Ready to get the lowdown on these gentle giants, gang? Check out our ten elephant-astic elephant facts!

Elephant facts

1) There are three different species of elephant – the African Savannah elephant, the African Forest elephant and the Asian elephant. Elephants are known for their large ears, tusks made of ivory and their trunks.

2) Elephants are the world’s largest land animal! Male African elephants can reach 3m tall and weigh between 4,000 -7,500kg. Asian elephants are slightly smaller, reaching 2.7m tall and weighing 3,000– 6,000kg.


 

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3) There’s an easy way to tell the African elephants apart from their Asian cousins – their ears! African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa! Asian elephants’ ears are smaller and shaped like India. Cool, huh?

4) You can tell a lot about an elephant by looking at their tusks! Elephant tusks never stop growing, so enormous tusks can be a sign of an old elephant. Both male and female African elephants grow tusks, but only male Asian elephants grow them. A tusk-less adult elephant is likely to be a female Asian elephant.

5) Until recently, African Forest elephants were thought to be a subspecies of the African elephant, but new research discovered that they are actually a separate species entirely. These elephants live in the tropical forests of Africa’s Congo Basin. They have straighter tusks and more rounded ears than Savannah elephants.

6) These magnificent mammals spend between 12 to 18 hours eating grassplants and fruit every single day! They use their long trunks to smell their food and lift it up into their mouth – yum!

7) All that eating means one thing, gang, an awful lot of poo! Each elephant creates about one tonne of poo per week, which keeps the soil fertile and disperses tree seeds. Elephants also dig waterholes and create footpaths, literally changing the landscape around them!

8) In Mount Elgon National Park in Kenya, a group of elephants use their tusks to mine for salt in underground caves! They feel their way around with their trunks and eat the salts by breaking them off with their tusks.

A baby Asian elephant

9) Elephants have created their very own sunscreen! After a river or swamp bath, they’ll throw mud and sand up and over themselves to protect their skin from the hot, burning sun. Clever!

10) Sadly, elephants are in trouble. Many are killed by humans for their ivory tusks, because they’ve come into conflict with communities or simply for sport. There are far fewer Asian elephants than there are African elephants. Asian elephants also face threats from tourist attractions where people pay to ride on their backs or watch them paint pictures using their trunks. 

Nat Geo Wild Ultimate Animal Compilations

Check out more articles about awesome elephants! Read our interview with Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch to find out how she’s helping elephants, and learn how one young boy is taking action to save these incredible animals.

What did you think of our elephant facts? Let us know by leaving a comment, below!

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COMMENTS

  • Stevn

    This is good for future

  • lily mendoza

    wow ❤️

  • kaymique

    It really helped me with my afrikaans and english project thank you

  • Lily

  • thanks for the facts!

  • Amaia

  • Amihle

    I love this site

  • hello

  • TOM

  • Dyequill_2479

    This is some great learning

  • Elephant!

    wow!

  • gamergirl

    amazing

  • hellogirlz

    these guys have so many cool things to say!

  • Cool Bananas!

  • vihaanjainkis

    best facts

  • gong4eva

    I liked the information a lot it helped me get new information.

  • Flynn

    Excellent info I learnt a lot

  • Cool dude

  • charly

  • Joel.bullock

    that is good info

  • nice

  • Tomi

    cool

  • Ella

    Wow! I learned a lot!

  • toastt

    i like elafontss

  • ashlee

  • lucasm26345

  • emmanuel

    you do have good facts

  • Will

    Awesome Facts On Elephants!

  • Brook B

    COOOOOOOOL

  • ANNA

    VERY NICE GOOD INFOTMATION

  • Melanie

  • hello

    great facts they really helped me understand elephants more!

  • Polco

  • Lol

  • Cool

  • kaylani

    wow

  • Wow

  • your science teacher

    very very interesting! :)

  • JC

    that is awesome

  • Daisy

    Whoo! loved 'em!(except the last one of course)

  • 5 amazing facts about elephants that you probably didn’t know by Mariana – Curie Class Blog

    […] 10 unforgettable elephant facts! […]

  • Jayda

    This really helped me with my infomation report for school I’m doing elephants

  • AviCrazi

    Good

  • myl2053

    cool

  • BosmanMaximilian

    cool

  • ewan

    EPIC

  • Brooke

    This is amazing news I’m a teacher and my kids love it

  • Jeff

    Coool

  • kevin

    how can elephants ears be like that that is actually cool

  • Siwanator G

    great facts

  • Moata

    I am 99 I will not see these loving elephant any more

  • lol

  • Good

  • isela09

    I love elephants

  • Cool!

  • ShadowWolf

    amazing!

  • Otis

    I think that people should,not hunt elephants

  • Amber

    I loved it

  • Shreya

    I think all of us should help elephants and not kill them for there tusks.

  • qwe

    cool

  • Cool

  • Gaz

    Shame on the tourists who pay to see these acts and paying to ride them, if we all boycotted these shows then it wouldn't happen, sadly that will never happen, let elephants be free and live as they are meant to live.

  • Mulagwe constantine

    Elephants are very important to people and they should not b hunt for man's satisfaction. Am from nyanama.

  • Use less ugly photos

  • Pratiti

    Interesting facts

  • moo

    awsome

  • Grace

    Wow fantastic facts

  • Anya

    Hello I love these websites. They help me wanna become a vet more and more. I am 10 years old and I love animals I have two dogs and a friend sea orchin.

  • BSL

    Good

  • 9847326087203473108960238740831981398138015380jdsahuodyuoiasuhiucoiZdbcausoeoSEDJaskB lkdUSDUKsibnclKdosuavbaou

    need better facts and less ads

  • Ssss

    Very interesting and very nice fact of elephants

  • Maddie

    This is a great website for learning and i loved all the different facts. This really made me open my eyes and actually understand the danger elephants are in.

  • Pawan

    It's good,nice ideas...thanks

  • Tanvi

    Nice as it gives me a lot of knowledge

  • Whatever

    Wooow I love them it helped me a lot in my quiz

  • Bob

    That cool

  • What can elephants do? | Journal of African Elephants

    […] they eat all kinds of plants: grass, leaves, woody shrubs, flowers, and fruits. According to National Geographic, they spend 12 to 18 hours a day eating, and can consume over 300 pounds of food a day: […]

  • Iris

    I think that Elephant are smart by what they do like they make there own sunscreen that is smart. I do know is that they can remader were a waterhole is that is smart too.

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