---
title: "40 Amazing Facts About Elephants"
url: https://www.kickassfacts.com/40-amazing-elephant-facts/
date: 2017-01-09
modified: 2017-01-09
lang: en
author: "Admin"
description: "Here are 40 amazing Elephant facts. 1. Elephants are excellent swimmers. They swim submerged underwater using their trunks as snorkels. African elephants have been recorded swimming 48km. They can swim..."
categories:
  - "Animals & Plants"
  - "Fact List"
image: https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-facts.jpg
word_count: 1239
---

# 40 Amazing Facts About Elephants

Here are 40 amazing Elephant facts.

[![swimming-elephant](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/swimming-elephant.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/swimming-elephant.jpg)

1. Elephants are excellent swimmers. They swim submerged underwater using their trunks as snorkels. African elephants have been recorded swimming 48km. They can swim 6 hours nonstop then rest without sinking. - [Source](http://www.wildanimalpark.org/can-elephants-swim/)

2. An elephant’s ability to smell water is so refined; they can sometimes detect water sources from as much as 12 miles away. - [Source](http://seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-infobooks/elephants/senses/)

3. In the same way that [humans](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-humans/) tend to be right-handed or left-handed, elephants can be right-tusked or left-tusked. Their dominant tusk is easy to identify because it will be more worn down than the less dominant tusk, according to the World Wildlife Fund. - [Source](http://www.livescience.com/27320-elephants.html)

4. Elephants console one another when they are upset with gentle touches and trunk strokes. Previously, only humans, great apes and birds in the raven family were known to do this. - [Source](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-elephants-console-one-another-when-times-get-tough-180949830/)

5. Beehive fences are used to deter elephants by taking advantage of their natural fear of bees and have reduced conflicts between humans and elephants with an 85% success rate. - [Source](http://animals.oreilly.com/elephants-and-bees/)

[![elephant-human-pointing](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-human-pointing.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-human-pointing.jpg)

6. Elephants are one of the few animals who can understand human pointing, without any training. - [Source](http://www.wired.co.uk/article/elephant-pointing)

7. Baby elephants suck their trunks for comfort just like human babies suck their thumb. - [Source](http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/yes-baby-elephants-do-suck-their-trunks)

8. Elephants know to come to humans for help and can find us even over long distances. - [Source](https://www.thedodo.com/elephants-travel-humans-help-1353631970.html)

9. When Lawrence Anthony, an international conservationist famously known as the ‘Elephant Whisperer’, died, some of the elephants he worked to save came to his family’s home in accordance with the way elephants usually mourn the death of one of their own. - [Source](http://delightmakers.com/news/wild-elephants-gather-inexplicably-mourn-death-of-elephant-whisperer/)

10. In Cologne, Germany it is common to donate your used [Christmas](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-interesting-facts-christmas/) trees to the local zoo. An elephant can eat up to 3 of these trees a day and can also use them to clean their teeth. - [Source](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2892664/So-s-rid-Christmas-tree-Elephants-use-spruce-branches-clean-teeth-German-zoo.html)

[![aggressive-elephant](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/aggressive-elephant.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/aggressive-elephant.jpg)

11. Elephants killed around 605 people in Assam, [India](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-india-part-1-of-2/) b/w 1994-2006. In South Africa, 3 elephants killed 63 rhinos. Biologists think increased elephant aggression is the result of species-wide trauma from poaching and habitat loss, and direct trauma for those who saw family members murdered before their eyes. - [Source](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&)

12. War pigs were used in ancient warfare, to counter against war elephants, which feared the pigs and would bolt. War pigs were sometimes lit on fire to enhance this effect. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_pig)

13. When elephants ‘dance’, they are mentally ill and depressed from confinement and restriction from freedom and socializing. - [Source](http://www.upali.ch/stereotypicbehaviour_en.html)

14. Elephants are the only mammal other than humans which have chins. - [Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chin)

15. Despite elephant's massive size compared to humans, they are 5 times less likely to die of cancer due to them having at least 40 copies of TP53, a gene that destroys cancer cells before they become a problem, versus 2 in humans. - [Source](http://www.livescience.com/52432-elephants-cancer-resistance.html)

[![ben-elephant-waiting-near-lodge](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ben-elephant-waiting-near-lodge.jpeg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ben-elephant-waiting-near-lodge.jpeg)Image credit: Bumi Hills Foundation.

16. A 30-year-old elephant named Ben once sought help from Safari lodge after being shot by poachers. Ben patiently waited for six hours near the lodge for the vet to fly in and dress his 3 bullet wounds. - [Source](http://www.news.com.au/news/wounded-elephant-seeks-help-from-safari-lodge-after-being-shot-by-poachers/news-story/f3680af272bca3057ed360a762c03c3c)

17. Elephants don't have a scrotum, their testicles are placed slightly behind their kidneys where the ovaries of a female would be situated.

18. Due to the high intelligence and strong family ties of elephants, some researchers argue it is morally wrong for humans to cull them. - [Source](http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Journal%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Zimbabwe/vol29n1/juz029001007.pdf)

19. On worldwide average, 96 elephants are killed per day. - [Source](http://www.adaptt.org/killcounter.html)

20. When going to the battle, Rajputs would fashion false trunks for their horses, making them appear to be baby elephants which the enemy’s elephants instinctively would not attack. - [Source](http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/play/horses-bred-fight-elephants-630647)

[![elephant-sized-sloth](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-sized-sloth.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-sized-sloth.jpg)

21. An elephant-sized sloth existed and went extinct only 10,000 years ago. It was one of the largest land mammals, measuring up to 6m (20ft) and weighing 4 tons. - [Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium)

22. Elephants bury their dead and will revisit graves generations later. They’ve been known to also bury humans that have passed away. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition)

23. The original Price Is Right gave a contestant a real elephant as a gag prize and planned later to give the winner $4,000 instead. The winner complained and demanded an elephant as promised. The show finally conceded and delivered it to the contestant’s home in Texas. - [Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_Is_Right_%281956_U.S._game_show%29#Bloopers)

24. Elephants not only tend to grieve for their dead, they also have the ability to recognize skulls of other elephants. They examine the remains with their feet and trunks, paying special attention to the skulls and tusks of even long-dead elephants. - [Source](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1031_051031_elephantbones.html)

25. It has been theorized that the myth of the Cyclops came about when Greeks discovered dwarf elephant skulls and misinterpreted the trunk cavity as a single eye socket. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclops#Origins)

[![elephant-lifting-logs](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-lifting-logs.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/elephant-lifting-logs.jpg)

26. An elephant in India, while helping villagers lift logs, refused to lower a log into a certain hole because a dog was sleeping in it. Only after the dog was chased away would the elephant lower the log into the hole. - [Source](http://www.natureinstitute.org/pub/ic/ic5/elephant.htm)

27. [Japan](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-japan-part1/)’s oldest elephant died after spending 60 years alone in an enclosure devoid of grass, trees, or other elephants. - [Source](https://www.thedodo.com/hanako-loneliest-elephant-died-1822133727.html)

28. The Book of Mormon suggests that there was no evidence of donkeys, cattle, horses, oxen, sheep, pigs, goats, elephants, wheat, barley, figs, silk, brass, steel, scimitars and chariots in Pre-Columbian America. None of them existed in America before Columbus. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_authenticity_of_the_Book_of_Mormon#Archaeology)

29. Marc Gross uses Google Earth and drones to shoot elephants with Capsaicin paintballs, deterring them from poachers. - [Source](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/10/google-earth-kenya-maasai-mara-elephants-drones-ipad)

30. Union army general John Sedgwick once said to his men under enemy fire: “Why are you dodging like this? They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” He was shot dead instantly.  - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick#Death)

[![pygamy-elephants](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/pygamy-elephants.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/pygamy-elephants.jpg)Image credit: worldwildlife

31. “Extinct” Pygmy elephants have been found living on Borneo. - [Source](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080423-pygmy-elephants.html)

32. In 2004, an elephant charged and killed a mother and her child, then proceeded to bury their bodies before leaving the scene. - [Source](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3818833.stm)

33. The signature TIE fighter roar is a combination of an elephant call and a car driving on wet pavement. - [Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIE_fighter#Origin_and_design)

34. Elephants have a sound they make exclusively when they find a place infested with bees. It’s called a “bee rumble.” - [Source](http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2007/10/09-02.html)

35. Elephants are all evolving smaller tusks due to selection pressure put against the large tusked males by ivory poachers, which allows small tusked males to produce more calves. - [Source](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3322455/Why-elephants-are-not-so-long-in-the-tusk.html)

[![old-bet-elephant](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/old-bet-elephant.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/old-bet-elephant.jpg)[Image source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bet#/media/File:Elephant_Hotel_2007.jpg)

36. The first circus elephant in the [United States](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-usa/) was shot and killed by a religious fanatic who thought it was sinful for people to pay to see an animal. - [Source](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bet)

37. After mature male bull elephants are sent off to fend for themselves they do not become lone wanderers detached from any community. The males travel together, drink together and form friendships that, like human relationships, may change with the seasons or last a lifetime. - [Source](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/elephants-male-bonding-rituals-pachyderm-posse-180954818/)

38. Elephants can distinguish different human languages and know which ones belong to people with a history of confrontation with elephants. - [Source](http://www.nature.com/news/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies-1.14846)

39. After the opening of the New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, a rumor came about that the Bridge was unstable and was going to collapse. To prove it was safe, P.T. Barnum led 21 elephants across it on May 17, 1884. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge#Opening)

40. Elephant shrews are closely related to elephants than to shrews. - [Source](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/elephant-shrews-are-oddly-related-actual-elephants)