Art by Elephants

Asian Elephant Information and Facts

Elephant Facts on their Size:

•    Large bull elephants can weigh 5,400kg and Measure 10ft
•    Female elephants can weigh 4,160kg and measure
•    Elephant Trunks have 60,000 muscles they consist of longitudinal and radiating sets- explaining their flexibility.
•    The trunk length can be between 1.5 metres and 2 metres long
•    Elephant trunks can hold up to 300kg in weight
•    Elephant trunks can hold up to 4 litres of water and any one time.
•    Elephants use their trunks to play and wrestle, but only for gesturing and antagonizing when genuinely fighting

In Thailand the elephant is held in prestigious regard, it is a scared animal that was mounted for battle and used for integral industries like agriculture and farming. There is a famous proverb in Thailand that a marriage is like an elephant: the husband is the front legs’, providing the direction and the wife is back legs providing the power.

Elephant Information on their Tusks:

•    Elephant Tusks are used for digging for salt, water and rocks they are also used for debarking trees and as a weapon.
•    Elephants are known to left or right tusked.
•    Females don’t have prominent tusk, although they do have them, usually seen when they open their mouth- they are referred to as “tushes”.

Elephants are sacred animals in Thailand so a special elephant day was designated by cabinet, the special day in March 13th and it is held annually, it was brought in a decade after logging was made officially illegal

Elephant Information on their Status:

•    Elephants are recognised as the official animal of Thailand
•    The previous Thai flag had a picture of an elephant on it.
•    At the start of the 20th century there were 100,000 elephants in Thailand.
•    Elephants are called “Chang” in Thai. They have a drinks company and even a letter in the alphabet named after them.

Elephant Facts on their Intelligence

Elephants are reported to go to safer ground during natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes, there are video’s of elephants and other animals going to higher ground prior to the tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004.

•    Elephant’s frontal region of the brain is shaped much like humans, apes and some dolphin species’- it is associated with special awareness, conscious thought sensory perception and language.
•    The most expensive elephant painting sold for $39,000 on the 19th February 2005.