Facts about elephants

 Intelligence

Elephants are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth. Their brains weigh 5kg, much more than the brain of any other land animal. Their brains have more complex folds than all animals except whales, which is thought to be a major factor in their intellect. They commonly show grief, humor, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, tool-use, playfulness, and excellent learning abilities. An elephant in Korea surprised its zoo keepers by independently learning to mimic the commands they gave it by verbalizing on the end of its trunk, successfully learning 8 words and their context. Elephants have a more developed hippocampus, a brain

region responsible for emotion and spatial awareness, than any other animal, and studies indicate that they are superior to humans in keeping track of multiple objects in 3D space. There are many reports of elephants showing altruism towards other species, such as rescuing trapped dogs at considerable cost to themselves. As mentioned above, they respect their dead and have death rituals. There are stories of the herds of elephants killed by humans retrieving the poached bones and returning them to the place of death to bury them.

Jumbo the Elephant

There have been many famous individual elephants in the world, but one of the largest was Jumbo, whose name is now used to mean ‘huge.’ His name is thought to be derived from the Swahili word for ‘boss’ or ‘chief.’ He was an African bush elephant born in 1861 and taken to a French zoo as an infant. He was later transferred to a British zoo where he gave children rides on his back and was greatly admired. Jumbo’s caretaker even gave him an occasional gallon of whisky which he believed was good for Jumbo’s health. Eventually Jumbo was sold and exported to the USA, and such was his popularity that one hundred thousand children wrote to the Queen asking her to keep Jumbo for them. In the USA he achieved his full fame and was widely exhibited until his death at the age of 24. His health had been steadily declining for years, and when he was hit by a train going at full speed he could not recover, dying soon after. Jumbo was 4m tall at the time of his death.

Teeth and Tusks

Humans are born toothless, grow a set of milk teeth, and finally lose these as they grow permanent adult teeth. Similarly, elephants are born without tusks, grow milk tusks, and replace these with adult tusks. In Asian elephants, females are usually tusk less. Elephants use tusks for digging and lifting heavy objects, and sometimes as a part of mating rituals. Although now illegal, there is heavy poaching of elephants for their tusk ivory. This is believed to be why the average size of elephant tusks is gradually decreasing – elephants with smaller tusks are not poached and live to reproduce more. Elephants normally only sleep 2 or 3 hours each day because they need to spend time eating to support their huge size, as they can eat up to 150kg of vegetation every day. Due to their herbivorous diet, elephant teeth wear out quickly and they have 6 or 7 sets instead of only 2 like humans. New teeth grow in the back of the mouth and move forward to replace old worn sets. After the last set has been worn out, solitary elephants will usually die of starvation whereas herd elephants will help feed starving members of their group.

Trunks

The elephant trunk, a specialized nose, is analogous to an octopus tentacle in terms of dexterity. It allows them a high degree of manipulation of objects and elephants are adept tool-users. Elephants have been taught to paint with their adroit trunks and produce some fascinating artwork. In captivity, elephants easily learn how to open simple locks and many master more complex ones, something impossible for most other animals due to a lack of dexterity and intellect. Elephants in zoos have worked together to take advantage of this, by having many act as lookouts as another undoes the lock, or in one instance an elephant feigned injury as a distraction while another elephant helped the others escape. Once all the elephants were out, the distraction elephant climbed to its feet and ran for the door, surprising its tenders who had been unaware of the ruse.

 Feet

Each elephant foot has 5 toes, but not every toe has a nail. An easy way to tell the two African elephant species apart is by counting toenails. The African forest elephant and the Asian elephant both have 5 toenails on the front feet and 4 on the back feet. The larger African bush elephant has 4 or sometimes 5 on the front feet and 3 on the back. An X-ray of an elephant’s foot will reveal that its bones are actually standing on tip-toe. Their feet are flat because of a large pad of gristle under each heel which acts as a shock absorber and helps them walk quietly. Their legs are much straighter than those of other animals and support their weight so well that elephants sleep while standing. Elephants spend most of their lives walking huge distances, and their feet are suitably adapted to such a lifestyle. Zoos which keep elephants often find they develop foot problems due to a lack of constant walking, and treatments include tailored shoes to protect their softened feet.