Facts about adult elephants

The eyesight of elephants is poor but they have an acute sense of smell and are able to hear sound waves well below the limit of human hearing.

Elephants may live 70 years or more. Females and their offspring's generally live in family units of 6 to 20 animals ruled by an older female, 'the matriarch'. The family unit will split if it gets too big, the availability of food is reduced or there is conflict in the family.

When the matriarch dies, one of the oldest female offspring's will take over.

Life for a male is very different. Adolescent males begin to distance themselves from the herd. They form bachelor herds and spend the rest of their lives establishing a place in the male social order.

Elephants become sexually mature between the ages of 8 and 13 years

Females will produce a single calf and sometimes twins. The interval between birth is between 2 and 4 years.

The day to day life of an elephant has a great impact on the environmental. As much as 80% of what they consume is returned to the soil as highly fertile manure which is full of seeds. They modify the environment by converting savannah and woodlands to grassland and they provide water for other species by digging water holes in dry river beds