Facts About Elephants

I just finished reading a wonderful book called Elephant Company.  It tells the story of Jim Williams, a British man, who spent most of his adult life working with elephants in Burma.  It was his elephants that were responsible for building bridges that ultimately led to the defeat of the Japanese in Burma during WW11.  I felt I wanted to know more about elephants after reading this interesting book.  Here's some of what I learned.

Elephants are intelligent animals who live complex social lives.  Their brain is the largest of any land animal, about 10-12 pounds.  They have the ability to use tools and to differentiate size.  In the book Elephant Company, elephants understood verbal commands and could follow instructions.  The handler might tell the elephant to pick up the large shovel, and he would do it.  They understand basic math.  Elephants also have long memories.  They can remember all herd members by sight and smell.  Wild elephants that have been domesticated for circuses have shown the ability to remember handlers whom they haven't seen in over 20 years!   Elephants live in family groups, with the oldest female usually leading the herd.  She, along with other adult females, is in charge of young elephants and males.  Males are more solitary.

Elephants are the biggest land animal.  African elephants weight up to 6,300 kg, while Asian elephants weigh 4,990.  Their tusks are actually teeth, weighing up to 100 pounds.  They are used for digging up roosts, stripping barking and clearing paths. They also have the longest gestation period, two years.  Occasionally twins are born, but single births are more frequent.  Young elephants are suseptible to predators, and are usually kept in the middle of the herd for protection.  Adult elephants have no danger from others.

In some ways they are very human like.  They mourn their dead, they can be playful, and they are great communicators.  Besides the trumpet, they elicit low noises all day.  Additionally, they have low frequency ultra sounds, which are used to communicate.

There are three species of elephant existing today:  African bush elephants, which are listed as vulnerable, with only 10,000 remaining in the wild, Asian elephants, smaller and considered endangered, and African forest elephant, found only in the Congo basin, and listed as endangered.  The wooly mammoth is the most famous of all extinct elephant family species.  Lets protect the three species we still have.  We don't want them to end up like the wooly mammoth.  They are amazing animals.