If I could go back in time and hit one person over the head with their own manuscript, it would be the jerk who wrote that stupid elephant parable. XD How do you not know what an elephant is?!
But yeah, I second the person who said we understand animals by what they do. And there are some physical traits you can get an idea of just from description and context. I happen to be a pretty big nature documentary fan myself and I usually know at least one thing about most animals on principle.

there’s actually been a study done about this—asking blind people what we know about animals, discovering we generally know as much or more than our sighted peers. $1

i don’t know if that answers your elephant dilemma, considering elephants are pretty unique but... an animal is basically what it does, right? elephants do a lot of pretty *specific* things, so i think it’s safe to say we have an idea.

I got to ride on one when I was 7.

We should really discuss the elephant in the room.

I've probably done that second one, but really... I'm in my 30's and earning a paycheck. I kind of have other things on my mind just at the minute.