Elephants Trivia Quiz

Answer: African elephants have bigger ears

African elephants have much bigger ears than the Indian elephants, and also have a concave back, which Indian elephants do not. In fact it is the Indian cousin who is hairier. The diet of the animals tends to vary with the terrain and they eat the plant matter that is available.

Answer: True

African elephants weigh up to 6350 kg with a shoulder height of 2.5 to 4 metres. However the Asian elephants weigh up to 4990 kg. and their shoulder height is 2-3 metres.

Answer: Yes they can swim long distances

Elephants use their trunks as snorkels so that they can swim in deep water. In Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe they passed knowledge down through the generations of what were originally land routes, and now that those routes are under water they will still swim along them.

Answer: 22 months

It takes approximately twenty two months from conception before a baby elephant is born. There used to be an urban myth that the gestation period was nine years but this was untrue. They normally mate in the rainy season and produce one calf. Occasionally twins may be born but this is uncommon.

Answer: The females are social but the males are not

Elephants live in large family groups of females and youngsters, led by a matriarch. There are usually about twenty animals in the group. The generations interact with one another and aunts and older sisters help to care for the babies. The male elephants tend to live alone except for mating.

Answer: All of these

Poaching of elephants for the ivory of their tusks is rife and a great danger to the animals survival. The areas where elephants live are becoming increasingly hot and dry which makes for inferior foraging material, and humans are encroaching on the elephants' habitat. Also poaching for the ivory of their tusks is rife and a great danger to the animals.

Answer: 4000 years

Asian elephants were put to work hauling lumber, transporting crops and even carrying weapons into war. There are still many working elephants today but gradually the farmers are preferring to use tractors instead. When the elephants are retired they are too dependent and too tame to be released into the wild, and they are often used in the tourist industry. Elephants are also important in many religious ceremonies.

Answer: Mahout

This work runs in families and boys begin to learn the job at quite a young age. They look after the elephant washing, feeding and checking that it is healthy. They ride the elephant and supervise the work it does. There is often a strong and loving relationship between a mahout and his elephant.

Answer: Every five years

They give birth approximately every five years after a gestation period of twenty two months. The labour lasts for several days and they usually finally give birth at night. This is thought to provide a more peaceful atmosphere. As soon as the baby is born the mother begins to encourage it to stand on its feet. Sometimes the rest of the herd will give the mother and child privacy by making a circle around it.

Answer: 2008

There has been a great decline in the number of wild elephants largely caused by the poaching of the animals for their tusks. Botswana has more wild elephants than any other country in the world. In 1989 there was a worldwide ban on the ivory trade, and for a while it worked, but in 2007 African countries were allowed to auction off stockpiles of tusks and this led to a revival in the sale of ivory.

In some countries fashionable people see ivory as a status symbol.