“If anyone wants to know what elephants are like,
they are like people only more so.”

Peter Corneille

The elephant is surely the most majestic of beasts, revered throughout the centuries across cultures spanning far outside its wild habitat. Everyone knows of the 37 elephants Hannibal brought over the Alps in his bold attack of the Roman empire. And then there is the ubiquitous game of chess, in which the elephant preceded the bishop for centuries as its direct equivalent.

They are fiendishly intelligent creatures, ranking most likely in the top ten of all animals for cognitive capacities- and the African variety overtakes its Asian counterpart here. Their memory is famous (and for good reason too), they are adept at tool use, can most likely recognize themselves in a mirror, and have even been known to display amateur artistic skills when the need arises.

In other words, you’d better take your manners with you when addressing an elephant. Not only are they incredibly intelligent, a 7 ton jumbo isn’t the type to cross! Oh- and an incidental word of warning, in case the situation should arise… if an elephant does take offence and charge you, then you’re pretty well screwed. What’s most important is that you look at its ears- and you’d best hope that they’re flapping like mad, because if not you’ll soon be a human pancake.

And because life’s too short, and I simply don’t have the time to put everything down in such eloquent form, then here are some final amazing elephant facts to brighten up your day:

w   The skulls of elephants probably gave rise to the myth of the cyclops (they have a large cavity in the front, which looks like an eye socket).

w   Elephants can hear better with one foot off the ground.

w   Baby elephants such their trunks for comfort.

w   The elephant shrew is closer genetically to elephants than it is to shrews.

w   Over 61 species live in elephant footprints.

w   Elephants can be left or right ‘handed.’

w   Elephants will sometimes stick their trunk into another’s mouth like a dummy to comfort them.

w   The traditional Victorian way of sobering up an elephant was to feed them three pounds of melted butter.

w   Elephants are better than dogs at sniffing out TNT.