• An Elephant Never Forgets
• White Elephant
• The Elephant in the Room
• An Elephant in Cairo
• Eat an Elephant One Bite at a Time

In many ways, elephants are similar to dogs. When trained early, elephants can understand commands, follow a comfortable routine, and develop strong bonds with humans. These are the most magical relationships, and elephants will not shy away from showing affection to the people they are most comfortable around.

Keep in mind that an elephant is not a pet, they're not bred to crave human affection like a domesticated dog (or, when it's in a good mood, a cat). That being said, individual preferences vary from elephant to elephant. Some love a scratch under the chin, others like a nice back rub.

People are likely drawn to elephants because elephants develop deep social bonds and are intelligent, caring animals, says stanford university medical school assistant professor caitlin o'connell-rodwell, who is a world-renowned expert on social structure and behavior.

Just like humans, elephants also can be empathetic. It has been recorded that elephants are one of the world's most empathetic animals. Empathy means that one can sense others' emotions and understand what they are feeling. Elephants have been known to recognize and respond to other elephants' pain and sadness.

They are highly intelligent animals with complex emotions, feelings, compassion and self-awareness (elephants are one of very few species to recognize themselves in a mirror!). The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months. That's almost 2 years, the longest pregnancy of any mammal.

One characteristic that is really apparent with elephants—and with many other species—is that they can exude a wide variety of personalities. They can be bold or shy, laid-back or short-tempered, curious or afraid, and the list goes on.

An elephant has a very large brain for its size and the 'temporal lobe' region responsible for memory is more developed with a greater number of folds – this results in powerful abilities to 'download' important survival data such as where to find food and water, and who is friend or foe.

They are highly intelligent animals with complex emotions, feelings, compassion and self-awareness (elephants are one of very few species to recognize themselves in a mirror.

Elephant can be referred as “keystone species” because it facilitates feeding by other herbivores that disperse seeds and supports large assemblages of invertebrates, such as dung beetles, and lower plants such as algae and fungi apart from enriching soil nutrients through dung piles.

The largest populations are in southern and eastern african countries, including botswana, zimbabwe, tanzania, kenya, namibia, zambia, and south africa. As a result of their visibility within the open areas where they live, african savanna elephants are well studied and populations are easily estimated.

Because they are real herbivores and can actually digest cellulose extracting nutrients from plants which carnivores can't. They have to eat nearly the entire day to get the nutrients they need from plants and shrubs, whereas carnivores can make a kill once and eat only a couple of times a day to get their nutrients.

Parks with most fared best, with each elephant calculated to increase the number of tourist visits nearly five-fold. And then there's the average amount each visitor spends in and around the area on top of that. This adds up to around us$25 million per year – money lost should elephants disappear.

There are approximately 50 captive elephants total in south america. Because of brazil's central location, we are able to provide sanctuary to elephants from surrounding countries, offering solace to elephants throughout the continent.

Historically, elephants were classified into two species, the african ( ) and asian (elephas maximus) elephants.

Once common throughout africa and asia, elephant populations have experienced significant declines over the last century. The greatest threat to african elephants is poaching for the illegal , while populations are most at risk from habitat loss and resulting human-elephant conflict.

• A proboscis or trunk
• Relatively large ears
• Long tusks
• Columnar legs
• Thick skin (pachydermous
• Lack of hair on most of adult body

There are two species of elephant: the (with the official name ) and the asian (elephas maximus) elephant.