Fun Elephant Facts
- Elephant appreciation day is September 22 of each year.
- An elephant is unable to jump.
- The only animal taller than an elephant is a giraffe.
- When we say something is “Jumbo” size, the term is referring to the elephant Jumbo who performed with the Barnum & Bailey Circus. He stood 11.5 feet tall, weighed 6.5 tons and was killed by a circus train in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
- Newborn elephants weigh approximately 225 pounds (100 kilograms.)
- The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months. That is longer than any other land animal.
- The expected life span of an elephant is between 60 and 70 years.
- Angola is the largest elephant on record. He weighed 26,400 pounds (12,000 kilograms.)
- Male elephants are always bigger than females.
- There are two kinds of elephants, Asian and African. Asian elephants have smaller ears that those from Africa.
- Elephants have knees on all four legs.
- Elephants use their trunks to bath, eat and smell.
- Elephant tusks are made of ivory. Poachers kill elephants in order to take their tusks. Elephants use their tusks to aid in getting food and for moving logs and other heavy objects.
- An elephant’s trunk is an elongated extension of the lips and nose. It is not only used for eating, drinking and bathing, but also much like we would use our arms.
- Elephants eat tree bark, grass and leaves. Their all time favorite are the leaves from the tallest trees. These are tender and much more delectable. They use their tusks to scrap bark off of trees and they get the top leaves from the trees by felling the trees with their large bodies and heads. An elephant can easily trample a tree to the ground.
- Elephants can suck 3 (11.5 liters) gallons of water into their trunks for drinking and bathing.
- Elephants are excellent swimmers and love to splash and play in the water. They shower by using their trunks. They bath by submerging themselves in ponds, lakes, rivers and streams.
- All elephants sleep while standing up, although they may lean against a tree for support.
- Elephants cool their bodies by fanning themselves with their ears, which they also use to keep flies and bugs away.
- Elephants generate 80 pounds of manure a day each.
- Female elephants and their young live in herds. Males who are bachelors often travel in their own very small herds, but some male elephants are solitary creatures.
- Over very short distances an elephant can run 24 miles per hour.
- Male elephants leave their herd when they are 12 years old.
- Only baby elephants can lie down to sleep and they only do this occasionally.
- Elephants can communicate in sounds that are of such a low frequency that humans cannot hear them.
- Female elephants do have tusks but they don’t grow as long as a male’s tusks.
- A male elephant’s tusks can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 200 pounds. That is 200 pounds of ivory per tusk.
