Elephants are attractive creatures. Being the largest mammal in the world, many aspects of their giant body are a source of amazement in themselves, while their high level of social development makes them an interesting sight to behold. 

Today we are going to know 20 interesting and fascinating facts about elephants.

So, let's start....


#1.  The word “elephant” derived from the Greek word “elephas” which means “ivory”. The average lifespan of an elephant is from 50 to 70 years.


#2.  Baby elephants weight 200 pounds(100 kg) when they are born and often trip over their own trunks while learning to walk.


#3.  Elephants also suck on their own trunk like a human suck on a thumb for comfort.


#4.  Baby elephants learn to feed themselves by taking food from inside their mother's mouth.


#5.  Mother elephants have the longest gestation period of any animal that is 22 months.


#6.  Baby elephants will stay with their mother for up to 10 years.


#7.  Elephant parents wrap their trunks around younger elephants to reassure them.


#8.  Elephant families are tight, they ever shake trunks to greet each Other. Families are always lead by a matriarch as they migrate, who retain decades of memories of drought and predators.


#9.  An elephant's trunk is a feat of biology, containing over 1,00,000 muscle units. 


#10.  Their trunk functions as a nose, arm, hand and even a voice. It is sensitive enough to pick up a penny but can also leave as entire tree!


#11. Much like humans elephants favoured their left or right tusk, just like handedness.


#12. Elephants are not only smart, they posses great empathy, if a family member in their group is hurt they come to their aid. They also express grief if they came across the bones of another elephant. Elephants are not only seen but they snorkel using their trunk.


#13. Elephants produces sounds humans can't even hear because their calls are so slow. Elephants can recognise about 100 different elephants sounds just based on their calls.


#14. Elephants can get sunburn but, they have found in natural way to create their own Sun screen. After bathing, they throw mud and sand on their body to got some all-natural sun protection.


#15. 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.


#16. Elephants spend between 12 to 15 hours eating grass, fruits and plants of a day. An adult elephant needs to eat up to 150kg food in a day, that’s 50 tonnes in an year.


#17. Sadly, elephants are in trouble. Many are killed by people because of their ivory teeth because they have clashed with the community or just because of sports. Asian elephants also face threats from tourist ads where people pay to ride back or paint pictures on them.


#18. There are two distinct species: the African elephant and the Asian elephant. These are forest elephants and savannah elephants.


#19. Elephant feet are covered in a soft padding that helps to support their weight, as well as preventing them from slipping and dulling the sound of their footsteps. 


#20. Elephants have small eyes and poor eyesight, but they have their amazing sense of smell. Elephant can able to smell water from up to 12 miles away.