Talking about elephants I often find out there is still a lot of stuff that people don’t know about them. Sometimes it’s lack of knowledge about very important things like why elephants still wear chains or why they are being held captive in the first place. However I also share fun facts sometimes that surprise many! So I figured today I would share 6 fun elephant facts with you.
- Elephants cannot jump and are actually the only mammal in the world who can’t!
- Elephants have hair! All over their body actually (this surprised me quite a bit!). It’s very coarse and sturdy and the hairs that come off are actually used to make jewelry out of.
- Elephants are vegan! You can find out here what kind of stuff they eat!
- Elephants are pregnant for 22 months. This is the longest pregnancy any animal has! That’s some serious commitment right there…
- Asian elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years. They have and are still being used for moving heavy objects, the logging industry, war and tourism. Since domesticating elephants has such a long history it is so strongly embedded in many cultures, which makes it so difficult to get rid of it.
- The Asian and African elephant are terribly different! The biggest difference is their size! African elephants easily become 4m tall with a weight of 4000 to 7500 kg, while Asian elephants don’t grow bigger then 3,5m with a weight of 3000 to 6000kg. They also have a different shape head, size ears and trunk! Asian elephants only have one “thumb” on their trunk whilst African elephants have two!
Did any of these surprise you? Let me know in the comments! And if you like these Elephant facts I might share more with you in the near future on the blog.
