Elephants - Off The Wall

A friend suggested I write about elephants. Truth is, I don’t know a whole lot about them. They’re big. They live a long time. They’re smelly. My step-mom collects little statues of them. That’s about all I have. So, I researched and here are your off-the-wall elephant facts.

1. While our knuckles are on our hands, an elephant’s knuckles are the soft spots behind its ears.
2. Elephants only walk about 4 mph, can swim long distances, and are the only mammal that cannot jump.
3. They eat 16 hours a day totaling about 500 lbs of food and only have 4 teeth. So quit complaining about working 8 hours and making dinner.
4. Despite their size, elephants cannot see or hear very well.
5. During World War II, the very first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Poor elephant!
6. Their average heartbeat is 27 bpm. Comparatively, a canary’s is 1000.
7. They can purr.
8. There are 2 different “kinds”- African and Asian. I’m pretty sure you can figure out where the names come from. African elephants are larger.
9. Elephants poo about 80 kg a day, it can be used to make paper and does not smell. They don’t digest their food well, which is why they eat so much. 
10. An elephant's trunk can hold up to 2.5 gallons of water and will drink about 80 gallons a day. 2.5 gallons is about as much as a low-flow toilet uses per flush.

And because this was cooler than I thought it would be,  

10 Famous elephants and their (often very tragic) stories:

1. Dumbo – based on a real elephant named Jumbo Jr.
2.  Babar – the young elephant starring in a children’s book series.
3. Jumbo - P.T. Barum’s famous circus elephant.
4. Ruby - the artist elephant, born in the Phoenix Zoo. She painted and make thousands of dollars off her paintings. She died giving birth.
5. Mighty Mary - circus performer, the only known elephant hanged for killing her inexperienced keeper.
6. Topsy - tortured by handlers on Coney Island, she killed 3 of them and then was executed by Thomas Edison.
7. Norma Jean – struck by lightning and killed during a parade in Illinois.
8. Packy – the first Asian elephant born in the Western Hemisphere (Oregon) in 44 years.
9. Batyr – said to be able to talk like a human.
10. Ganesha – the Lord of Success, a Hindu Deity. Among the most revered Gods in Hinduism.