Elephants love reunions. They recognize one another after years and years of separation and greet each other with wild, boisterous joy. There's bellowing and trumpeting, ear flapping and rubbing. Trunks entwine.
Elephants are the world's largest land mammals, and aside from humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans--the most intelligent. While elephants in South Africa are not considered endangered, they are designated "vulnerable" due to habitat loss and poaching for the ivory found in their tusks.
Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Elephants are the world's largest land mammals, and aside from humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans--the most intelligent. While elephants in South Africa are not considered endangered, they are designated "vulnerable" due to habitat loss and poaching for the ivory found in their tusks.
The largest elephant ever recorded was 3.9 meters (more than 7.5 feet) tall, weighing 10,400kg (11.5 tons)! In order to grow such girth elephants rarely sleep, but consume some 150 kg (330 lbs.) of grass, leaves, woody parts of trees and shrubs, flowers and fruits (when available) 18-20 hours per day.
Because elephants eat everything in their path so many hours a day, leaving a ravaged landscape in their wake, and because male elephants in musth (heat) wander around angry and rumbling, elephants are also feared as aggressive and dangerous. But the truth is, elephants, the largest land animals on the planet, are among the most emotionally expressive of creatures--know to express joy, anger, grief, compassion, and yes, love.
joyful greeting
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