8 Facts on Elephants ...

African elephants can weigh up to 14,000 pounds. Wow, that is heavy! There are around 420,000 African elephants spread out over thirty seven African countries. They are native to the Savannas, dense forests and a variety of other habitats.

Elephants have trunks that are versatile. Their trunks are unique among the other living mammals. Their trunks serve as their nose and their upper lip. They also use their trunks to greet other elephants. If you watch a female elephant, you will see them touching their babies with their trunk. They can draw up to four gallons of water in those trunks before they squirt it in their mouth. When they sense danger around, they raise up their trunks to smell. They also use them as snorkels when they are crossing water.

They have some awesome ears! They use those large, yet soft and sensitive ears to cool their body off. Flapping those big ears helps to cool the blood that is flowing through them. It’s also neat, because you can identify the elephant according the their ears, which are unique.

The life span of an elephant is anywhere from fifty to seventy years – assuming they die of old age and not because something killed them.

After twenty two months of pregnancy (eeeek!), the female elephant gives birth to one calf. The mother will nurse the baby until they are around two to four years old. They will not let their baby out of their site – they are good mothers. If the baby dies, the mother elephant will mourn. After a long period of time, she will leave the dead babies side and join her herd.

In the wild, there are two types of elephants. You have the Asian elephants, which is also known as the Indian elephant. Then, you have the African elephant. The African is the largest out of the two.

The elephants tooth rotation has always been amazing. The elephant is able to have twenty eight teem during it’s entire lifetime. This includes two second upper incisor teeth (tusks), 2 milk precursors of the tusk, 12 molar teeth and 12 premolar teeth.

Elephants Use their feet in order to listen. They are able to pick up any type of sub-sonic rumblings through the vibrations going on in the ground.

There you have 9 facts on elephants. Elephants are always interesting to look at. They are also interesting to read and learn about. Whenever I go to the Jacksonville Zoo, I just have to stop in and look at these creatures – there are many interesting creatures. So, what else do you know about this giant animal?

Top Photo Credit: Elishams