The largest terrestrial animals in the world are, as everyone knows, elephants. Their most common habitats are found in the Africa Sub-Saharan and in South Asia. They are intelligent, peaceful and very beautiful animals. Join us to know 30 Curiosities about elephants , extraordinary creatures at the same time fascinating.
There are three species of elephants, the African savanna, the African forest and the Asian, but unfortunately all three are in danger due to poaching and the destruction of their habitat. The population of elephants is decreasing worldwide drastically and several international groups are carrying out campaigns to protect them. African elephants, for example, have been rated as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Asians are on the list of animals in danger of extinction.
30 Curiosities about elephants
1. Elephants are proboscideans which is an order of placental mammals that currently only has one living family called "Elephantidae". This single family has three species: African savanna elephants, forest Africans and Asians.
2. Until a few years ago it was said that they belonged to the order of the pachyderms, but at present this classification that included mammals with thick skin, little hair and large size, is not used.
3. When they are born, elephants weigh about 120 kg. and despite their large size they stand up after a few hours.
4. The pregnancy lasts 22 months! It is the longest pregnancy among those of terrestrial animals.
5. Elephants can have offspring until they are almost 50 years old. Twin pregnancies are very rare and usually spacing the birth of their offspring between 2 and 4 years.
6. They tend to live between fifty and sixty years although there are known examples that have passed the eighties.
7. Among the curiosities about elephants is the one that holds the record of weight and height: in 1956 he was hunted in Angola a specimen that weighed about 11,000 kg. and its height to the cross was almost 4 meters.
8. The smallest elephant that is known corresponds to a prehistoric species that lived in Crete during the Pleistocene. Weighed and half the same as a large pig, approximately.
9. The brain of the elephant is the largest of terrestrial animals and weighs about 5 kg.
10. One of the curiosities about elephants it is the amount of intelligent behaviors attributed to it as a species, among which altruism, memory, compassion, mourning or self-recognition stand out.
11. Elephants like water very much, both for playing and for swimming or diving. In it they find relief for their loaded joints.
12. One of the curiosities about elephants It's your trunk. This is the fusion of the nose and upper lip and in addition to smell and breathe has many other functions such as picking things up, emitting sounds, distinguishing shapes and textures or sucking water.
13. The sound that an elephant emits has name as many of the voices of animals . It is called "barrito" and can be heard more than 9 km away. away.
14. Inside the tube is the nasal canal which is the best olfactory organ in the world. When an elephant lifts its trunk it does so to perceive distant smells.
15. Despite the prohibitions, poachers continue to kill elephants to get the ivory from their fangs, which is highly valued in the Chinese market and for which large sums of money are paid.
16. Decades ago there was a very tragic case that we told you in Supercurioso: The man who killed 40,000 elephants by mistake . He did it thinking wrongly that this way he avoided desertification.
17. Another of the curiosities about elephants Worthy of mention is your skin. Despite being very thick, the skin of the elephants is so sensitive that they can notice how a fly lands on it.
18. Due to this quality, "touching" is a very important way of communication for them. They greet each other with caresses or twisting their trunks and the older adults give "blows", shoves or kicks to young people to discipline them.
19. Elephants have often been used as a work force or for transportation and in antiquity also in wars.
20. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, crossed the Alps to attack Rome with an army of 37 war elephants. All died in the adventure except one, apparently called Sirius or Surus, which is the one who mounted the own Hannibal.
21. Crushing by elephant was a very common method of execution in South and South-East Asia for those sentenced to death.
22. As we have said, elephants are able to feel the pain of absence for a death for many years. This is one of the curiosities about elephants that more has been commented and was patent in the case of Lawrence Anthony, a famous "whisperer of elephants" to whose death a herd of these animals that he had rescued, went to the door of his house to mourn him.
23. The fear that elephants feel for mice is a myth. However, they do feel dread for the bees so that some farmers in Africa surround their beehive fields so that the crops are not crushed by herds of elephants.
24. An elephant has the ability to move forward and backward, but due to its weight it can not raise all four legs of the ground at a time so it is impossible for it to jump or gallop.
25. One of the curiosities about elephants More striking is that like humans can be left or right handed and this is detected by the fang they use most frequently.
26. Elephants have sensory cells in so sensitive soles plants that detect seismic signals or deep sounds of the ground.
27. Because their skin is very sensitive, they use mud as a sunscreen, in addition to protecting themselves from stings or keeping moisture.
28. One of the curiosities about elephants is the amount of food that can be consumed in a single day. They can eat easily for 16 hours and transfer more than 270 kilos of food.
29. Like small children or great apes, magpies or dolphins, elephants are able to recognize themselves in a mirror.
30. The last of these curiosities about elephants we will dedicate it to the teeth of this great mammal. The elephants are polifiodontos, that is to say that they have cycles of dental rotation throughout their life.
What do you think of these curiosities about elephants ? Do you know any more? Share it with us and we can complete this list! If you want to know more about the animal world, we invite you to read the post: 25 curiosities of animals that will surely amaze you .