50 Amazing Facts About Elephants (Part 1, 1-25)

Hello viewers, welcome back to another episode from Walk Africa Fun Facts YouTube Channel. Today’s video is focused on the elephant, a member of the big 5 and the largest of the terrestrial mammals. For new viewers, welcome on board. Subscribe free of charge to our channel today to get more amazing videos, all centered on our beautiful African continent. Let us sample 50 quick and amazing facts about the elephants. #1. Elephants are the largest land animals, standing at over 3 meters high and weighing up to 6 tones! #2. Elephants could live up to 70 years of age! #3. There are 2 species of elephant; The African elephants, a larger species found in Africa with ears shaped like the African continent, and The Asian elephants, a smaller species with ears shaped like the Indian Subcontinent. #4. You probably know elephant tusks are teeth. But what type of teeth are they? They are actually enlarged incisor teeth, which develop at 2 years of age and continue growing henceforth for the rest of the life of an elephant. #5. Elephants’ skin can be as thick as 2.5cm in most places. The folds in the skin store water, which is used to cool their bodies. #6. An average elephant would need up to 150kg of food everyday, spending over ¾ of its day on feeding alone! #7. Elephants can communicate via trumpet calls and vibrations, some too low for the human ear to hear! #8. Elephants calves can stand at 20 minutes after birth! The adaptation enables elephants to keep walking in search of food and water. #9. Elephants have a long memory as their temporal lobe, the area of the brain associated with memory, is larger and denser than that of humans. #10. Africa has lost over 400 thousand elephants in the last century to poaching, leaving around 45 thousand elephants in the wild today! #11. The scientific name for the elephant is Loxodonta. #12. The elephant’s trunk is actually a long nose, which is used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking and grabbing stuff. #13. Whereas African elephants have 2 finger like projections at the tip of their trunks, their Asian cousins have none. The feature on the former enables them pick very small things! #14. Both male and female African elephants have tusks which grow continually. Additionally, Savannah African elephants have curving tusks while forest elephants have straight tusks. #15. Elephants herd in matrilineal societies, meaning that a herd is led by the eldest female, called a cow. Male elephants, called bulls, tend to roam alone, or herd in loosely connected all-male groups. #16. Elephants give birth after a 22-month gestation period, the longest among mammals! #17. Only male Asian elephants have tusks. Their female counterparts have none. #18. Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump! #19. Elephants’ have a brain that is 4 times the human brain size! #20. You are right or left handed. Right? And so are elephants and their tusks. #21. An elephant’s trunk has over 100,000 muscles! #22. Elephants also do hug, doing so by wrapping their trunks around one another. #23. Did you know that elephants have no natural predator. The only biggest threat there is to elephants are humans due to their poaching activities. #24. An elephant’s trumpet can be heard 6 miles away! #25. Elephants have human-like emotions feeling loss, grieving and even crying! An elephant will carry bones of a fallen elephant for a while as a sign of mourning.