Elephants are known as the largest animals in the world, with their big features and their ability to tower over humans, many find them quite intimidating. That being said due to their lovable personality and their similarities to humans, it is hard to not love them. Here are 21 fun facts about elephants to make you adore them even more.
- Elephants are the largest land animals.
- There are only around 400,000 elephants that roam the wild.
- Elephant trunks have more than 40,000 muscles.
- Around 100 elephants die every day due to poaching.
- Elephants have a super strong sense of smell, and they can smell from miles away.
- Elephants live in different habitats, but they are most commonly found in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
- Botswana has more elephants than any other country.
- Elephants are social animals, and they spend most of their time communicating with other elephants within their herd.
- Elephants are very protective of their young. Mother elephants wrap their trunks over the baby elephants while emitting a gentle sound to calm them.
- Baby elephants consume milk from ages 3 to 4.
- Elephant skeletons have 326 to 351 bones.
- They have bad eyesight as they are small due to their positioning.
- Elephants have the longest pregnancy of all mammals.
- Female elephant pregnancies are approximately 95 weeks long.
- There is a 1-2 percent chance that an elephant can produce twins.
- A newborn elephant already weighs more than 250 lbs.
- Newborn elephants can immediately walk.
- Elephants usually have 26 teeth, including their tusks.
- The head of an African elephant weighs more than 800 lbs.
- Elephants can run faster than humans, at speeds of approximately 35 to 40 kilometres per hour.
- There are 3 surviving species of elephants, Asian elephants, African bush elephants and African forest elephants.
