ELEPHANT FUN FACTS

(1) Elephants eat on average 300kg of food every 22 hours (they spend approximately two hours in every 24 resting)

(2) They only digest about 60% of the food they swallow, the rest passes through them into their dung – which they produce every hour

(3) Warthogs like to eat elephant dung as it’s full of part digested fibre – which is easier (i.e. requires less energy) for the Warthog to digest

(4) Masai people use dried elephant dung as a medicine for headaches – they add water and heat it and then inhale the vapours

(5) Between an elephants ear and eye is a secretion glad which drips water – this is how an elephant sweats

(6) An elephant’s ear print is as unique as a human fingerprint

(7) Elephants can smell water up to three miles away

(8) They can suck up between seven and nine litres in their trunk in one go

(9) If they can’t find open water, elephants will deep dig into the dry river bed to expose water below the surface

(10) Before the seeds of the Acacia tree can germinate they need to have been eaten and then excreted by an elephant