African elephants have the longest pregnancy of any land mammal. How many days does it last?
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Answer
About 660 days
The calf that finally arrives weighs around 100 kg and can stand up within about an hour.
How to estimate it
Bigger mammals carry their young longer, and pregnancy length grows roughly with the fourth root of body mass. A 500 kg horse is pregnant for about 340 days. An elephant weighs about 5,000 kg, ten times more, and the fourth root of 10 is 1.8. So expect about 340 × 1.8 = 600 days. The observed figure is about 660 days, nearly two years.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica; San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
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