Elephants .... By The Numbers
Updated: Feb 16, 2019
40,000 Elephants possess over 40,000 muscles in their trunk alone. That is over 65 times our entire body. An elephant’s trunk is their greatest appendage. Their nose and upper lip fused together, is sensitive enough to pick up a blade of grass, or lift over 600 lbs! Elephants use their trunk for a myriad of reasons, to communicate, to smell, to draw up water to drink, procuring food and much more.
6 Elephants have 6 teeth, four molars and their two tusks which are extended incisor teeth. They will go through six sets of their brick-sized molars through their lives, and after each set is completely worn, they convey-belt forward and are replaced. Their tusks, though incredibly important to the elephants have given rise to extensive poaching over the last 150 years.
65-70 Elephants natural lifespan is around 65-70 years. One of the longest naturally living land mammals, elephants lead very complex social lives.
22 Female elephants will carry their young through a gestation period of 22 months, longer than any other animal! When they give birth, usually during the evening, infants will drop to the ground weighing on average 175-220 lbs.
15,000 Elephants are of course the largest land animal on the planet with African elephant bulls pushing the scales at 14,000-15,000 lbs! Asian elephants weigh on average about 20% less.
400 Elephants consume about 400 lbs of varied vegetation a day. They browse leafs, branches, roots, fruits, bark, grasses and much more. At least 100 plant species can be included in their diet!
150,000 Botswana has more wild elephants than any other country in the world with approximately 150,000 or nearly 35% of the total population of African elephants. Asian elephants are even more endangered with numbers barely reaching 35,000 across the entire continent.
13 Thirteen great locations to observe elephants in the wild. These include Tarangire and Serengeti National Parks, Tanzania; Maasai Mara and Amboseli in Kenya; Okavango delta, Linyanti/Savute regions and Chobe National Park, Botswana; Great Kruger Ecosystem, South Africa; South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi National Parks, Zambia, Hwange and Mana Pools National Parks in Zimbabwe and Etosha National Park, Namibia.
To observe these incredible mammals on one of our tours, and learn much more about their intriguing behaviours and adaptations, contact us anytime.