Elephants are amazing animals, which, as scientists have established, inherent self-awareness and experiences of different feelings and emotions similar to human. Today on our planet of these unique animals there were only 3 species from once prosperous, 40.
Elephants, like people, are right-handed and left-handed. You can determine this by using the right or left tusks.
Teeth in elephants change throughout their lives about 6 times. The last teeth grow at the age of 40 years.
With its trunk, an elephant can collect from 6 to 7.5 liters of water at a time.
The elephant’s trunk consists of 40,000 muscles, and only the septum on the trunk is a cartilaginous tissue that separates the nostrils.
Elephants are excellent swimmers. Putting your trunk out of the water, they are even able to sink to the depth. The speed at which the elephant floats 2-6 km / h.
To communicate among themselves elephants use a variety of sounds, gestures with a trunk and poses. At long distances, infrasound is used. Thanks to this ability to hear each other elephants can be at a distance of 10 km.
The duration of pregnancy of females is from 18 to 24 months.
Elephants are long-lived and can live from 60 to 80 years. The oldest elephant died at the age of 86 in 2003.
In countries of Hinduism and Buddhism, the elephant is one of the most revered animals. The head of an elephant even depicts the Hindu god Ganesha.
The elephant absolutely can not jump.
Elephants have an excellent memory. They find out their relatives and their brothers even after a very long separation. They are also vindictive, and for the grievances they inflict can get revenge even after several decades. However, they remember their patrons also well, and they will never forget their kindness.
The largest elephant ever known was the male African elephant, killed on the territory of Angola in 1974, weighing about 12.24 tons.
The veins on the elephant’s ears create a special pattern, individual for each individual, like the fingerprints of a person.
The thickness of the skin of an African elephant is 2-4 cm, and that of an Asian elephant is 2.5 cm.
To protect their skin from parasites and scorching sun elephants perform special procedures every day. They are showered with dust, smeared with mud and bathed in water.
