With an Indian elephant easily weighing 11,000 pounds, and an African one about 15,400 pounds, amazingly, they are able to swim for miles, using their long snouts to snorkel if the water gets rough. This is amazing as they cannot jump, leap or gallop.
They have been seen swimming to islands off the coast of India, and it has been said that they were able to swim from India to Sri Lanka. In the Bay of Bengal, logger’s used elephants to carry logs from island to island. Elephants can maintain a swimming speed of about 1.5km/h for up to six hours and reach top speeds of 3.5km/h.
Why do elephants swim so gracefully? Research suggests that Elephants evolved from mammals like the sea cow which is still found in some of the world’s oceans.