Elephants are truly fascinating creatures and have long been regarded as the true kings and queens of the African savannah lands. Known for their incredible intelligence, their huge size, as well as their wide range of emotions, elephants have captured the imagination of people for countless centuries.
Today, African elephants can generally be found in the large national parks that are dotted around Africa, with most of them residing in South Africa. Here we will explore a number of memorable facts about the elephants that roam the wilds of Africa.
Their Tusks Are Amazing
Along with their size, trunks, and large ears, elephants also stick out due to their ivory tusks, and knowing a bit about an elephant’s tusk can reveal a lot about the animal. For instance, the tusks of an elephant will grow for the animal’s entire life, meaning that an elephant with particularly large tusks is an indication that the animal has lived for a long time. Both female and male African elephants have tusks, but this is not a trait that is shared by Asian elephants, which only grow on the males. It’s one of the easiest ways to differentiate a male Asian elephant from a female.
They’re The Biggest Land Animals
African elephants currently hold the record for being the largest land animals in the world, and it’s something that’s quickly apparent when encountering an adult bull for the first time. A full grown male African elephant is able to reach 3 metres tall and can weight up to 7,500 kilograms in total. This makes them slightly larger than their Asian counterparts, which generally reach around 2.7 metres tall, and can weight up to 6,000 kilograms.
The Shape Of Their Ears
There are more than a few ways of telling the difference between an African and an Indian elephant. One of the first is the size, as African elephants tend to be a bit bigger. But perhaps the easiest way is by looking at their ears. An Asian elephant tends to have smaller ears, but they’re also shaped like India. African elephants, in comparison, have much larger ears, and are shaped like the continent of Africa.
African Forest Elephants
For many years, researchers believed that the African Forest Elephant was a subspecies of the more well-known African elephant. But recent studies have shown that this isn’t the case; in fact, African Forest Elephants are an entire species of their own. They tend to have straighter tusks than the species’ that live in Southern Africa, and African Forest Elephants are only found in the Congo Basin, which is centrally located on the continent, and it might be worth winning at sports betting in NZ to fly out and see one.
Elephants Are Highly Intelligent
Widely considered to be some of the most intelligent animals in the world, elephants have been known to create their own sunscreen using mud from rivers and watering holes. Elephants in Kenya have been observed mining salt from underground caves, which they like to eat as a treat.
