Elephants

About

Elephants are a type of mammal that live in a range of different habitats across Africa and Asia. As the largest surviving terrestrial animals on Earth, elephants have long been celebrated in popular culture and online, especially for their unique trunks, large ears and longevity, as well as their ability to use infrasound and seismic communication.

Online History

On March 7th, 2008, the Gifts with a Cause YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring an elephant painting a picture of an elephant holding a flower (shown below, left). Over the next seven years, the video accumulated over 9.7 million views and 14,900 comments. On April 25th, 2010, the /r/elephants^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions and media related to the large mammals. On September 19th, 2011, the Evolve Campaigns YouTube channel posted a video of two elephants reuniting after being separated for 20 years, gaining upwards of 8.7 million views and 2,500 comments in four years (shown below, right).

On February 23rd, 2014, Redditor AtomicFaxMachine submitted an elephant image macro titled “Bad Luck Elephant” to the /r/adviceanimals^[4] subreddit, where it received more than 3,200 votes (95% upvoted) and 350 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On November 11th, the NYPost YouTube channel uploaded footage of an elephant escaping an attack by 14 lions (shown below, right). Within four months, the video gathered upwards of 22 million views and 5,500 comments. As of March 2015, the “Elephants” Facebook^[5] interest page has over 134,000 likes.

Baby Elephants

Footage of baby elephants awkwardly interacting with humans and their environment are widely circulated online in communities featuring cute animal content. On February 24th, 2009, YouTuber kikicat25 uploaded a video of a baby elephant acting surprised after sneezing out of its trunk (shown below, left). Within six years, the video received more than 16 million views and 6,600 comments. On August 23rd, 2010, YouTuber Gene Hengeveld submitted a video of a young elephant riding on its mother’s back, which received upwards of 2.7 million views and 800 comments over five years (shown below, right).

On October 9th, 2011, YouTuber koveosd posted a video of a newborn elephant accidentally stepping on its trunk (shown below, left). Within four years, the video accumulated more than 3.5 million views and 1,400 comments. On December 11th, 2012, YouTuber Vivian H. uploaded a video featuring a young elephant knocking over a man trying to give it a hug, gathering over 6.1 million views and 1,600 comments in three years (shown below, right)

On March 9th, 2014, the subreddit /r/babyelephantgifs^[2] was created to highlight animated GIF images featuring juvenile elephants (shown below). Within one year, the community gained upwards of 65,900 subscribers. On April 7th, BuzzFeed^[3] published a compilation of notable GIFs sourced from the subreddit.

On November 10th, the Tastefully Offensive YouTube channel uploaded a montage of baby elephant clips, which garnered over 980,000 views and 90 comments in four months.

Search Interest

External References