I don’t know about you, but elephants are my favorite animal. I find them incredibly fascinating and beautiful. So prepare to have some amazing elephant knowledge dropped on you! Here are 15 things you probably didn’t know about elephants:
1. Elephants favor one tusk like we favor a hand. A right-tusked elephant uses their right tusk more and will, consequently, wear it down more than the left one. This gives a pretty clear visual indication of whether an elephant is left- or right-tusked.
2. African elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal at a whopping 22 months! Asian elephants follow close behind at 18-22 months. Feeling grateful you’re not an elephant?
3. Asian elephants have been on the endangered species list since 1986 due to poaching and deforestation. African elephants are currently classified as “Vulnerable” and are heading towards endangerment.
4. Only male Asian elephants have tusks but both female and male African elephants have them.
5. The African elephant is the largest land mammal in the world topping the scale at 6 tons (or approximately the weight of 9 cows) and reaching a maximum length of 24 feet.
6. The biggest threat to both species of elephants is poaching, mainly for their ivory tusks. Although international ivory trade was made illegal in 1989, black market trade is still rampant in many parts of Asia and Africa.
7. A Taiwanese elephant named Lin-Wang died in 2003 at 86 years old as the oldest elephant in history.
8. Asian elephants have one more toe on their back feet than their African counterparts.
9. Elephant herds work under a matriarchal social structure with all adult females playing a part in caring for the calves. Bull elephants generally live in solitary.
10. Baby elephants don’t know what their trunk is when they are first born and will often step on it and become confused at the pain.
11. Elephants use their trunk to communicate emotions, not unlike a dog’s tail.
12. Fully grown elephants can eat up to 400 pounds of food per day.
13. Elephants have an extremely high capacity for emotions, compared to most animals. They are one of the most expressive animals on the planet.
14. An elephant’s tusk can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 175 pounds.
15. You can symbolically adopt an African elephant through the World Wildlife Fund to aid in their conservation efforts. This can make a great gift for your elephant-loving friend!
I hope this list caused you to love elephants as much as I do. I highly recommend checking out some of the links below to learn more because they are some of the most interesting creatures! If you want to help keep them off the critically endangered list, head to the World Wildlife Fund website here.
Sources:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/elephant
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29830/6-amazing-animals-practically-lived-forever