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Did you know elephants can't jump. They are intelligent animal that have great memories. Their memory helps them remember where to find water and food during the droughts in Africa.

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Elephants respect the role of the matriarch

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Elephants respect the role of the matriarch

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The matriarch influences the herd more than any other elephant. The elephants follow her lead as the oldest and wisest in the herd.

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While they use their ears to help keep cool their ears have many uses. They can hear from far distances, but they also use their ears to communicate.

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Weighing up to 6000 kg (6.6 tons) and measuring up to 3.3 m (10 ft.) at the shoulder, the African elephant is the world's largest land mammal. It is characterized by its highly dexterous trunk, long curved tusks, and massive ears.

A combination of the upper lip and nose, an African elephant's trunk is extremely versatile. Elephants use their trunk for smelling, breathing, detecting vibrations, caressing their young, sucking up water, and grasping objects. The tip of their trunk is comprised of two opposable extensions, or fingers, which allow for extreme dexterity.

Both male and female elephants possess tusks, which are modified incisor teeth. Although tusks are present at birth, the "baby tusks" fall out after a year, and permanent ones replace them. These tusks will continue to grow throughout the elephant's life. Similar to the trunk, elephant tusks are utilized in a wide range of activities. They are used for digging, foraging, and fighting. At times, they also act as a resting place for the elephant's very heavy trunk.

An African elephant's large ears also serve many purposes. The ears' large surface area helps radiate excess heat under the harsh African sun. The ears are also often used to communicate visually. Flapping their ears can signify either aggression or joy. And finally, elephants' ears, used in conjunction with the soles of their feet and their trunk, aid in the ability to hear sounds over long distances. On average, an elephant can hear another elephant's call at 4 km (2.5 mi.) away. Under ideal conditions, their range of hearing can be increased to 10 km (6.2 mi.).

Although elephants can make a very wide range of sounds (10 octaves), they mostly communicate through low frequency sounds called "rumbling." In fact, elephants are capable of producing and perceiving sounds one to two octaves lower than the human hearing limit. As lower frequency sounds travel farther than their higher counterparts, their range of communication is extensive. Furthermore, elephants have the ability to judge the distance from another elephant based on the pitch of his/her call. As the sound travels over distances, the higher tones will fade out, leaving a lower pitch.

Aside from their ability to learn through watching and mimicking, African elephants also possess other very human qualities. Their great capacity for compassion is demonstrated as they care for the wounded and grieve the deceased. Their developed sense of memory allows them not only to remember lost loved ones, but also to harbor grudges, and recognize long-lost friends. Upon the return of a friend, elephants take part in a joyous greeting ceremony where they spin in circles, flap their ears, and trumpet.

Having adapted to life across Africa's diverse ecosystems, the African elephant plays a vital role in maintaining ecological harmony. African elephants ingest plants and fruits, walk for miles, and excrete the seeds in fertile dung piles. In this way, new plants can grow in different areas and can cross fertilize. In fact, 90 different tree species rely on the elephant for propagation. African elephants also dig holes to expose underground springs. This allows smaller animals to access water in drier times.

Family Life

Elephants rely on a social network for survival. The sustaining social unit is a herd of mothers and their young, sisters, and female cousins, led by an older matriarch.

Male elephants will leave the herd at around 14 years old when they hit puberty. They then join a loose-knit band of other bull elephants, leaving the bachelor herd at will to search for potential mates. Upon successful mating, the male elephant will move on to other herds, and the female will start a 22-month gestation period.

When the calf is born, aunts, sisters, and cousins all help care for the newborn. In this way, all the elephants of the herd learn essential lessons in rearing a baby. And since elephants only give birth once every 5 years, successfully raising their offspring is critical to their survival.

Conservation Status

As African elephants act as a keystone species, it is vital to take steps in their conservation. Poaching and urban sprawl pose a massive threat to their survival. As such, the African elephant is classified as a vulnerable species under IUCN's Red List.

What You Can Do to Help

There are several ways to help support African elephants. One way is to participate in eco-tourism. Boosting Africa's economy through eco-tourism helps placate local residents who view elephants as pests.

The illegal ivory trade has skyrocketed in recent years. Decreasing the demand for ivory is essential. Never buy, sell, or wear ivory. Write to your politicians to speak out against poaching. (Americans can write a letter to the Secretary of State on the Wildlife Conservation Society website.) For information on organizations that combat the illegal ivory trade, see National Geographic's page, Blood Ivory: How to Help.

In addition, you can help provide captive elephants with the best possibly life. Boycott circuses, whose unethical treatment includes chaining elephants up by their feet and trunks, as well as beating them frequently. Encourage zoos to create environments similar to African elephants' native habitat. They should be able to encompass elephant families and their travel patterns, and they should be located in a warm climate so that the elephants can spend all year outside.

African Elephant Distribution

Elephant Resources

Blog Posts about the African Elephant

About the Author

Abi Cushman is a contributing editor of Animal Fact Guide and My House Rabbit. When she's not writing about weird animal facts, Abi writes and illustrates funny books for kids. Her picture books, and Animals Go Vroom!, are available now from Viking Children's Books.

To learn more and to download free activity sheets, visit www.abicushman.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AbiCushman and on Instagram at @Abi.Cushman.

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African Elephant Facts for Kids | Elephants | African Animals

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Did you know that elephants hold grudges? Learn more interesting African elephant facts at Animal Fact Guide.

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Have you ever seen an elephant laying down to sleep? The book talks about how the elephants came to the watering hole late one evening and it made me curious about their sleeping patterns.

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Wild African elephants sleep for the shortest time of any mammal, according to a study.

Scientists tracked two elephants in Botswana to find out more about the animals' natural sleep patterns.

Elephants in zoos sleep for four to six hours a day, but in their natural surroundings the elephants rested for only two hours, mainly at night.

The elephants, both matriarchs of the herd, sometimes stayed awake for several days.

During this time, they travelled long distances, perhaps to escape lions or poachers.

They only went into rapid eye movement (REM, or dreaming sleep, at least in humans) every three or four days, when they slept lying down rather than on their feet.

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Prof Paul Manger of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, said this makes elephant sleep unique.

"Elephants are the shortest sleeping mammal - that seems to be related to their large body size," he told BBC News.

"It seems like elephants only dream every three to four days. Given the well-known memory of the elephant this calls into question theories associating REM sleep with memory consolidation."

Elephants living in captivity have been widely studied.

To find out more about their sleeping habits in the wild, Prof Manger and his research team fitted the scientific equivalent of a fitness tracker under the skin of the animals' trunks.

The device was used to record when the elephants were sleeping, based on their trunk staying still for five minutes or more.

The two elephants were also fitted with a gyroscope to assess their sleeping position.

Both elephants were followed for five weeks, giving new insights into their natural sleep patterns.

"We had the idea that elephants should be the shortest sleeping mammal because they're the largest," said Prof Manger.

"Why this occurs, we're not really sure. Sleep is one of those really unusual mysteries of biology, that along with eating and reproduction, it's one of the biological imperatives. We must sleep to survive."

Dreaming sleep

Generally, smaller-bodied mammals sleep for longer than larger ones.

For example, sloths sleep for around 14 hours a day, while humans sleep for around 8 hours.

How elephants survive on so little sleep remains a mystery.

The researchers are planning follow-up studies on more elephants, including males.

They also want to find out more about REM sleep in elephants.

REM sleep is believed to be critical in laying down memories.

It is a type of sleep seen across the animal kingdom, in mammals and birds and even lizards.

Most mammals go into REM sleep every day.

Follow Helen on Twitter.

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Wild African elephants sleep for the shortest time of any mammal, according to a study. Scientists tracked two elephants in Botswana to find out more about the animals' natural sleep patterns. Elephants in zoos sleep for four to six hours a day, but in their natural surroundings the elephants rested for only two hours, mainly at night.

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Their ears are large to help keep them cool in the African heat. Asian elephants ears are smaller because it isn't as hot in their habitat.

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Billy the Asian elephant stands in one of the waterfalls at the Los Angeles Zoo

Credit: Los Angeles Zoo

To the untrained eye, African and Asian elephants can be indistinguishable, but there are key physical features that make these two species relatively easy to tell apart.

The most noticeable physical differences can be seen in the ears, tusks and head shapes of the two species, according to The Elephant Sanctuary, a natural-habitat refuge for endangered elephants located in Hohenwald, Tenn.
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African elephants have large ears, shaped much like the continent of Africa itself. The larger surface area of their ears helps to keep African elephants cool in the blazing African sun. Asian elephants have less to worry about heat-wise, as they tend to live in cool jungle areas, so their ears are smaller.

Asian and African elephants have very distinct head shapes. African elephants have fuller, more rounded heads, and the top of their head is a single dome. Asian elephants have a twin domed head with an indent in the middle.

The African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) lives in some 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Credit: Alicia Wirz/IUCN

There's another thing sets them apart: Only male Asian elephants grow tusks and even then, not all males will have them. In African elephants, both sexes generally (but not always) exhibit tusks.

Beyond these larger, more noticeable details, there are many other, smaller features that distinguish the two elephant species: number of toenails, how wrinkled their skin is, the feel of their trunk, and even the shape of their teeth.

Despite these physical differences, both species of elephant are very similar socially. Both species of elephant are herd animals living within defined social structures, according to the conservation group WWF. The herds are usually led by the oldest female, and are made up of her daughters, sisters and their offspring. Once they reach puberty, male calves leave the mother's herd and join other young males in bachelor groups. Older males tend to be solitary.

As Asian and African elephants do not come in contact in the wild, there has only been one incident of cross-breeding between the two species. In 1978, at the Chester Zoo in England, the Asian elephant cow Sheba gave birth to a calf with an African elephant bull named Jumbolino. Their calf was named Motty, who had features of both his parents. Sadly he was premature and died of stomach complications two weeks later, according to Dr. Derek Lyon, veterinarian in charge at Chester Zoo during Motty's birth..

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What's the Difference Between Asian and African Elephants?

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To the untrained eye, African and Asian elephants can be indistinguishable, but there are key physical features that make these two species relatively easy to tell apart. The most noticeable physical differences can be seen in the ears, tusks and head shapes of the two species, according to The Elephant Sanctuary, a natural-habitat refuge for endangered elephants located in Hohenwald, Tenn.