Elephants stamp catalogue

2,137 items

Elephants are animals from the family Elephantidae. The elephant is one of the largest mammals on earth. On the stamp it is a favorite collector's item. More

The elephants (Elephantidae) are a family of the proboscidea order (Proboscidea), which includes the largest modern land mammals. Larger land mammals (such as the Indricotherium) have existed, but are extinct.

Elephants differ from other animals in that they have a long trunk, which they use as a grasping organ, for example to pick up food and to sprinkle themselves with water and sand.
A male is called bull or bull, a female is called cow and a young is called calf.

Elephants live in matriarchal groups, consisting of a few adult cows with their calves. Adult bulls are mainly solitary and only join the group to mate with sexually mature cows. During the mating season, due to hormonal changes, a bull becomes so excited that it becomes unpredictable and therefore very dangerous. In densely populated India, herds of enraged Asian elephants sometimes attack villages and plantations, in some cases resulting in many deaths. That ferocity is usually explained as the result of the reduction of their habitat by humans.

Adult elephants often reach a weight of 3 to 5 tons at a height of about 3 meters. Outliers are possible; the heaviest elephant weighed about 12 tons, but this was not the largest elephant. This record was set by a bull that was more than 4 meters high with a weight of about 8 tons.

Apart from humans, elephants have few enemies, yet there are groups of lions that attack the African elephants, which are much less sighted in the dark, and kill a young or weakened specimen, especially at night at drinking pools. Also solitary old and weakened bulls can be killed by a group of lions. If successful, such a group of lions will continue to do so, but normally lions, especially during the day, will avoid a herd of elephants.

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Number of stamps

2,137

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Oldest item

Coat of arms of Liberia (1892)