5 Fascinating Facts About the African Elephant

By Mike Unwin

This immense herbivore needs very little introduction. The African elephant is not only the biggest of the Big Five, but it is also the biggest land animal on the planet. Quite apart from its size, no animal with ears like kitchen tables and a nose that can pull down trees should pose much of an identification problem. Meanwhile, its complex lifestyle and social behavior continue to baffle scientists. Here are a few bits of intriguing info on the African elephant.

An African elephant is right- or left-tusked, just as people are right- or left-handed. The preferred tusk is generally the blunter and shorter one, hence this is the tusk that gets worn down by doing most of the work.
A female elephant gives birth only once every five years, after a gestation period of 22 months. This slow breeding rate explains why elephants devote so much care and attention to their offspring.
Elephants can communicate across distances of up to 5km, using low-frequency rumbles, known as infrasound. These sounds are below the limit of human hearing.
It is no myth that elephants ‘never forget’. These intelligent mammals possess a developed sense of memory that allows them to recognize a long-lost member of their social group. Additionally, they even grieve for dead relatives and harbor grudges against other elephants – or even people.
Most scientists now recognize two distinct species of African elephant: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). The latter inhabits equatorial forest regions and is smaller in size, has more rounded ears and straighter tusks.