History of elephants in Europe

Mammoths (which are a kind of elephant) arrived in Europe during the Pliocene, around 3.2 million years ago.

[1] The large straight-tusked elephant arrived in Europe around 800-700,000 years ago,[2] reaching a widespread distribution across the continent during warm interglacial periods.

[4] Mammoths, straight-tusked elephants and their dwarf descendants became extinct in Europe around 50-10,000 years ago as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions[5] (though some authors have argued that the dwarf elephant species Palaeoloxodon tiliensis may have survived until 1500 BC[6]).

Aristotle depended on first-hand information for his account of elephants, but like most Westerners he believed the animals live for two hundred years.

As exotic and expensive animals, they were exchanged as presents between European rulers, who exhibited them as luxury pets, beginning with Harun ar-Rashid's gift of an elephant to Charlemagne.