Sri Lanka: Fifteen Interesting Facts about Elephants

As ironic as it can be, elephant no matter how huge they are can be the cutest animal in the world, and I meant it in a delightful and charming way.

We had a BIG doze of their "cuteness" when we visited Kaudualla National Park in Sri Lanka and found herds of Asian elephant freely wandering around the nature reserve.

To extend of elephant-craze brought to us by visiting Sri Lanka, here are fifteen interesting facts about this massive, kind-hearted creature.

1. The word “elephant” comes from the Greek word “elephas” which means “ivory”

2. There are only two distinct species of elephant left in the world: The African elephant and the Asian elephant.

3. Africa Botswana house the largest number of wild African elephants summing up to almost 119,000 elephants. While Asian elephant can be found mostly in India, Sri Lanka and China

4. The elephant’s gestation period is 22 months – longer than any other land animal in the world.

5. Newborn elephants can stand up shortly after the birth. They are born blind, weighing up to 260 pounds.

6. The average lifespan of an elephant is from 50 to 70 years.

7. Elephants are social creatures. They sometimes “hug” by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection.



8. The elephant trunk has more than 40,000 muscles in it

9. Elephants have poor eyesight but an amazing sense of smell.

10. Elephants have a highly developed brain and the largest of all the land mammals. The brain is 3 or 4 times larger than that of humans although smaller as a proportion of body weight.

11. Elephant females can have babies until they are about 50 years old. They tend to have a new baby every 2 and half to 4 years. They usually have one baby, twins are very rare.

12. Elephants have an excellent memory.

13. Elephants are avid eaters. Daily, they can be feeding for up to 16 hours and consume up to 600 pounds of food.

14. Elephants cannot jump or gallop.

15. The oldest elephant ever was Lin Wang(Grandpa Lin), an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), who live from 1917 to 2003 and died at the age of 86, at Taipei Zoo, Taiwan.

Yes all those are elephants 😍🐘🐘🐘

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