Elephantidae

Hello dears!

Today I'm going to talk to you about my favourite animal: the elephant.

First of all, I've learnt just preparing this post that the classical classification Pachydermata, giving rise to the name "paquidermo", is now invalid.

Elephants are now the largest living land animals in Earth. Their gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth, an elephant calf typically weighs 105 kilograms. They typically live for 50 to 70 years. The average male African elephant shoulder height it’s about 2.9 meters.

Healthy adult elephants have no natural predators, although lions may take calves or weak individuals. However, they are threatened by human intrusion and poaching… some stupid people hunt elephants in Africa for fun, as the King of Spain… do you remember?

One of their characteristics that I like the most, it's that elephants live in a structured social order. The male and female elephant’s social lives are very different. The females spend their entire lives in tightly knit family groups made up of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These groups are led by the eldest female, or matriarch. Adult males, on the other hand, live mostly solitary lives.

The elephant brains are the largest of any other land animal in the world. Many behaviors associated with intelligence have been attributed to elephants, as mourning, altruism, adoption, board, use of tools, compassion and self-recognition

I'd really like to have an elephant as a pet, but, obviously, this is impossible! However, I hope to one day go in Africa and know them personally and in their natural environment

Well, I guess that's all for today. Have all a very nice week-end!