Yahoo Autos Today is Elephant Appreciation Day — here are 18 surprising facts about elephants
Elephant Appreciation Day is September 22.
To celebrate, we picked 18 fun facts about the largest land mammal.
For example, they "hug" their trunks to say hello to each other.
An elephant's trunk weighs 400 pounds, but it can pick up things as small as a single grain of rice.
Elephants use their trunk for everything! Drinking, eating, smelling, and communicating are all done by the trunk.
Elephants can recognize themselves in the mirror. They join humans, apes, and dolphins as the only animals with self awareness.
"This would seem to be a trait common to and independently evolved by animals with large, complex brains, complex social lives and known capacities for empathy and altruism, even though the animals all have very different kinds of brains," researcher Dana Reiss told LiveScience.
They are afraid of bees. Farmers even use beehives to deter elephants from coming onto their land.
Some farms in Asia and Africa are using bees instead of life-threatening electric fences, the New York Times reported.
Elephants can have babies until they're 50 years old.
Similarly to humans, giving birth at that age is rare, but some elephants have even given birth in their 60s.
Elephants are pregnant for 22 months — it's the longest gestation period of any mammal.
And their menstrual cycle lasts from three to four months, as opposed to the 28-day cycle in humans. That means they only have the possibility of getting pregnant three or four times per year.
Elephants are born blind.
They also suck their trunks for comfort, like humans suck their thumbs.
They also weigh up to 260 pounds at birth.
Imagine giving birth to that.
The oldest elephant lived to be 86.
His name was Lin Wang, and he was drafted into the Japanese army during World War II.
They "hug" their trunks to say hello to each other.
Elephants, they're just like us.
