E is for Elephant

Young African elephants - aren't they cute?

African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth.

 

Facts you may not have known:

• African elephants have large ears that look a bit like the map of the continent.
• Asian elephants are smaller and have smaller, rounded ears.
• Their ears radiate heat and keep them cooler.
• Elephants like spraying themselves with water and a coating of dust.
• Their trunks contain over 100 thousand muscles and are used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking and picking up things.
• African elephants have two "fingerlike features on the end of their trunks" that help them grasp things. Asian elephants have only one of these features.
• They use their tusks to dig for food and water, strip bark from trees and fight (the males).
• Many elephants are still being killed for their ivory tusks, even though the ivory trade has been illegal for years.
• Elephants are herbivorous and consume massive amounts of food daily.
• The male elephant is called a bull and the female is called a cow.
• Male elephants can grow to be 4 metres tall and weigh 7 thousand kilos!
• An elephant pregnancy is around 22 months and the baby elephant will weigh about 100 kg at birth!
• Elephants are intelligent animals. They are one of the few species to use tools and seem to "show empathy for dying or dead individuals of their kind".
• Many elephants have died recently in Zimbabwe due to droughts and consequent water shortage.

For more information, the National Geographic is a great site to visit.