1. The African elephant is the world's largest land mammal, it can weigh up to 6 tons! Baby elephants can weigh 120kg upon birth (almost 19 st, 265 lbs), now that’s a big baby!
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1. The African elephant is the world's largest land mammal, it can weigh up to 6 tons! Baby elephants can weigh 120kg upon birth (almost 19 st, 265 lbs), now that’s a big baby!
2. Elephants can live for up to 60-70 years, with wild elephants in protected areas living more than twice as long as those in European Zoos! Obesity and stress are likely the reasons for that.
3. There are two species of elephant: African and Asian, how can you tell the difference? African elephants have much larger ears and two ‘fingers’ at the tip of their trunks, while Asian elephants have smaller ears and only one ‘finger’. Next time you’ll meet an elephant, you’ll know! You’re welcome.
4. Elephant trunks are super amazing! They have around 150,000 muscle units, can contain up to 8 liters (a little over 2 gallons!) of water, and can be used as a snorkel when swimming! We kinda wish we had one too.
5. An elephant’s skin is 2.5cm (almost 1 inch) thick in most places, and can retain up to 10 times more water than flat skin does, which helps them cool down. They keep themselves protected from the sun by taking regular dust and mud showers, elephant SPA!
6. Their temporal lobe, the area of the brain associated with memory, is waaay larger and denser than that of humans, that’s why it is a common belief that elephants have good memories. Overall, elephants have the largest brain out of any land mammal!
7. Elephant tusks are actually teeth and they are used to feeding or as a defense when fighting. Sadly, they are also the reason why 90% of the African elephants have been wiped out in the past century, leaving about only 415,000 wild elephants around.
8. African elephants are listed as "Vulnerable" and Asian elephants as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. World Elephant day was created to raise awareness of the damages caused to elephants by poaching, habitat loss and mistreatment in captivity. If you’d like, you can pledge to support this cause or donate to the World Elephant Society here: https://worldelephantday.org/
