How long is an elephant pregnant?

The average gestation period for an elephant is approximately 22 months. Just like with humans, this is not a hard and fast rule. One elephant was pregnant for a total of 700 days — just shy of 2 years — before giving birth.

Elephants are pregnant the longest out of all of the land-dwelling animals, and theirs is close to being the longest pregnancy of all animals. Twins are very rare, and the vast majority of elephants give birth to only one offspring at a time. Elephants normally wait between 2 to 5 years before becoming pregnant again, but if a young elephant dies shortly after birth, the mother may become pregnant again sooner than usual.