What are 25 facts about elephants?
An elephant in the wild can eat anywhere from 100 – 1000 pounds of vegetation in a 16 hour period. The intestines of an elephant may be 19 meters in length, or more than 60 feet long. Elephants purr like cats do, as a means of communication. In a day, an elephant can drink 50 gallons (200 liters) of water.
What’s special about elephants?
Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, and they’re one of the most unique-looking animals, too. With their characteristic long noses, or trunks; large, floppy ears; and wide, thick legs, there is no other animal with a similar physique.
What are elephant clues?
Some clues that elephants leave behind are special just to elephants, such as tusk marks in clay and mud, trees rubbed against as a scratching post, and even trees they have pushed over. Elephants will use their tusks to dig in mineral pits to find salt and to dig holes to find water for themselves and other animals.
What is the old name of elephant?
As in Mycenaean Greek, Homer used the Greek word to mean ivory, but after the time of Herodotus, it also referred to the animal. The word “elephant” appears in Middle English as olyfaunt (c. 1300) and was borrowed from Old French oliphant (12th century).
What are elephants afraid of?
According to some, elephants are afraid of mice, because they fear that mice will crawl up their trunks. This could cause irritation and blockage, making it hard for elephants to breathe.
Do elephants have teeth?
Dentition. Both African and Asian elephants have a total of 26 teeth including two upper incisors (tusks), 12 premolars (non-permanent teeth similar to baby teeth), and 12 molars.
Can elephants jump?
Yes, it’s true. Adult elephants just aren’t built to jump. Often weighing 16,000 or more pounds, they’re too heavy to make the leap. Not only do they not jump, elephants never get all four feet off the ground at once – even when charging at full speed.
Do elephants sleep standing up?
In captivity, elephants spend much of their time asleep lying down, but they also sometimes sleep standing. With combined data from the gyroscope and the activity meter we found that wild elephants mostly slept standing up. Lying down to sleep only happened every third or fourth day and for about an hour.
Can elephants see color?
Elephants are colorblind. They have one type of cone for red and another for green. Elephants can see similarly to colorblind humans. They can see the colors blues and yellows but cannot tell the difference between reds and greens.
Can elephants fly?
Elephants can’t fly. Unless, of course, the elephant in question is Dumbo.