- Which is the elephant, if you didn't already know that.
The elephant is the largest land mammal and that means big numbers for everything else, too.
- Nutrition and food for an elephant comes in the form of grass, shrubs, leaves, fruits, roots, twigs, branches and tree bark. It all depends on the season and the habitat.
- The trunk of an elephant weighs about 300 pounds.
- After two days, young elephants are able to keep up with the herd. (A survival mechanism that allows elephants to keep moving around to find the water and food they need.
- African elephants have larger ears than the other elephant species. (And their big ears are shaped like the continent of Africa.
- It takes male elephants 35-40 years to reach their full size.
- Asian elephants have smaller ears, shaped like the Indian subcontinent.
- Elephants live up to 60-0 years.
- There are around 150,000 muscles in the trunk of an elephant. (A human has just over 600 muscles in their body.)
- Elephant trunks can suck almost four full gallons of water at once and then spray it back out again. Did you know this about the largest land mammal?
- An elephant poops up to one ton of poop every week.
- African Forest elephants have straighter tusks and more rounded ears than Davanna Elephants, and they live in the tropical forests.
- An average adult male elephant weighs 18,000 pounds.
- It may surprise you to hear that an elephant’s trunk is one of the most sensitive organs found in any mammal.
- Asian elephants are slightly smaller than African elephants.
- Adult female elephants are pregnant for 22 months.
- Elephants are the largest land mammal in the world.
- The trunk of an elephant is a fusion between their nose and their upper lip.
- African Forest elephants were thought to be a subspecies of the African elephant up until recently, when new research discovered they are actually a separate species.
- Elephants have the longest gestation period of all land animals.
- The main purpose of an elephants ears are to act as big fan that help to radiate the heat away from their bodies.
- Adult elephants eat more than 220 pounds of food or 70,000 calories a day.
- An elephant can use its trunk as fingers in the case of peanuts, picking them up, shelling them, blowing the shell away and then eating and enjoying the peanut.
- African Elephants are about 10 feet tall, if measured from their shoulders down. Did you know this about the largest land mammal?
- Vastala of Panna is the oldest elephant, living in India at over 100 years old.
- Elephants are the only living animals with long trunks.
- Elephant poop is great for the environment, keeping the solid fertile and helping to disperse tree seeds.
- The easiest way to tell one species from another is by their ears.
- The biggest elephant ever recorded was 13 feet tall and weighed a total of 24,000 pounds.
- Full grown adult elephants drink up to 50 gallons of water each day.
- An elephant’s trunk is used to drink water, smell their food lift food to their mouth, to bathe, pick up and touch objects, to trumpet warnings and also to greet one another. This is so fun to learn about the largest land mammal.
- Elephants spend a whopping 75% of their day or 12 to 18 hours, eating.
- Elephants use their trunks to greet other elephants, reassure each other and to show affection.
- Average adult female elephants weigh 8,000 pounds.
- A baby elephant can weight more than 250 pounds.
- A baby elephant is called a calf.
- Up to half the food elephants eat is undigested in their body.
- An elephant’s trunk is so strong it can lift objects up to twice its size.
- African elephants are 9 feet tall and about 13,000 pounds.
- There are three different types of elephants, African Savanna Elephant (Bush), the African Forest Elephant, and the Asian elephant.
What new fun facts did you learn about the largest land mammal? Tell me your favorites in the comments.