Elephants??

Question

can you guys tell me some interesting stuff about them?

Answer 1

They are the largest land animal.
They gestate for 22 months (the longest of any land animal).
They mourn their dead.
They are symbols of wisdom in a lot of Asian cultures.
They have incredibly good memory skills.
Males engage in same sex bonding.
They have very structured societies.

That's all that I can think of off the top of my head. Google "elephant facts" and see what you get.

Answer 2

Ah, all very interesting points the other answerers gave you, but there are a few other things that ar truly remarkable about elephants that you might appreciate. For one, elephants have a wonderful way of communicating with one another using infrasound. These very low-frequency tones (5 - 30 Hz) cannot be heard by the human ear, unless you have a recording that is sped up. Katy Payne, daughter of the famous whale communication researcher Roger Payne, discovered infrasonic communication in elephants back in 1984 by recording elephants and analyzing the recordings.

The second, very recent finding I thought you might find interesting, is that elephants were found to actually recognize themselves in mirror images. Most animals will respond to their own mirror image as if they encounter a conspecific (a member of the same species). Some animals though have been found to recognize themselves when looking into a mirror. A very exciting study by Joshua Plotnik, Frans de Waal and Diana Reiss demonstrates that elephants indeed are capable of recognizing themselves in the mirror. Until last year only great apes and dolphins had shown self-recognition. Many researchers interpret mirror image self recognition (MSR) as a clear sign of self-awareness and possibly more (perhaps even self-consciousness).

Hope you find the papers interesting. If you prefer websites, check out: http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/ and http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/elephant/ELPFAQ.html.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

EARS:

They are the only wild animal with floppy ears. All other animals with floppy ears are domestic.


HOBBIT HOME:

On the island in indonesea where they found the "hobbitt" they also found tiny elephants.

MATING:

they have muscles in their penis which are actually fully functional muscle (unlike in humans where there are some muscle attachments but the penis itself is just spongey).

The purpose for this is that when they mate the male can't do much moving around or he'd break the female's legs. So he get's vaguely into the right possition then his penis moves like a great big snake to get where it needs to be.

Answer 4

They also seam to have aquatic mammals as ancestors since elephants are the only land mammals which have their testicles inside their body rather than in a scrotum as all the others.

Answer 5

Unlike other animals they cannot walk on three legs.

Answer 6

What I learned I can't tell you because it's a VERY LONG story!

Answer 7

Although they're really big, they can walk quietly because they have soft pads on their feet.

Answer 8

they are the only mammal that can not jump.