I remember as a young boy doing a school project on elephants; this is when I found out so many cool facts. I thought I would share some of them with you as we tend to take these magnificent creatures for granted, and often forget just how wonderful they are.
The numbers
Elephants are just like us in so many ways. They reach puberty at thirteen or fourteen years old. They have offspring up until the age of about fifty and they can live to be seventy years old, sometimes more. A female elephant, known as a cow, gives birth to a single calf and in very rare cases twins. The interval between births is between two and four years.
The emotions
An elephant shows many different emotions, just like us. They grieve at the loss of a baby or family member, and in many cases other elephants too. I am yet to find another species, other than a human, that does this. They cry, they play and laugh! They are very social animals, especially within their own family group. If a baby becomes distressed, the entire family will make a soothing rumbling sound and go over to comfort and reassure it.
The trunk
Maybe one of the most fascinating features of an elephant is its trunk. The trunk is a union of the nose and upper lip. It is highly sensitive and is made up of over 100,000 muscles. An elephant can breathe through its trunk and its mouth. The trunk can be extremely heavy and can often be seen draped over a tusk for support. The trunk is a very important tool, and although an elephant doesn’t drink through its trunk, it does use it to suck up between 8 -10 litres of water at a time and squirt it into its mouth.
The intelligence stakes
An elephants’ intelligence is further proved by its ability to use tools to help it with tasks. For example they may use a stick, held in its trunk, to dig up grass or to swat troublesome flies and insects. This ability to use tools makes their psychology comparable to that of a human or primate.
Studies have been carried out by using a mirror to assess an elephants’ ability to recognise itself. To further test self-awareness, marks were painted on the elephant to see whether or not the animal would notice. The elephants firstly investigated the marks by touching them on the mirror, then, they physically touched the marks on themselves. Blind tests were also carried out to rule out detection of the marks by other senses. This proved an elephant could recognise the images in the mirror as themselves. Such abilities are considered the basis of empathy, altruism and higher social interactions, abilities that have also been demonstrated by some apes and dolphins.
Another study, carried out on a captive female, suggested they are capable of learning and distinguishing between several visual and some acoustic discrimination pairs. The elephant was even able to score a high accuracy rating when retested with the same visual pairs a year later, showing the ability to memorize and learn behaviour; probably the main reasons they are able to use tools.
Elephants are highly intelligent, sensitive and all round amazing animals!