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Elephant by Wolfgang Hasselmann/

15 Mind-blowing Facts about Elephants

Only elephants should own ivory by Yao Ming, African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins, there are two recognized subspecies. Elephants are among the most intelligent of the creatures on the planet, with complex consciousnesses that are capable of strong emotions. Elephants need extensive land areas to survive and meet their ecological needs, which include food, water, and space. On average, an elephant can feed for up to 18 hours and consume hundreds of pounds of plant matter in a single day. Enduimet Wildlife Management Area WMA is an important elephant aisle that sits between Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya and Kilimanjaro National Park in northern Tanzania. The African elephant initiative focuses on keeping elephants in large spaces, the Amboseli will forever be known as a real stronghold for elephants. African elephant males are the biggest of the bunch, weighing in at up to six tons, while smaller Asian elephants can still tip the scales at five tons. Female elephants are social animals, living in herds with their relatives. Males usually live alone but sometimes form small groups with other males. The African elephant is important to Kenya’s economic development and conservation efforts; a species of global concern whose population has reduced drastically over the past century largely due to poaching. Their herds wander through 37 countries in Africa. They are easily recognized by their trunk which is used for communication and handling objects.

Here are mind-blowing facts about elephants

1. Astonishingly they are different Elephant species in the world

Elephant by Eric Heininger/

They are two different Elephant species known to the world African Elephants and Asian Elephants. African elephants are found on the African continent, among the African elephants, they are only two recognized subspecies in Africa, the forest elephant and the savannah or bush elephant The African savanna elephant is the largest elephant species, while the Asian forest elephant and the African forest elephant are of comparable, smaller size. Asian elephants differ in several ways from their African relatives, the ears of the Asian elephant are smaller than the African Elephant. African elephants live in hotter climates with more direct sunlight and this is why they have large ears while Asian elephants need to dissipate more heat. Asian elephants are found in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and there are three types of elephants in this species: the Sri Lankan elephant, the Indian elephant, and the Sumatran elephant. Elephants belong to the Elephantidae family within the Proboscidea order, these creatures are highly sociable and live in herds. The two different elephant species have different physical characteristics and one can tell the difference between the two.

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2. Interestingly Elephants use mud as sunscreen

Elephant calves bathing in muds by Alex Mercado/

We always want to put sunscreen when we go on vacation especially during the summer to protect ourselves from the direct sunlight well elephants interestingly use mud as their sunscreen. The Elephant’s skin is tough but it is also sensitive, with ought the mud bath the skin can be seriously damaged. African Elephants use dirt and hay as a natural sunblock they spread it on their backs to cover their skin.  Elephants keep cool by snuffing up trunks full of water and spraying themselves. they have minimal hair and sweat glands; they find it difficult to cool off under the harsh African sun. The mud not only cools them down and provides a protective layer on their body to shield them from insect bites and the sun. Elephants prepare the mud for their baths in two ways. One is to kick their foot in the water to stir up the mud and mix it with the water; the other is to churn the mud with their tusks or trunk up from the bottom when bathing elephants will either roll around in the mud or spray themselves with it using their trunk. An elephant’s thick skin can fold and wrinkle, which causes it to be able to retain water and moisture. Their skin can hold up to 10 times more water than flat skin. Water retention helps them cool down in the heat. Elephants are also very good at keeping their skin clean and take baths regularly. The Elephants skin may look rough but to the human’s touch, it’s soft and delicate.

3. The most shocking fact Elephants are afraid of bees

Bees by Boba Jaglicic/

Can you believe the largest animal on the land is afraid of tiny insects? Even though they fearlessly stand up to lions, the mere buzzing of bees is enough to send a herd of elephants running off. Researchers in South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park discovered that African bush elephants stay clear of angry honeybees. African bees swarm aggressively hundreds of bees might sting and damage an elephant in its most sensitive areas, the trunk, mouth, and eyes. Elephants may have thick skin but also do have sensitive areas around their mouth and eyes, behind their ears, and inside their trunk. And young calves have thinner skin, so honey bees can do real damage to the calves. Elephants are so terrified of bees that they will flap their ears, stir up dust, make a noise and turn and flee, not only do Elephants use mud as sunscreen but it also protects the creature from the honey bees. The Elephants and Bees Project started in Africa involves the use of beehive fences, erected around farms to keep the elephants out and protect the crops.

4. The exquisite large terrestrial animal consumes a massive amount of food daily

Elephant eating by Eelco Bohtlingk/

Elephants are herbivore mammals with flat teeth that help them grind vegetation properly, such as grass, fruit, leaves, roots, bark, and bulbs. Tree bark is among the favorite food sources for elephants. The bark is rich in calcium and roughage which helps their digestion. Elephants will use their trunks to help peel off bark from tree trunks to eat. Elephants have enormous bodies, and this is why they consume a significant amount of food to stay alive. Elephants may spend 12-18 hours a day feeding. Adult elephants can eat between 200 to 600 pounds of food a day. An African elephant can consume up to 600 pounds of vegetation per day. Compared to that, smaller Asian elephants eat up to 300 pounds of food per day. Elephants can walk up to 50 miles a day to find sufficient food and water for their whole family. To supplement their diet, elephants will dig up the earth to obtain salt and minerals. The tusks are used to churn the ground. The elephant then places dislodged pieces of soil into its mouth, to obtain nutrients.

5. Surprisingly Female Elephants carry their pregnancy for two years

Mama and baby Calve by Casey Allen/

Elephants have been the largest land mammal in the world and have the longest pregnancy, African elephants are pregnant for an average of twenty-two months, and Asian elephants, it’s 18 to 22 months. Elephants are highly sociable mammals with a high level of intelligence similar to that of great apes and dolphins. These large animals carry one baby at a time, one to two percent of elephant births produce twins. When an elephant gives birth, the other elephants in the herd form a protective circle around the mother during the delivery. An elephant gives birth to a fully developed calve that can walk for long distances with the herd. Elephants live in strongly bonded, female-led herds. Alongside the mother, other female elephants help to rear and protect calves. Elephant calves are also dependent on their mothers and other family members for protection, socialization, and comfort. Communal suckling is often observed, and although it is usually comfort suckling involving non-lactating, adolescent females, it is not uncommon to observe grandmothers allowing the calf of a young daughter to suckle. Infants also receive assistance from older animals to avoid environmental and social stresses.

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6. Unbelievably Elephants are the most intelligent land mammals

Elephant by Will Shirley/

Elephants are known to have an impressive brain, the brain is more similar to the human brain, and its temporal lobe region is exceptionally developed, with a greater number of folds, meaning it can store more information. The Elephant has three times as many neurons as humans. While many of these neurons exist to control the elephant’s large and dexterous body, these creatures have demonstrated their impressive mental capabilities time and time again. Elephants are exceptionally large and long-lived and they have remarkable memories. They accumulate and retain social and ecological knowledge, and they remember the scents and voices of other individuals’ migratory routes, special places, and learned skills for decades. Elephants have been shown to care deeply and protect one another within their family groups. They will even grieve when a close companion or family member dies. Their emotional range is impressive, and elephants commonly work together to access and share resources like food and water or to protect each other from predators.

7. African Elephants drink up to 50 gallons of water to keep cool

A herd of elephants drinking water by Will Shirley/

A male elephant can grow up to 4 meters in height and weigh up to seven tons; whilst their female counterparts can still weigh  3.5 tons. They can consume over 300 pounds of food a day and up to 50 gallons of water. When the weather is warm, elephants can lose up to 10% of all the water in their bodies in a single day, according to a new study. That’s the equivalent of nearly two bathtubs full, the highest volume of daily water loss ever recorded in a land animal. With human population encroachment over the years, wild animals are not safe at all, for the longest, there has been a conflict between humans and elephants. Sadly, humans pose so far the greatest threat to the African elephant. They have suffered from intensive hunting for the ivory of their tusks and as trophies.

8. The largest mammal on land unbelievably can swim

Elephants swimming by Will Shirley/

Swimming comes naturally to most animals but not all. Elephants are surprisingly agile animals for their enormous size, their young can hold their bodies up and walk on their own within mere hours of being born. Astonishingly, elephants are very strong natural swimmers. Almost all species of mammals can swim from birth. Despite its massive size, an elephant’s body has more than enough buoyancy to stay afloat even if they aren’t actively swimming. Elephants swim simply by doggy paddling their massive legs to propel themselves through the water. Their legs are so powerful that they can swim continuously for as long as six hours at a time. Elephants do not sweat, so they need a way to cool their huge bodies this is why they swim to cool off. The elephant trunk serves as a snorkel while they’re swimming, this helps them to breathe while they are underwater. Elephants have webbed feet that help them to swim through the water.

9. The Fascinating Elephant has a unique way to communicate

Elephants have a wide range of calls and signals for different purposes to secure their defense, warn others of danger, coordinate group movements, reconcile differences, attract mates, reinforce family bonds, and announce their needs and desires. Elephants use a range of calls and signals for different tasks and purposes. Breeding herds also use low-frequency vocalizations to warn of predators, the toes of elephants are so sophisticated that the animals can hear low-frequency rumblings trumpeted by other elephants miles away. Elephants can communicate using very low-frequency sounds, with pitches below the range of human hearing. These low-frequency sounds termed infrasound, can travel several kilometers, and provide elephants with a private communication channel that plays an important role in elephants’ complex social life. Elephants use vocal calls which are the most common way they communicate. These unique vocal calls are used for everything from caring for calves, reconciling differences during disagreements, and coordinating the group’s next move.

10. Interestingly Elephants travel in herds

A herd of elephants by Will Shirley/

Elephants live in tightly-bonded female-led herds. This is led by the oldest and often largest female in the herd, called a matriarch. Herds usually consist of 8 to 100 individuals, depending on terrain and family size. Elephants roam great distances to find enough food and water, the African elephant’s behavior in herds is very cooperative, and they move together. The entire family makes decisions together for the safety of each other and to find the necessary resources for survival. Not only do they help each other find resources, but they also help each other with offspring care. The elder female elephants help young mothers teach their offspring. As for adult males, they do not live with female herds. Adolescent male elephants will leave their natal herd and learn the rules to prepare for adulthood from older male elephants. The male elephants live alone or with a group of bachelors. They travel to find female elephants who are willing to mate. When the matriarch elephant dies, her position is taken by the closest relative to her. It is typically the oldest daughter

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11. The astonishing Physical characteristics of the Elephant

Elephants have many admirable qualities: They have an excellent sense of smell, rarely get cancer, and have complex social lives. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, they can’t jump. African elephants are the largest mammals on land, unlike the Asian Elephant. The male elephant weighs more than the female elephant, The elephant’s trunk is an extension of the upper lip and nose. It functions for grasping, breathing, feeding, dusting, smelling, drinking, lifting, sound production and communication, defense and protection, and sensing. Elephant ears are about one-sixth the size of their entire body and primarily function as a cooling mechanism. The ears contain extensive networks of tiny blood vessels, which are visible at the outer margins, where the skin is only about one to two mm thick. Elephants are extremely intelligent with their large brains. There are reports of elephants showing the ability to cooperate and solve problems, performing tasks like using sticks to dig and working together to pull ropes to get food, both African and Asian elephants have a total of 26 teeth

12. The remarkable trunk of the elephant

Elephant by David Clode/

The elephant trunk is truly a wonder of nature, the trunk measures between 2 and 3 meters long. An elephant’s trunk is a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things, especially a potential meal. An elephant rubbing another elephant with its trunk is nothing but an act of compassion and pure love. The trunk alone contains about 40,000 muscles the trunk has no bones. African elephants have two fingerlike features on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items. The trunk is connected to the elephant’s head by a bony opening of its skull. Running from the brain to the trunk is a special probosci’s nerve for controlling the trunk’s pinpoint movements. Before birth, the trunk and upper lip of the elephant fetus are not connected. After birth the muscles of the elephant calf start to develop, and eventually, the upper lip joins with the nose to form a fully-working trunk. An African elephant’s trunk has more visible rings on it and is not as hard to the touch as the Asian elephant’s trunk. Asian elephants have more trunk muscles than African elephants, which helps them to do more complex things.

13. Interestingly the life cycle of an Elephant calves

An elephant calf by Mauritis Bausenhart/

African nor Asian elephants have any set breeding season, although births seem to be more frequent during times of heavy rainfall. Elephant calves weigh 265 pounds at birth on average. Within about an hour after birth, calves can see, smell and walk. They usually begin to suckle within a couple of hours after birth and are wholly dependent on their mothers’ milk for the first three months or so of their lives. Young elephants remain with their natal herd even after they’ve been weaned. For the first 10 years of life, both male and female elephants exhibit similar rates of growth and developmental stages. African elephants grow to be the world’s largest land mammals, with males reaching heights of up to 12 feet at the shoulders and weighing 5 tons. Elephants may live to be 70 years of age and continue to grow throughout their lives. Their growth rate slows as they get older.

14. Amazingly Elephants can recognize different human languages

African elephants can differentiate between human languages and move away from those considered a threat, a skill they have honed to survive in the wild. Wild elephants can distinguish between human languages, and they can tell whether a voice comes from a man, woman, or boy, a new study says. The elephants have developed this very rich knowledge of the humans that they share their habitat with. McComb and colleagues went to Amboseli National Park in Kenya, where hundreds of wild elephants live among humans, sometimes coming in conflict over scarce water. The scientists used voice recordings of Maasai men, who on occasion kill elephants in confrontations overgrazing for cattle, and Kamba men, who are less of a threat to the elephants. The elephants listening to the recording reacted defensively and retreated.

15. African elephants are at risk

Elephant by Andrew Rice/

The African elephant population has fallen from an estimated 12 million a century ago to some 400,000. In recent years, at least 20,000 elephants have been killed in Africa each year for their tusks. African forest elephants have been the worst hit. Today, the greatest threat to African elephants is wildlife crime, primarily poaching for the illegal ivory trade, while the greatest threat to Asian elephants is habitat loss, which results in human-elephant conflict. The ivory trade is fueling organized crime and insecurity as traffickers smuggle tusks through the same networks as other high-value illegal goods such as drugs. Despite a ban on the international trade in ivory, African elephants are still being poached in large numbers. The ban on international trade was introduced in 1989 by CITES  after years of unprecedented poaching.

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