Interesting facts about Elephants

Elephant, one of the most familiar animals name for all of us. We all have read about many animals in our childhood and still reading about them, elephant is one of those animals. Elephants are one of the largest mammals and belong to the family that is known as Elephantidae. The order elephants belong to is Proboscidea.

There are only two species of elephants yet known to us and those are African Elephant and Asian Elephant. Loxodonta Africana is the scientific name of African Elephant and Elephas maximus is the scientific name of the species that is Asian Elephant. The name of both the species of elephant suggests that this animal is found in South East Asia, South Asia and sub-saharan Africa. South African elephant especially the male holds the record of being largest surviving terrestrial animal with the ability to reach the height of approximately 13 feet which is around 4 m. And weigh of 15000 pounds that is 7000 kg.

The most identifying thing in elephant is its trunk, elephant’s huge nose. This trunk is used in multipurpose ways such as grasping any object, lifting water and of course breathing as it is the nose of elephant.

Let's divert our mind and talk about the behavior of elephant with human beings. Well, the behavior of elephant differs from one species to another one. Some elephants are found very friendly and even we have seen them in our locality but some are quite vulnerable for human sometimes. What about the name of this animal "Elephant"? The name "Elephant" is actually based on a Greek work but it was later Latinized and the word is elephas.

Basic Information about Elephant:

Name	Elephant
Average Length	20 ft
Average Height	11 ft
Average Weight	4000 kg to 7000 kg
Area	Africa and Asia
Life Span	55 to 60 years
Kingdom	Animalia
Class	Mammalia
Family	Elephantidae
Genus	Loxodonta ( African Elephant), Elephas ( Asian Elephant)
Order	Proboscidea

Elephants are herbivorous animals and are can be the habitats of forests, deserts, marshes and savannahs. Where other wild animals like lion, tiger and etc leave their predators after a certain time period, elephants prefer to live with them only. Elephants are usually found in a huge group with their successors and predators.

Asian Elephant

The way of communication i elephants is quite similar with other wild animals and that is by smelling, touching, sight and sound. Do you know? Life expectancy of an elephant and a human is almost similar. Yeah, it’s at least 70 years an elephant can survive in wild.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared the African elephant vulnerable but Asian elephants are not.

African Elephant

The Asian and African elephants can be classified with their structures. The African elephants are larger than that of Asian elephants. The ears of African elephants are larger than the Asian elephants. The huge size of ears of this animal helps them in keeping their body cool in sun.

As elephants are herbivorous that’s why they prefer staying in forests. Especially, Asian elephants are mostly found in the forests of low woody plants. Mix of grasses and trees. And the most surprising thing is that elephants can consume 40 liter of water in a day. Hope these amazing features about elephant have provided you some extra knowledge on this animal.