African Elephant
The African Elephant is the largest land animal on earth. They live from sub-Saharan African all the way to the rain forests of Central and Western Africa. Elephants are herbivores. They eat mostly twigs, leaves, roots, and vegetables. They have an extremely inefficient digestive system that only allows them to absorb about 40% of the food they consume. On an average day and elephant will consume 300 pounds of food!
The elephants average life span in the wild is about 70 years and they will grow to be between 8 to 13 feet tall. Their trunks are an extended nose, which they use for breathing, drinking, smelling, and grabbing things with. An elephants trunk alone has more than 100,00 different muscles. They are family oriented. Their herds consist of adult females and their offspring. A herd will stay together for life and normally vary in size from 20 to 100 members. The male elephants leave the herd at adolescence and never rejoin a herd and only briefly come back to mate. The gestation of an elephant is longer than any other mammals at 22 months. A newborn elephant weighs nearly 200 pounds and is 3 feet tall.
A commonly believed myth about elephants is that "an elephant never forgets". Elephants are one of the most intelligent land animals and they possess the largest brain of any mammal. The temporal lobe, which the the area of the brain responsible for recognition, storage, and retrieval of information is exceptionally large for an elephant. Relative to their brains size the elephants temporal lobes are larger and denser than any other creature except the humans. So it really is true that "an elephant never forgets"! This extremely long memory can explain elephants intelligence and their tendency to create very strong emotional bonds. There are stories of mother elephants revisit the bones of their dead calves while migrating for years after their death; and of elephant friends being reunited after years of separation and crying with joy. And most importantly, elephants are super duper adorable!!!
The elephants average life span in the wild is about 70 years and they will grow to be between 8 to 13 feet tall. Their trunks are an extended nose, which they use for breathing, drinking, smelling, and grabbing things with. An elephants trunk alone has more than 100,00 different muscles. They are family oriented. Their herds consist of adult females and their offspring. A herd will stay together for life and normally vary in size from 20 to 100 members. The male elephants leave the herd at adolescence and never rejoin a herd and only briefly come back to mate. The gestation of an elephant is longer than any other mammals at 22 months. A newborn elephant weighs nearly 200 pounds and is 3 feet tall.
A commonly believed myth about elephants is that "an elephant never forgets". Elephants are one of the most intelligent land animals and they possess the largest brain of any mammal. The temporal lobe, which the the area of the brain responsible for recognition, storage, and retrieval of information is exceptionally large for an elephant. Relative to their brains size the elephants temporal lobes are larger and denser than any other creature except the humans. So it really is true that "an elephant never forgets"! This extremely long memory can explain elephants intelligence and their tendency to create very strong emotional bonds. There are stories of mother elephants revisit the bones of their dead calves while migrating for years after their death; and of elephant friends being reunited after years of separation and crying with joy. And most importantly, elephants are super duper adorable!!!