Interesting Facts about the Elephants.
The elephant is the largest mammal that lives on land. These amazing animals are a great attraction and contribute greatly to our tourism with every tourist yearning to sight these gentle giants in their natural habitat. They are also special since they are members of the so called “Big five“. Elephants are thick skinned mammals also known as ‘Pachyderm‘ species. Discover some interesting facts about the elephants.
There are two subspecies which differ in their geographical location, tusk length, and weight. Forest elephants, typically reside in rain forests. They have more slender tusks and are smaller in than Savanna elephants who are commonly found in the savanna grasslands.
They have a unique nose that is simply a long, boneless trunk extending from the upper lip. The trunk usually measures about 150 cm and weighs around about 135 kg. The two finger-like projections on the tip are so dexterous they can pick a blade of grass. Elephants smell, drink, eat and wash themselves with their long trunks.
Their incisor teeth develop into tusks about 1.3m long and can weigh about 50 kg each. An elephants has 6 sets of molars and as a tooth wears out through grinding out vegetation in the wilderness, another set of molars pushes forward to replace it.
Just like humans can be either right-handed or left-handed, elephants are either right-tusked or left-tusked as they will favor using one over the other. They may use one tusk more than the other for tasks like stripping bark from trees, digging in the ground or knocking dirt off of grass.
Elephants do not have any specific mating season. During the rainy seasons the reproductive rate is higher while times of drought or crowded conditions result in a lower reproductive rate. After a 22-month gestation period, single elephant calves are born weighing about 120-130 kg. A calf is born into a herd of related females and young males.Females remain in their natal herd for life, males leave their natal herd once they reach sexual maturity and move alone or in bachelor herds.
African elephant have a lifespan of about 60 years. They continue to grow in height throughout their lives, reaching a maximum of 4-4.5 m for males, and 3-4 m for females. Elephants live in matriarchal societies. The matriarch is the oldest female who leads a clan of 10 to 15 closely related females and their offspring.
Elephants spend more than 16 hours per day feeding. These creatures only digest 40% of what they eat, hence they need a tremendous amount of vegetation. They feed on vegetation like leaves, roots, bark, grasses and fruit. Each day they can consume about 150 to 250 kg of vegetation and drink up to 140 litres of water.
To get to experience more interesting facts about the elephants, Arrow Adventures Kenya organizes amazing elephants encounter safari packages to Amboseli National Park and other parks where you can get closest to these amazing gentle giants.