Elephant Facts
- At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were a few million African elephants roaming in the wild. Today that number has fallen to an estimated 415,000.
- Elephants develop family bonds that are very tight and live in matriarchal family groups of females that are related to one another called a herd. The oldest and usually largest female in the herd in known as the matriarch.
- When a calf is born it is raised and protected by the whole herd. Male elephants leave the herd when they reach the age of between 12 -15 and usually lead solitary lives.
- Elephants can live to be 70 years old even in the wild.
- When an elephant calf is born it can weigh as much as 230 pounds.