Interesting facts about Elephants that you probably didn’t know

Did you know that August 12th of every year is World Elephant’s day? Well Elephants are large animals that live among us.

Today we are going to see some interesting facts about Elephants.

Fact #1

Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump.

They run at a maximum speed of 40Km/hr. But even at their maximum speed, they keep any one of their legs on ground.

Fact #2

The skin of the elephants is very interesting. It plays a crucial role in keeping the animal cool.

The wrinkles in the skin helps retain moisture.

Also you would have noticed that Elephants often take mud baths.

This is also to help them stay cool and retain moisture.

In addition, the tiny hairs in their skin help with cooling down the animal.

Another function of the skin is with sensitivity. Even though the skin is very thick, it is loaded with nerve endings. 

Hence Elephant’s skin is very sensitive.

Fact #3

Elephants are very social and emotional animals. Just like humans, they mourn upon the death of an Elephant in the herd.

Other elephants also console the sad ones.

They have a responsible family structure where elders take turns to take care of the babies as they migrate.

Fact #4

Elephants need a lot of food and water to survive. They need 100-200 litres of water and about 140 KG of food per day.

Elephants digest only 50% of the food they eat. So they eat a lot – to be precise, they spend about 16 hours a day eating.

Since their digestive system is inefficient, they produce a lot of dung – about 115 KG of manure per day!

When the waterbeds go dry, Elephants create holes in the ground with their feet, tusks and trunks, to reach for water.

These water holes help other animals to drink from too!

Fact #5

The pregnancy period of an Elephant is 22 months – the longest pregnancy in animal kingdom.

All baby Elephants are born but they can stand up just after a few minutes of birth.

Fact #6

An Elephant’s tusk keeps growing in its lifetime. For an adult male Elephant, its tusk grows about 7 inches per year.

Funnily, an Elephant also uses its tusk to smell! 

Their eyesight is very poor, but they have a very sharp sense of smell.

Fact #7

Just like humans, Elephants are born with smaller brains. And as they grow, their brain size increases and hence their learning ability increases too.

Elephants have very good memories. This helps them to go to places in search of food, remembering their past food sources.

Those are some pretty interesting facts about Elephants right?

Hope you enjoyed this post and the video!