Did You Know? There are at least 3 species – the Asian Elephant, the African Bush Elephant, and the African Forest Elephant. They have the longest pregnancy of all the animals. It takes a female 22 months from conception to give birth. Their normal lifespan is 60-80 years. Female elephants live in groups of about 15 animals, all related and led by a matriarch. Male elephants leave the matriarch groups between age 12 and 15. But they aren’t loners—they live in all-male groups. An elephant’s skin is an inch thick. They can get sunburned, so they take care to protect themselves by throwing sand on their backs and on their head. They use tusks for digging and lifting heavy objects, and sometimes as a part of mating rituals. Elephants prefer one tusk over the other, just as people are either left or right-handed. They have poor eyesight but an amazing sense of smell. The elephant trunk has more than 40,000 muscles in it and is the fusion of the nose and upper lip. They waive their trunks up in the air and from side to side to smell better. They can swim – they use their trunk to breathe like a snorkel in deep water. They only sleep 2 or 3 hours each day, can eat up to 150kg of vegetation every day and drinks 80 liters of water. They don’t like peanuts. Elephants are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth. Their brains weigh 5kg, much more than the brain of any other land animal. Elephants purr like cats do, as a means of communication. The elephant’s closest living relative is the Rock Hyrax. They cry, play, have incredible memories, laugh and they recognize themselves in a mirror.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:02:43 +0000