10 unforgettable elephant facts!
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 grass, plants 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.

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.

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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COMMENTS1
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
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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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