung more than 2,000 seeds of various plants per square kilometer each day.
  • The African elephant is not only the largest living land animal, but it also has a huge brain size. Their brain can weigh up to 5.4 kg and is by far the largest brain of any animal living on land.
  • Elephants are the world’s largest land animal. African elephants reach a height of 3 m and weigh from 4,000 to 7,500 kg. Asian elephants, on the other hand, are slightly smaller and reach a height of 2.7 m and weigh between 3,000 and 6,000 kg.
  • Elephants have 3 times more neurons than humans, and it is not known why they are not smarter than we are.
  • Female elephants have the longest gestation of any mammal. It is a long period of 22 months.
  • There are three different types of elephants that are currently classified as Asian elephants – Indian elephants, Sri Lankan elephants, and Sumatran elephants. However, some studies also consider the elephants of Borneo to be a fourth, distinct subspecies. They are all endangered due to the destruction of important elephant habitats.
  • African elephants are larger than Asian elephants. The body length of an African elephant can reach 7.5 m and weight 5-7.5 tons. In the case of Asian elephants, the length does not exceed 6.5 m and the weight reaches 5 tons. The Indian elephant also has much smaller ears than the African elephant.
  • The size of the African elephant’s ears is 1.5 m. The African elephant’s ears are used for thermoregulation. The Asian elephant protects itself from the sun in shady forests.
  • The young stay with their mother up to the age of 10. They even learn to eat by putting their proboscis in their mother’s mouth to take food
  • The head of the family relies on his experience and memory to remind himself of where the best places for food and water are, and where to find protection from the elements.
  • Elephants have two types of gait: walking and a faster gait similar to running. They cannot jump or gallop, but they can swim.
  • The head of the family is responsible for teaching younger members of his family to socialize with other elephants.
  • A lot can be said about an elephant by looking at its tusks that continue to grow, so huge blows can be the telltale sign of an old elephant. Both male and female African elephants breed tusks, but only male Asian elephants breed them.
  • Elephants bathe in mud to protect their skin from the sun.
  • The Indian elephant is found in 10 countries in Southeast Asia, but most of them are found in four areas of India. There are about 30,000 of them there.
  • The Sri Lankan elephant is the largest of the Asian subspecies
  • Elephants usually only sleep 2 or 3 hours a day.
  • The very large elephant ears are used to expel excess heat from the body.
  • Female elephants have the longest reproductive anatomy of any land mammal. Her vagina is 1.3 meters in her body.
  • The elephant is happy to show good manners to members of its herd and other herds. For example, they use their trumpets to greet each other.
  • The behavior of the elephant is associated with a unique animal intelligence that exhibits sadness, altruism, compassion, self-awareness, play, art, and music.
  • Elephants are very social and can communicate with each other and recognize other elephants up to 3 kilometers away with rumble, low sounds that are below human hearing range.
  • Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that elephants can identify each other as friends, family members, or strangers by their smell.
  • The word “elephant” comes from the Greek word “elephas” which means “ivory”.
  • Elephants have a more developed hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for emotions and spatial awareness, than any other animal.
  • Until recently, African forest elephants were considered a subspecies of the African elephant, but new research has shown that they are in fact a distinct species. These elephants live in tropical African forests near the Congo. They have simpler punches and more rounded ears than savannah elephants.
  • An adult elephant needs up to 300 kg of food and 160 liters of water a day!
  • African elephants have the best sense of smell in the animal kingdom.
  • Elephants pay close attention to the welfare of all members of their herd and will do everything in their power to care for them and protect weak or injured members.
  • Adult elephants have no real predators in the wild, except us humans. Despite the ban on international ivory sales since 1989, illegal trade has expanded, particularly in recent years, and is now greater than ever.
  • Elephants don’t like peanuts.
  • The elephant runs faster than the human.
  • The elephant’s trunk is very prehensile and strong. It is used for breathing, smelling, gathering food, drinking, picking branches from higher parts of trees and also for bathing. By their sense of smell, elephants can determine the whereabouts of up to 30 absent members of the herd.
  • During their lifetime, elephants develop new teeth six times, sometimes they have two “suits”. In periods when elephants have double the number of teeth, they eat more or chew their food better.
  • African elephants have the most developed sense of smell among all animals.
  • What can such a large animal be afraid of? Maybe a lion? Not. Tiger? Not. Bees? Yes. Elephants become terrified at the sight of a bee.
  • The African continent is home to the world’s largest animals. A heavy elephant and the tallest giraffe live there.
  • Unlike lions, elephants are not sleepers. They only need 2-3 hours of sleep a day.
  • Elephant pregnancy lasts two years.
  • The elephant has a very slow pulse, around 27 beats per minute. Compare that to the average person who has an average of 80 beats per minute. The canary, in turn, has as much as 1000 beats per minute!
  • The elephant can sense the water source from 6 kilometers away.
  • There is a structured social order in the elephant’s lifestyle. Females spend their lives in tight family groups of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and daughters. The oldest female usually leads the group. Adult males prefer a bachelor lifestyle.
  • The Asian elephant has one more toenail on each foot than the African elephants. Asian elephants have five nails on the front legs and four on the hind legs, while African elephants have four on the front legs and three on the hind legs.
  • Their brains have more complex folds than all animals except whales, which is believed to be the main factor that makes them one of the most intelligent animals on Earth.
  • There are many reports of elephants showing altruism to other species, such as saving trapped dogs at considerable cost.
  • Elephants know that they come to people for help, e.g., when they have been poisoned or injured, and that they can find us people from a distance.
  • Elephants can detect rain up to 75 kilometers away!
  • Research shows that they are better than humans at tracking multiple objects in 3D space.
  • Baby elephants are covered with short hair. The growth of this hair diminishes with time as we age. Unlike the hair of most mammals, elephant hair helps keep the body cool in the hot climates of Africa and Asia.
  • Asian elephants were once used for combat but are now captured for the purposes of tourism and the entertainment industry.
  • Elephant calves grow quickly, gaining from one kilogram to one and a half kilograms per day during their first year of life.
  • The herd leader is usually the oldest female, known as the matriarch.
  • Elephants and chimpanzees can exhibit behavioral patterns similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
  • The proboscis is tender enough to pick up a blade of grass, and strong enough to break branches off a tree. The proboscis is also used for drinking – an elephant can suck up to 14 liters of water at a time and then blow it straight into his mouth.
  • Like humans, elephants are born with eyes that are already full size.
  • Elephant skin can appear more wrinkled than your 80-year-old grandmother. But it actually helps keep their skin healthy by keeping it moist. After a mud bath, the wetness of the mud remains in the wrinkles to further soften the skin of the elephant.
  • Elephants make sounds that we cannot even hear. Some of their conversations are on frequencies that are beyond human hearing.
  • Elephants can distinguish between males and females as well as different ethnicities when they hear a voice.
  • Elephants occupy a sacred place in Eastern religious mythology. The Hindu god Ganesh is depicted as an elephant-headed man, and according to another story, the Buddha was reincarnated as a white elephant with six blows.
  • They are considered to be an extremely intelligent species and have been observed to exhibit advanced problem-solving skills and empathy, can be mourning and have some type of self-awareness.
  • Elephants can smell the water from 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) away.
  • An elephant’s brain can weigh as much as 12 lb. (5 kg). This is more than the weight of this organ of any land animal.
  • Dogs and elephants are among the only animals that understand the pointing finger gesture.
  • These mammals do not like peanuts.
  • Elephant skin can be up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. Despite its thickness, it remains extremely sensitive. These animals are able to sense the landing of the fly on their body.
  • About 40% of African elephants are overweight.
  • They are among the largest animals that live on land.
  • These animals have a tail as long as 4.92 feet (1.5 meters).
  • Due to the place of occurrence, two species of elephant are distinguished: African and Indian.
  • The elephants in one herd are linked by a strong bond. If one of them is sick and weak, others look after him.
  • A newborn baby elephant weighs 265 lb. (120 kilograms).
  • The elephants rest lying on their side. It also happens that they lean against a tree.
  • These mammals like to stay in the water.
  • Elephants live about 70 years. In captivity 10 years longer.
  • A herd of elephants can walk 80 km a day.
  • The sweat glands of elephants are located between the nails.
  • Elephant’s sleep standing up.
  • The female suns live in groups of about 15 animals, all related and led by the oldest in the group. She decides where and when they move and rest, day after day and year after year.
  • Elephants sometimes use their punches in combat but are generally peaceful creatures. Most often they use punches to kick, pick up items, collect food, and remove bark in order to eat from trees.
  • About 100 elephants for ivory are killed every day.
  • Elephants are afraid of bees.
  • In Mount Elgon National Park in Kenya, a group of elephants use their punches to mine salt in underground caves.
  • They have long eyelashes that can grow up to 12 cm in length.
  • The elephant has a dominant punch, similar to the dominant hand that a human uses to write.
  • Africa is home to the world’s largest living land animal, the African elephant, and the tallest, the giraffe.
  • They have been spotted using their trumpets as diving tubes while crossing rivers.
  • An elephant’s torso is able to sense the size, shape, and temperature of an object.
  • While bathing, the elephant sucks water with its trunk to splash it all over its body. It then sprays mud on the wet hair, which dries up and acts as a sunscreen.
  • They spend 12 to 18 hours eating grass, plants, and fruit each day.
  • The elephant is an herbivore and eats many different food sources in nature. Some species of elephants, such as the African elephant, eat up to 300 kilograms of food a day. For comparison, an adult human will eat about 1.5-2 kilograms of food a day.
  • Adult male tusks grow approximately 18 centimeters per year. The blows are used to dig roots, look for a water source, bark trees, clear a path, and the occasional fight. Additionally, they are used to mark trees to establish the territory of the elephant.
  • They use their probes to smell food and lift it to their mouths.
  • Elephants wave their ears to use the air as an internal air conditioning system.
  • They have poor digestion, with an efficiency of only 50%. As a result, they release a large amount of gas – methane, and produce around 120 kilograms of manure per day.
  • 40% of captive African elephants are obese.
  • Elephants grieve for their dead.
  • Even herds that come across an unknown lone elephant that has died will honor it.
  • In a study by the National Primate Research Center, elephants were found to comfort their distraught friends by stroking their trunks.
  • Dogs and elephants are the only animals that seem to instinctively understand finger pointing.
  • Elephants can get burned, so they take refuge with sand.
  • In the wild, elephants mainly eat grass, fruit, twigs, shrubs, bamboos, and bananas. Their main source of food is grass if it is available to them.
  • Elephants will also be happy to eat tree bark, plant roots and even soil. Tree bark is an excellent source of roughage to aid digestion.
  • The elephant passed the mirror test, as did babies, magpies, dolphins, and great monkeys. They recognize themselves in the mirror.
  • Elephants do have an amazing memory. They remember droughts and other extreme weather conditions, which allows them to return to places they know there will be food or water. They also remember other elephants they have met in the past and follow up to 30 other members of their family.
  • The oldest known elephant in the world lived for 86 years between 1917 and 2003.
  • Elephant skulls are pierced with many holes to make them lighter; otherwise, their heads would be too heavy to rise.
  • Male and female elephants reach sexual maturity between the ages of 8 and 13. Male elephants leave their herd at this time as long as they are able to find their own food and protect themselves. Adult males either live alone or in small herds of bachelors.

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