When Elephants Attack
3,463When elephants attack! Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. In certain situations, they can be very aggressive. Here's why you should be aware of these dangerous creatures!
✔ NEW MERCH AVAILABLE: https://theywillkillyou.com/
Subscribe for new videos: http://goo.gl/SaufF4
Follow us on Instagram: @theywillkillyou
Voiceover by Carl Mason: carlito1705@icloud.com
Elephants are the largest land animals in the world and the only surviving family of the Proboscidea order. These massive beasts can weigh as much as 15,000 pounds while standing at heights of almost 13 feet. They also have a set of unique physical features. Elephants have pillar-like legs which help them carry their massive weight and allow them to stand still for extended periods of time without consuming too much energy. Their skulls are large and very resilient, being able to withstand head-to-head collisions while protecting the brain from almost every angle. One of the elephant’s more distinctive features is its long trunk, a fusion of the upper lip and the nose. Although it's primarily used for breathing and smell, the trunk also serves other functions such as grasping objects, lifting water or making sounds. On each side of the trunk are the elephant’s two long tusks. The tusks are modified incisors in the upper jaw which never stop growing, increasing in length by 7 inches per year. The elephant can use its tusks to dig, clear paths, or as weapons in confrontations. Just like humans are right-handed or left-handed, the elephant also has a dominant tusk which it uses more than the other, usually called the master tusk. The calcified tissue of the tusks is known as ivory, which is considered very valuable and the main reason why elephants have been the subject of intense poaching throughout the years. They are also highly intelligent creatures. Their memory is also a remarkable characteristic as they are believed to possess cognitive mapping, which allows them to remember large spaces over long periods of time. Elephants are also said to remember the mistreatment they endure at the hands of humans in places such as circuses or certain zoos. There are currently two main species of elephants, the Asian Elephant and the African Elephant, which are scattered through areas in South Asia, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. They are herbivorous and often found near water in various habitats including forests, marshes, and savannahs. Female elephants, also known as ‘cows’ usually live in family groups, mainly consisting of either one female with her offspring, or ‘calves’, or several related females and their young. The ‘matriarch’, one of the older cows, is typically the leader of the group. In the wild, these animals can live up to 70 years as the predators with which they share the environment, such as lions, hyenas (in Africa) or tigers (in Asia) typically tend to stay away from them. There are currently around 415,000 African elephants living in the wild. Even though there is an international ban on ivory trade, it is still active in domestic markets, which is a great threat for African Elephants. Asian elephants are considered an endangered species with only 50,000 left in the wild. Even though most Asian Elephants are tusk-less, their population is affected by the rapid expansion of human farms and settlements into their environment. Other elephants can be found in zoos, man-controlled habitats or circuses. Male elephants enter a period of ‘musth’, which in Hindi means ‘madness’. During this time their levels of testosterone increase drastically and their temporal glands secrete a fluid called tamporin. The fluid runs down the side of the elephant’s face. Musth can last anywhere from a day to up to four months. Their trunks have up to 150,000 separate muscle fascicles, which enables them to lifts weights of over 700 pounds. Elephants can reach speeds of to 25 mph, despite their massive size. They also have a keen sense of smell, being able to detect water sources from up to 12 miles away. Their sense of hearing is also very good, as they can detect low sound frequencies that human beings can’t. For long distance communication, elephants are known to use infrasonic sounds, which are sounds below the human hearing range. There are a few techniques that you can apply in order to survive a charging elephant if you are on foot without a vehicle nearby. At first you should establish whether it is a real charge or a mock charge. When the charge is real an elephant’s ears are pinned back flat, if it is a mock charge the ears are relaxed or fanned out. A real charge is commonly preceded by a trumpeting warning. You are more likely to survive if you stand your ground, facing the elephant than turning your back away and running. Staying downwind of the elephant, will decrease your chances of being detected, as the beasts will have a difficulty using their keen sense of smell.
Other Videos By They will Kill You
| 2019-11-09 | When Electric Eels Attack |
| 2019-11-08 | When Mosquitos Attack |
| 2019-11-07 | The Man Who Saved the World |
| 2019-11-02 | 10 Most Unnerving Venoms in Existence |
| 2019-11-01 | When MRIs Go Wrong |
| 2019-10-31 | Where Did Their Parents Go Wrong? |
| 2019-10-29 | What Exactly Happened to the Space Shuttle Columbia??? |
| 2019-10-25 | When Swatting Goes Wrong |
| 2019-10-22 | 8 Creepy Underwater Creatures |
| 2019-10-18 | Human Giants & 7 Other Legends That Persist |
| 2019-10-17 | When Elephants Attack |
| 2019-10-08 | 8 Most Destructive Mathematical Errors in History |
| 2019-10-05 | 6 of Rome's Worst Emperors |
| 2019-10-04 | 9 More Martial Arts Styles You've Never Heard of (Part 2) |
| 2019-10-03 | 8 Unknown Preservation Methods |
| 2019-10-01 | 9 of the Universe's Most Uninhabitable Planets |
| 2019-09-27 | When Grizzly Bears Attack |
| 2019-09-26 | How Dangerous is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? |
| 2019-09-21 | 9 Facts About the Doomsday Clock |
| 2019-09-19 | 10 Martial Arts Styles You've Never Heard of |
| 2019-09-17 | How These 8 People Escaped the Berlin Wall |