1. Like all highly social mammals elephants have a well-developed system of communication that makes use of all of their senses – hearing, smell, vision and touch. This includes an exceptional ability to detect vibrations.

2. Elephants communicate over great distances – up to perhaps 10 kilometres or more. They convey information about their physiological and emotional state, as well as their intentions or desires.

3. Calves can continue to drink from their mothers (while also eating vegetation) until the age of three years; in some cases 5 years, although the norm is 2 years. If a nursing mother dies, her calf may be adopted by other nursing mothers.

4. The survival of females and their offspring depends upon the cohesion and co-ordination of the extended family. Their use of signals underlines the importance of the unit. They use active communication to reinforce bonds between relatives, reassure youngsters, reconcile differences between family and friends, form coalitions against aggressors, and keep in contact over long distances.

5. Well-known for their intelligence, close family ties and social complexity, elephants remember for years other individuals and places. They live in a fluid fission-fusion society with relationships radiating out from the mother-offspring bond through families, bond groups, clans, independent males and populations. 

6. Elephants have strong individual personalities that affect how they interact with other elephants, how others perceive them, and how well they are able to influence members of their group. Some elephants are popular while others are not. Some elephants show great leadership qualities, others do not; some are kind and outgoing, others are more self-absorbed.

7. Matriarchs are generally the oldest and largest adult female member of a family and usually they are very closely related to the previous matriarch

8. Matriarchs express their dominance in both competitive and cooperative situations. Matriarchs have been traditionally thought of as rather autocratic, making most decisions and leading a rather docile group of “followers”.

9. Whenever they reach water, which may be daily, or in drier areas only every third or fourth day, they bathe, either spraying themselves or lying down in the water. Sometimes they submerge completely, with only the tip of the trunk showing. They are very relaxed in water, and move through it either by swimming or by walking on the bottom while using their trunks as a ‘snorkel’.

10. Elephants have a thick layer of cartilage under their feet, which functions as a shock absorber: when on the ground, the soles splay out, and when the foot is lifted, they shrink: this enables the elephant to walk without making a sound, in spite of its great size. Although elephants can run at a speed of about 40 km/hr, its vast bulk prevents it from jumping over even a small ditch.

11. The trunk is an amazing organ of extreme dexterity: it is the single most important feature of an elephant, and gives the Order Proboscidea its name. It is actually a fusion between the nose and upper lip, and consists of some 100 000 muscle units, which allow the elephant to move the trunk with such a wide range of movement.

12. Elephants use their trunks to, among other things: breathe through, smell with, to pick up water to drink (the trunk can hold 8.5 litres), to pick leaves, fruit, etc., either off trees or off the ground, to cover themselves with mud, water or dust, and to communicate with each other, via touch, smell and the production of sound.

13. African elephants spend about two thirds of their time feeding, and consume about eight percent of their body weight daily – generally about 200 – 250 kg of food each day, depending on their body weight. They often uproot small trees and severely damage large ones in their quest for food, thereby modifying their habitat.

14. Apart from food, elephants require large amounts of water, will cover vast distances in order to reach it, and will drink at least once a day, and sometimes several times a day. They also require salt and other minerals, and often dig for minerals in rich soil: they also prefer water that contains large amounts of minerals, and will drink selectively from different waterholes.

15. Elephants deposit large amounts of dung each day, which plays a major role in the recycling of nutrients. Many seeds not only get dispersed by elephants, but have a greater chance of successful germination after passing through an elephant gut.

16. Elephants are very vocal creatures: they rumble, squeak, trumpet, gurgle and chirp, as well as communicating with body language, such as by shaking the head, spreading the ears, raising the trunk etc. Much of their communication cannot be heard by humans, as they make low frequency rumbling noises that can travel for kilometres.

17. Elephants have an acute sense of smell, and communicate by smell and touch – often one elephant will place its trunk into another’s mouth in order to greet it or reassure it in moments of stress. Elephants also often raise the trunk in order to test the air. Compared to the size of their heads, elephant’s have small eyes with long lashes, and their sense of sight is fairly poor.

18. Family groups are the basis of elephant society, and consist of herds of females. A group can be as small as 3 or 4, or as large as 25 or more, although in times of plenty several family groups may join together to form large herds, sometimes containing hundreds of individuals.

19. Adult bull elephants go through musth, a specific reproductive condition, about once a year, and this state may last for only a few days, or for three months or longer. The musth glands, or temporal glands, swell and secrete a liquid: this can often be seen as a thick secretion running down the side of the elephants face.

20. Musth bulls often issue a specific low rumble, which is often answered by a female calling back. Older bulls may actually cause suppression of musth in younger bulls. There is evidence to suggest that musth is a reliable indicator of good condition, as African elephant bulls in poor condition do not come into musth, and wounded bulls may drop out of musth.

21. Cows usually begin reproducing between the ages of ten and twelve. They produce a single calf at four to five year intervals, and may continue breeding until about fifty. A large family group can include four generations, and cows do not usually become matriarchs until they are 40 or 50.

22. Elephant calves are usually born during the early summer. A central bond is that between mother and calf, and mother elephants care for their young longer than any other animal, with the exception of humans and some whales.

23. Pregnancy lasts nearly two years, and at birth the calf weighs roughly 100 kg, and stands just under three feet at the shoulder.