Happy World Elephant Day
Elephants were the travel inspiration for our founder Cindy. Her great grandfather collected elephant figurines from all over the world. So many in fact we actually made the news with his collection. She loved hearing the tales of where the elephants came from and knew that when she was old enough she wanted to see these places in person. Her great grandfather’s elephants and their stories was a way for her to travel the world even before she could actually travel. It was a perfect symbol for the Wordy Travel because a Wordy Traveler subscription provides the ability to travel the world when you may not be able to travel yourself.
Fun Facts about Elephants
Elephants communicate with one another using sound, touch and scent. Their hearing is excellent (they can hear a trumpeting call from up to 5 miles away), and they use a wide range of sounds to talk to each other – including those which humans are not able to hear.
Elephants are highly sensitive and caring animals, and have been observed to express grief, compassion, altruism and play. They perform greeting ceremonies when a friend that has been away for some time returns to the group, and they sometimes ‘hug’ by wrapping their trunks together. Elephants will pay respect to the bones of their dead by gently touching the skulls and tusks with their trunks and feet.
Elephants are able to recognise themselves using mirrors. Such displays of self-recognition indicates a very high level of awareness, and is something which only humans, apes, cetaceans and magpies are otherwise known to do.
Being extremely sensitive creatures, elephants have been known to display behaviour patterns similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Female elephants spend their whole lives living in tight family groups with their female relatives. The eldest female normally leads the group.
Male elephants leave the herd between the ages of 12 and 15, and usually live alone (although may sometimes form small groups with other males).
Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have excellent memories. Matriarchs rely on this memory during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past.
Elephants are able to recognise and distinguish human voices. They can tell the difference between human languages, male and female voices, friendly voices and those associated with danger.
World Elephant Day
On August 12, 2012, the inaugural World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. The elephant is loved, revered and respected by people and cultures around the world, yet we balance on the brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature.