National Elephant Appreciation Day in USA

September 22nd was established as National Elephant Appreciation Day in 1996 in honor of the largest land animal in the world. The holiday was founded by pachyderm lover Wayne Hepburn after his daughter gave him a paperweight of elephants on parade and he became fascinated by them.

Elephants are highly social and form extremely rich social bonds. They do have what we’d refer to as culture. They have their own language, and they have dialects within their shared language. They're highly intelligent, gregarious and gentle by nature. It's not surprising that they would provide friendships across species.