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Meet Tembo The Elephant

Get to know Tembo, the elephant in Nat and Carson's Chest Challenge, Jumbo Wash

This is Tembo, the big friendly African elephant who got a good scrub down from Nat and Carson during the Jumbo Wash Chest Challenge.

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Vital stats

Name: Tembo (Swahili for 'elephant')

Sex: Male

Age: 29 years

Shoulder Height: 3.3 metres (that's just taller than a single-storey house)

Weight: 6 tons (that's the weight of about four medium-sized cars)

Tembo is the largest elephant at his home at Elephant Whispers in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Although he measures in at 3.3 metres at shoulder height, he should still grow about another metre. Elephants eat 5% of their body weight each day, so at 6 tons Tembo eats approximately 300kg of food each day. His average overnight dung weighs in at an impressive 120kg.

Tembo was just two years old when he was orphaned, but luckily he and another orphaned elephant, Becky, was raised by humans on a reserve. Naughty Tembo regularly raided the nearby crop farms, causing thousands of rands (South African dollars) damage. Authorities, faced with a deluge of complaints by local farmers, decided Tembo would have to be destroyed. Fortunately, Rory and Lindie Hensman rescued Tembo, taking him to EFAF (Elephants for Africa Forever), where Tembo enthusiastically embraced his new routines and began settling in with other elephants.

You might also remember Tembo from season one, when he appeared in the Celebrity Stampede Tucker Trial. Watch the trial and check out the gallery.

Thanks for being a part of the show, Tembo!

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