25 Fun Things you may not know about Elephants & Giraffes
1. There are two types of elephant, the Asian elephant and the African elephant (although sometimes the African Elephant is split into two species, the African Forest Elephant and the African Bush Elephant).
2. Elephants are the largest land-living mammal in the world.
3. Both female and male African elephants have tusks but only the male Asian elephants have tusks. They use their tusks for digging and finding food.
4. Female elephants are called cows. They start to have calves when they are about 12 years old and they are pregnant for 22 months.
5. An elephant can use its tusks to dig for ground water. An adult elephant needs to drink around 210 litres of water a day.
6. Elephants have large, thin ears. Their ears are made up of a complex network of blood vessels which with regulating an elephants temperature. Blood is circulated through their ears to cool them down in hot climates.
7. Elephants have no natural predators. However, lions will sometimes prey on young or weak elephants in the wild. The main risk to elephants is from humans through poaching and changes to their habitat.
8. The elephant’s trunk is able to sense the size, shape and temperature of an object. An elephant uses its trunk to lift food and suck up water then pour it into its mouth.
9. An elephant’s trunk can grow to be about 2 metres long and can weigh up to 140 kg. Some scientists believe that an elephant’s trunk is made up of 100,000 muscles, but no bones.
10. Female elephants spend their entire lives living in large groups called herds. Male elephant leave their herds at about 13 years old and live fairly solitary lives from this point.
11. Elephants can swim – they use their trunk to breathe like a snorkel in deep water.
12. Elephants are herbivores and can spend up to 16 hours days collecting leaves, twigs, bamboo and roots.
13. A male giraffe can weigh as much as a pick up truck! That’s about 1400 kilograms.
14. Although a giraffe’s neck is 1.5 – 1.8 metres, it contains the same number of vertebrae at a human neck.
15. A giraffe's habitat is usually found in African savannas, grasslands or open woodlands.
16. The hair that makes up a giraffes tail is about 10 times thicker than the average strand of human hair.
17. The distinctive spots that cover a giraffe’s fur act as a good camouflage to protect the giraffe from predators. When the giraffe stands in front of trees and bushes the light and dark colouring of its fur blends in with the shadows and sunlight.
18. It is possible to identify the sex of the giraffe from the horns on its head. Both males and females have horns but the females are smaller and covered with hair at the top. Male giraffes may have up to 3 additional horns.
19. Giraffes are ruminants. This means that they have more than one stomach. In fact, giraffes have four stomachs, the extra stomachs assisting with digesting food.
20. Drinking is one of the most dangerous times for a giraffe. While it is getting a drink it cannot keep a look out for predators and is vulnerable to attack.
21. Male giraffes sometimes fight with their necks over female giraffes. This is called “necking”. The two giraffes stand side by side and one giraffe swings his head and neck, hitting his head against the other giraffe. Sometimes one giraffe is hit to the ground during a combat.
22. A female giraffe gives birth while standing up. The calf drops approximately 6 feet to the ground, but it is not hurt from the fall.
23. Giraffes have bluish-purple tongues which are tough and covered in bristly hair to help them with eating the thorny Acacia trees.
24. Eats up to 75 pounds of food a day (typically Acacia leaves)
25. Have a four chambered stomach and will regurgitate their food for additional chewing – similarly to a cow.