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Elephant Appreciation Day

Animal · September 22

A day for appreciating elephants, the largest land animals, with their trunks, long memories of family and close-knit herds.

Elephant Appreciation Day falls on Wednesday, September 22, 2027. That is 330 days away.

Elephants are the largest animals that live on land, and they carry themselves with a kind of slow certainty. There are African and Asian elephants, and both are worth a long look.

The trunk is the part people tend to stare at. It is a nose and an upper lip joined together, full of muscle and no bone, and an elephant uses it to breathe, smell, drink, grab branches and greet other elephants. Tusks are long teeth that keep growing. The big ears help an elephant shed heat, which matters when you are that large and live somewhere warm.

Elephants live in family groups usually led by an older female. Calves are raised by the whole group, and relatives stay close for years. They communicate with rumbles, some too low for people to hear, and they can pick up vibrations through the ground with their feet.

Appreciating elephants can be as simple as learning a few of these things and watching them move. A good wildlife documentary shows how much of their day goes to eating, since they spend many hours feeding on grasses, bark, leaves and fruit. Zoos and sanctuaries that care for elephants often share keeper talks and videos, which are a calm way to see how individual animals behave.

If you get the chance to watch one drink, notice how it pulls water into the trunk and then curls it up to pour into its mouth.

Ways to celebrate

• Watch a wildlife documentary about elephant families.
• Read about the differences between African and Asian elephants.
• Look for keeper talks from an accredited zoo or sanctuary.
• Share an elephant fact with a child or friend.
• Draw an elephant and label its trunk, tusks and ears.

Dates

All national days on September 22

Also on September 22

• National Ice Cream Cone Day
• Hobbit Day
• National White Chocolate Day
• Dear Diary Day

Categories: Animal days