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15 Interesting Elephant Facts

Elephant mother and baby

Elephants are the largest known mammals in the world and three known species are Indian, savannah and forest elephants. Indian elephants have smaller ears, however, savannah and forest elephant is known to have larger ears. Savannah and forest elephants are native to Africa. All three species of elephants are endangered because of hunting and deforestation. Here are some interesting elephant facts,

Interesting Elephant Facts

  • All species of elephants live in herds which are guided by the oldest and wisest female member. Young male elephant will leave at the age of 12 years and later form a bachelor herd when they will become old enough to live a solitary life.
  • Elephants are vegetation animals who love to eat plants and sleep for 2 to 3 hours a day.
  • Elephants eat acacia with all interest, however, they will move away from the tree, if ants are crawling on the trees. The primary reason is that it can injure the elephant’s sensitive trunk.
  • Elephants trunks are a large and muscular version of fusion of an elephant’s nose and upper lip.
Elephant
  • Newly born elephants used to suck their trunk just like human babies suck their thumbs. This will provide them comfort.
  • Elephants who lives in captivity use their trunks for an artistic purpose like painting and holding their brush.
  • Just like we discussed in rhinoceros facts, elephants have thick skin (1 inch) but this doesn’t mean it will not burn in sun, Elephants used to cover their skin with mud to protect it from the sun.
  • Elephants used to communicate with a kind of language that humans can’t hear and sometimes they even create vibrations in the ground to pass on their message to the herd.
  • Just like humans, elephants perform a burial ceremony when they lose a close one in the herd. All elephants gather around the body and used to be silent for some time. Elephant dead body used to cover with branches before they leave the body.
Elephant mother and baby
  • Elephants are one of the few animals that are able to recognize themselves in the mirror.
  • Elephants hate to eat peanuts.
  • Elephants are the largest mammals and used to eat around 150kg of vegetation per day.
  • Elephants worn teeth will get replaced 6 to 7 times in a lifetime, humans will replace their milk tooth only once.
  • Elephants used to flap their ears in order to cool themselves. They use trunks as a snorkel.
  • Elephants lifespan is 60 to 70 years in the wild.

These are the interesting elephant facts you should know about. Kindly share and do post your comments.

Written by Kan Dail