Highly intelligent and giants of our world
elephants are incredible creatures!
In this video we're going to tell you some of our favorite facts about elephants.
Fact One.
The African elephant is the world's largest land mammal
with males on average measuring up to three metres
and weighing nearly six tons.
Males only reach their full size when they're about 35 to 40 years old.
That's well over half their life span as, elephants in the wild can live up to 70 years.
Fact Two.
You can tell the two species apart by their ears!
There are actually two different species of elephant African and Asian.
The African elephants is a much larger than their cousins
and a said to be shaped like the African continent.
Where as an Asian elephants ears are much smaller
and said to be shaped like the Indian subcontinent.
There's also a trunk difference
African elephants have two fingers at the tip of their trunk
whereas asian, elephants only have one.
Fact Three.
Their trunks contain around 150,000 muscle units.
An elephant's trunk is perhaps the most sensitive organ found in any mammal
Asian elephants have been seen to pick up a nut, shell it, blow the shell out
and eat the nut all using their trunks.
Elephants also use their trunks to suck up water to drink
it can hold up to eight liters of water
and they even use them as a snorkel when swimming.
Fact Four.
Their tussks are actually teeth!
An elephants tusks are enlarged incisor teeth
and will start growing when the elephant is around two years old.
They'll grow continuously throughout their lives
and are used to help with feeding or as a defense to help with fighting.
Fact Five.
They've got thick skin.
An elephants skin is 2.5 centimeters thick in most places.
The folds and wrinkles in their skin can retain up to 10 times more water than flat skin does
so it really helps to cool them down.
They keep their skin clean and protected from sunburn by taking regular dust and mud baths.
Fact Six.
Elephants are constantly eating.
Elephants need to eat around a hundred and fifty kilograms of food every day.
That's almost 375 tins of baked beans.
Although nearly half of this may leave the body undigested.
Elephants need to eat so much, that they can spend end up to three-quarters of their day eating.
Fact Seven.
They communicate through vibrations.
Elephants communicate in a variety of ways
including sounds like trumpet calls, body language and touch.
They can also communicate through seismic signals,
which are sounds that create vibrations through the ground
and they may detect these through their bones.
Fact Eight.
Amazingly elephant calves can stand within just 20 minutes of being born
and within just an hour, they can already walk.
After simply two days they can keep up with the herd.
This incredible survival technique means that the herd can keep moving
to look for food and water.
Fact Nine.
Elephants never forget.
An elephant's temporal lobe
which is the area of the brain associated with memory
is larger and denser than that of people.
Hence the saying an elephant never forgets.
Fact Ten.
Elephants are being poached for their tusks.
Around 55 African elephants a day are being killed for their ivory tusks.
We're doing all that we can to help
from training community rangers, monitoring herds and protecting habitat.
In safeguarding elephants
we're helping to support local communities through measures to reduce human-elephant conflict
and initiatives to support local livelihoods.
We really hope you enjoyed this video.
Please comment below to let us know which species you'd like to see next
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