40 Amazing Facts About Elephants

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

22. Elephants bury their dead and will revisit graves generations later. They’ve been known to also bury humans that have passed away. – Source

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

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

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

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

27. Japan’s oldest elephant died after spending 60 years alone in an enclosure devoid of grass, trees, or other elephants. – Source

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

29. Marc Gross uses Google Earth and drones to shoot elephants with Capsaicin paintballs, deterring them from poachers. – Source

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

Image credit: worldwildlife

31. “Extinct” Pygmy elephants have been found living on Borneo. – Source

32. In 2004, an elephant charged and killed a mother and her child, then proceeded to bury their bodies before leaving the scene. – Source

33. The signature TIE fighter roar is a combination of an elephant call and a car driving on wet pavement. – Source

34. Elephants have a sound they make exclusively when they find a place infested with bees. It’s called a “bee rumble.” – Source

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

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36. The first circus elephant in the United States was shot and killed by a religious fanatic who thought it was sinful for people to pay to see an animal. – Source

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

38. Elephants can distinguish different human languages and know which ones belong to people with a history of confrontation with elephants. – Source

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

40. Elephant shrews are closely related to elephants than to shrews. – Source