How Much Do Elephants Eat & Other Incredible Facts

Did you know elephants are one of the few animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror?

These intelligent creatures are self-aware and emotionally complex.

When a baby elephant is born, the entire herd celebrates. When the baby elephant cries, the herd will caress and soothe it with their trunks.

Thailand is home to thousands of elephants, including both wild and domesticated herds.

The domesticated elephants live in camps where they are cared for by mahouts or trainers.

Many of these camps depend on tourism revenue to finance the daily care for the elephants.

Domesticated elephants are unable to find food on their own, and the drop in tourism numbers amidst pandemic restrictions has made it impossible for the elephant camps to the cover the costs of elephant feed.

How Much Do Elephants Eat?

Elephants eat several types of plants and fruits, consuming 10 percent of their body weight each day.

In other words, a fully-grown elephant can eat as much as 300 pounds of food in one day!

On average, the cost of feeding one elephant is $1600 to $3600 per month, depending on the animal’s size and quality of the food.

Fortunately, hemp is a fast-growing crop with byproducts that can be processed into elephant food and many other industrial applications.

Other Amazing Facts about Elephants

Elephants are fascinating animals in more ways than one. Here are several fun facts, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF):

  1. 1
    Elephants are the world’s largest land animal.
  2. 2
    The two species of elephant include African and Asian elephant, which you can tell apart by their ears.
  3. 3
    Elephants have approximately 150,000 muscles in their trunk! They can also use their trunk as a snorkel while swimming.
  4. 4
    Elephants use their tusks to break edible bark off trees or to dig up roots. Their tusks also serve as a defensive tool.
  5. 5
    Elephant skin is about 2.5cm thick, and all those folds and wrinkles retain water to help cool them down.
  6. 6
    Speaking of skin, elephants like to take mud baths to protect again sunburn.
  7. 7
    Remember all that food elephants like to eat? It’s not uncommon for these animals to spend three-quarters of the day filling their bellies.
  8. 8
    Elephants communicate in several ways: trumpet calls, body language, touch, smell – and seismic vibrations, which they detect through the ground.
  9. 9
    Newborn elephant calves can stand within 20 minutes after being born. After an hour, they’re already walking!
  10. 10
    Elephants have a very large temporal lobe, which leaves them with incredible memories.
  11. 11
    Asian elephant populations have declined by at least 50 percent over the last three generations.