There are few things more special than spending a morning with elephants. Such intelligent and loving creatures. The lodge that we are staying at as about 16 elephants though at present only about 8 are here and the rest are in a different part of of the jungle, in west Nepal and one is off to compete in an elephant polo competition since she is a fast runner.
Our guide has been working with elephants for 17 years and is extremely knowledgable about them. Here's what we learnt this morning. Did you know that :
- an elephant eats about 770 pounds (350kg) of food a day
- drinks 40 gallons (150 liters) water a day
- cost US$55 to $60 thousand dollars to buy
- is pregnant for 21 months
- an elephants trunk can hold half its weight and there are 45 thousand muscles in its trunk….it'll take a while to massage it
- the trunk can hold 5 liters each time they suck up water
- The biggest female can weigh up to 6 tonnes and the biggest male 8 to 9 tonnes
- Every 3 years the owner cuts about 2 feet off the tusk. The tusk then grows back. This is to keep the elephant safe.
- It can live up to 85 to 90 years in captivity
- It can live up to 70 to 75 years in the wild
- To be healthy it needs to walk about 30 to 35kms a day and it normally walks at a pace of 5 km/h
- Baby elephant weighs about 80kgs at birth and is about 2.5 feet tall. It breast feeds 22 times a day
- If you measure the circumference of the foot and double the length of what you get you will know the height of the elephant…they showed us and it was true.
There you go. Now you know elephants!
Here are photos from our morning with them.
