Which is the largest mammal living on land, with a rather long nose and heavy teeth? It is an elephant. This animal arouses the curiosity of children, as much as adults. So to speak there are two types of elephants: The African elephants and the Asian elephants. The difference between the two is that the Asian ones have smaller ears and shorter tusks in comparison to those of Africa, which are also bigger and taller than the Asian elephants.
Given here are some interesting facts about elephants :
- Elephants preferring living in families.
- Several elephant families live together as a herd.
- The oldest female elephant is usually the leader of the herd.
- A young male baby elephant normally lives with its herd till it is fourteen or fifteen years old, after which it branches off into its own path of life in order to create its own herd. The leader of the herd is usually the oldest female elephant.
- All elephants eat plants.
- They spend almost 23 hours of the day eating.
- An adult African elephant can weigh more than 10,000 pounds.
- Elephants have four teeth.
- Every four years the old teeth fall off, making way for growth of new teeth.
- They have two horn-like tusks that grow out of the sides of their of their mouths.
- The tusks generally grow on an average seven inches a year
- The tusks can grow to a maximum length of twenty feet long.
- An adult African elephant’s ears are five to six feet long and in width they are about four feet.
- The animals use their ears as fans and to ward of the flies and other insects.
- The elephants use their trunks to pick up food and put it into their mouth to eat.
- They use their trunks to sprinkle water on themselves as though bathing, as well to cool themselves in times of sweltering heat.
- The elephants communicate with each other by making sounds. These are to two types: ‘tummy rumbling’ and ‘trumpeting’.
- The maximum lifespan of an elephant is 88 years.