Did you know? Elephants use mud as sunscreen to protect their skin from ultraviolet light.
Incredible, isn’t it? Elephants are not only the biggest mammal on land. But they are also filled with several interesting facts that you would love to know.
Fun Facts About Elephants
1. You might already know that elephants are large and majestic, but the extent of their size and intelligence may surprise you.
Elephants are the largest living land animal. On average African elephants are about 10 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 18,000 pounds. However, The largest elephant ever recorded in history was 13 feet tall and weighed about 24,000 pounds.
2. To sustain this massive size, an adult elephant has to consume up to 50 gallons of water and about 300 pounds of food every day.
3. However, Elephant size ends up restricting their movement. While they can walk and swim, Elephants are one of the few mammals that can’t jump due to their enormous weight.
4. Elephants are intelligent creatures. One sign of their intellect is their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror. The only other animals capable of doing this are humans, great apes, dolphins, and Magpies.
5. Elephants also have superb memory. As they migrate from place to place throughout their lives, Elephants can remember the locations of water sources along their migration routes.
Awesome Facts About Elephants
6. Elephants use mud as sunscreen to protect their skin from ultraviolet light.
7. Elephant skin is so sensitive that it can feel a fly landing on it.
8. Elephants produce several types of sounds. Perhaps the most well-known is the trumpet, which they make during excitement, distress, or aggression.
9. Elephant’s trunk is heavy and powerful. They contain about 150,000 muscle units and can weigh nearly 300 pounds. While an elephant’s trunk can lift objects nearly twice its size, it can also pick up small objects like individual berries or leaves.
10. Touching is an important form of communication among elephants. Individuals greet each other by stroking or wrapping their trunks. Older elephants also use trunk slaps, kicks, and shoves to discipline younger ones.
Crazy Facts About Elephants
11. Elephants are highly emotional. They remember and mourn their loved ones even many years after their death. When the elephant whisperer Lorenz Anthony died, a herd of elephants stood around his house for two days.
12. Elephants are not scared of mice as some myth suggests. However, they are scared of ants and bees. Consequently, farmers in some African countries protect their fields from elephants by lining the borders with bees.
13. In the terrestrial world, elephants are giants. But compared to whales, they’re more like Dwarfs. A blue whale’s tongue alone can weigh as much as a single adult elephant.
Read More: 30 Weird and Awesome facts about Animals that will Amaze You
14. The average lifespan of an elephant in the wild is about 50 to 70 years. While the oldest elephant ever was Ling Wang, an Asian elephant who died in February 2003 at the age of 86.
15. Females can have babies until they’re about 50 years old. They tend to have one baby every two and a half to four years.
Insane Facts About Elephants
16. Elephant females undergo the longest gestation period of all mammals. They are pregnant for 22 months.
17. Newborn elephants can stand up shortly after birth. They are born blind and weigh up to 260 pounds.
18. The stories of African Elephants getting drunk from fermented Narula fruits are fake. The animals don’t eat the fruit off the ground where it ferments, and even if they did, it would take about 1,400 pieces to get one elephant drunk.
19. Elephant tusks are super strong. They can grow 6 feet long and weigh 50 pounds each.
20. Unfortunately, Elephants have been illegally hunted for their tusks.
Asian Elephants are endangered. While their cousins, African elephants, are listed as vulnerable. Some countries in southern Africa are even experiencing an overpopulation of African elephants.
That’s it for this post guys, I hope you had fun while reading 20 Mind-Blowing Elephant facts for kids.
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