THE BLUFFER'S GUIDE TO ELEPHANTS

Today is Elephant Appreciation Day so here are some facts about pachyderms.

❑ Elephants are pregnant for 22 months – the longest gestation period of any mammal.

❑ Their menstrual cycle lasts from three to four months – humans have a 28-day cycle.

❑ Lady elephants can get pregnant three or four times per year. But they can give birth up to the age of 50.

❑ Elephants are born blind and weigh up to 260lb at birth. They can walk an hour after being born.

❑ If a baby elephant dies, its mother can suffer depression and drag the corpse around behind her for days.

❑ Surprisingly, elephants are afraid of bees. Some farmers use beehives to deter elephants rather than electric fences.

❑ Dumbo (1941), Disney’s fourth cartoon feature film, was made to try to earn back losses on Pinocchio and Fantasia.

❑ Elephants have the longest eyelashes of any animal in the world – around five inches long.

❑ The oldest elephant lived to be 86. He was called Lin Wang and was recruited into the Japanese army during World War Two.

❑ The original version of Nellie The Elephant was released in 1956, sung by child actress Mandy Miller and produced by George Martin who would go on to produce The Beatles.

❑ Jumbo the elephant was a favourite attraction at London Zoo before he was sold to showman P.T. Barnum in 1882.

❑ Taken to America, Jumbo was killed in St Thomas, Ontario, Canada, on September 15, 1885, when he was hit by a train.

❑ An elephant’s trunk can weigh up to 400lb, has around 150,000 muscle units and can hold 1¾ gallons of water.

❑ There are three different species of elephant: African bush, African forest and Indian. African elephants have much larger ears than their Indian cousins.

❑ African bush elephants are the world’s largest land animals and can weigh up to seven tons.

❑ The “Blue Peter elephant” that stood on John Noakes’ foot and pooed in the studio on July 3, 1969, was called Lulu and lived at Chessington Zoo.

❑ Elephants can spend up to 16 hours a day eating.

❑ The elephant’s closest living relative is a creature called the hyrax, which has been described as looking like “a large guinea pig with a grouchy-looking overbite”.

❑ Known for crossing the Alps on elephants in 218 BC, only six of the beasts survived Hannibal’s trek and five of those died within a year of his arrival in Gaul.

❑ Elephants are the only mammals with four knees and the only ones that cannot jump.