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Elephants Don’t Have a Weight Problem!

Richard Jude
2 min readAug 30, 2019

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Photo by Joel Mbugua on Unsplash

Next time you are at a sporting event or a music concert, count 58 people in front of you and look how much space they take up. The interesting thing is that those 58 people would weigh close to the weight of one fully grown male African elephant that weighs 10,000 lbs. (Assumes that these are adult humans with an average weight of Adult men at 178 lbs and Adult women at 165 lbs 50/50 for the average — based on latest average weight data for north American adults).

And just remember that this massive creature is a vegetarian and mostly non- violent (if left alone). Elephants can live and grow in peace for up to 60 years (just before Medicare would kick in). But my point is that they can be a symbol for preserving vast stretches of nature which they need to traverse to support their massive size (never tell an elephant that she/he looks fat — they can run up to 25 mph for a mile and you can’t). With their constant movement they encourage plant growth because by eating the tree leaves and the grasses plants grow new branches and leaves— just think of it as an elephant pruning which promotes new growth.

Elephants know that the land needs time to recover from their foraging, so when they are allowed to roam they will follow trails that may be a thousand years old. This elephant knowledge allows them be a part of the plant cycle of life, (we are just…

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Richard Jude
Richard Jude

Written by Richard Jude

I have been a part time filmmaker, writer and care giver…I’m not sure which I have learned the most from, but I learn the most from kind people

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