Did you know that elephants have the longest eyelashes in the world? They are 5 inches long, which is close to the size of the iPhone 6! They are also born blind and similar to the bald eagle (in a previous Fun Facts Friday), they have a Nictitating Membrane “third eye.”

Elephants can see just as well in dim light as they can in pure daylight, which allows them to live their lives day and night (part diurnal). They also have dichromic vision (color blind), whereas most humans have trichomic vision in order to see the colors of a rainbow. 

When excited, lost, angry or any heightened emotion, elephants will make a “trumpet” sound that each other can hear up to 6 miles away. That’s the length of 105 American football fields! 😮

Similar to the snake’s tongue, elephants raise their trunk to gather scent particles yet it’s not to smell prey but to locate any surrounding water sources up to 12 miles away...so 210 American football fields! 😳

Elephants eat 16 hours a day and sleep a few hours, sometimes standing up. They eat mostly plants and NO peanuts, sorry to bust that myth. Fears? Oh you bet, ants and bees. They do not like those up their trunks! Their trunks are sensitive & can pick up the smallest grain! Enemies? Again, like the bald eagle, sadly it’s humans. 😞

But like humans, they mourn, hug each other by entwining their trunks, and have a long life span up to 50 - 70 years. Lin Wang, an Asian elephant, was the oldest elephant who died in 2003 at the age of 86. That’s a long life for such a large mammal!