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Elephants! 12 Things You Didn’t Know, Plus Photo Gallery

October 15, 2009 By 3 Comments
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Elephant with huge tusks for elephant facts and photo gallery

Elephant fact 6: Elephant tusks are actually an elongated tooth (incisor), with about a third of the length hidden inside the skull.

The largest recorded tusk was 138 inches long and weighed 214 pounds. However, because tusk size is inherited, such enormous tusks are not found on elephants today. Poachers and hunters have taken the elephants with the largest tusks, thus removing the trait of extraordinary tusk size from most elephant populations.

Image: flickr.com/madpai/ / CC BY 2.0

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About Rhishja Cota-Larson

Rhishja is the founder of Saving Rhinos, which publishes news and information about the illegal trade in rhino horn and rhino conservation issues. She is the Editor of the blogs "Rhino Horn is Not Medicine" and "Project Pangolin", and author of the book "Murder, Myths & Medicine". Check out savingrhinos.org, rhinoconservation.org, and pangolins.org to learn more. When Rhishja is not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, she enjoys rocking out to live music.

Comments

  1. Lucy says:
    October 15, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    This is an AWEsome post, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  2. Jeff says:
    October 16, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    This is my favorite photo of an elephant

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/24917549@N04/2670968997

    You should add it to your photo gallery! :)

    Reply
  3. Keev-sta The Elephant Luva says:
    June 15, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    i F ING LOVE elephants, they’re A-MAZING!
    they’re so big, clever. they always look so slow and thoughtful and old. i think they’re actually very intelligent. i love them.

    Reply

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