Elephants are incredibly remarkable creatures. In the wild, elephants can live up to 60-70 years, and a male elephant is considered an adult when it stops growing at around 30-40 years old.
Studies have been performed that have shown us that elephants can distinguish languages and become more relaxed when they hear the voice of a young woman or man. The voices of adult males were observed to cause them to become agitated.
Elephants are also one of the very few species of animals to experience grief like humans do. As we do, elephants bury their dead, cry, and will pay tribute to the remains by visiting the burial site for a few days during natural migrating cycles for years.
Unfortunately, these amazing animals have been exploited by humans for entertainment, most notoriously in the traveling circuses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One circus elephant that suffered greatly at the hands of humans was Topsy.
