After a week of talking about Sri Lanka and elephants, it’s unsurprising that this weeks “things I know” is about elephants.

• Elephants are the largest land mammal
• Elephants are highly intelligent and social creatures
• Elephants mourn death and celebrate birth
• The African elephant is bigger than the Asian Elephant and has much bigger ears
• Big ears do not mean good hearing. The ears are used as a cooling system as well as to signal or warn when angry or alarmed

• Their eyes are small and their eyesight isn’t that good either
• The trunk is amazing and can be used for a range of things from tearing down trees to picking berries. Trunks are touched and twisted together in greeting and affection
• They can swim for long distances
• They have the largest brains of all the animals
• Elephants spend up to 16 hours each day eating
• They are herbivores, eating leaves, fruit, grass and even bark and twigs
• Eating a lot means a lot of poo
• I bought many souvenirs made of recycled elephant poo

A selection of things made from elephant crap

Linking up with “Things I Know” with Singular Insanity