The gentle giants that roam the plains of Africa and Asia are the largest animals that walk on the surface of our planet. Ever wanted to know a little more about these majestic creatures?

1. An elephant can live for up to 70 years.

2. Elephants communicate mostly through rumbling, some of which is infrasonic an inaudible to humans. These sounds can be detected by elephants up to 12km away. It is believed that elephants pick up these vibrations through their feet.

3. An elephant eats about 200kg of food and drinks about 160 litres of water per day.

4.Elephants can swim and use their trunk as a snorkel.

5. An elephants eye is the same size as a human but can only see clearly up to 50 meters. Elephants have excellent hearing and sense of smell to make up for it.

6. Large elephants sleep standing up or leaning against a tree while smaller elephants sleep lying down.

7. Elephants are fussy drinkers and prefer clean water to a muddy watering hole. They will often dig holes close to waterholes to find clean water.

8. An elephant can smell water up to 8km away.

9. Elephants visit locations where their ancestors have died and always stop and pause.

10. Sadly, on average 100 elephants are killed by poachers every day in Africa for their ivory tusks.