Facts about Elephants
Did you know elephants can't jump? This is because they stand on their toes and their feet are slender to propel their enormous weight upwards.
Baby elephants lose their first set of teeth and tusks, just like humans.
African elephants are keystone species, also known as “ecosystem engineers,” elephants shape their habitat in many ways. During the dry season, they use their tusks to dig up dry riverbeds and create watering holes many animals can drink from. Their dung is full of seeds, helping plants spread across the environment and it makes pretty good habitat for dung beetles too.
In the forest, their feasting on trees and shrubs creates pathways for smaller animals to move through and in the savanna, they uproot trees and eat saplings, which helps keep the landscape open for zebras and other plains animals.
Elephants also have an amazing memory meaning they do not forget anything and this is very helpful because they do not forget the routes used during migration and also where water sources are found.
Elephants are matriarchal, meaning they live in female-led groups. The matriarch is usually the biggest and oldest. She presides over a multi generational herd that includes other females, called cows, and their young. Adult males, called bulls, tend to roam on their own, sometimes forming smaller, more loosely associated allmale groups.
More facts in the national Geographic documentary on African elephants.
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