facts about african elephants
By zteve t evans
The world's largest land mammal is the African elephant. Africans are slightly greater in size than Asian elephants and have larger ears that actually look like the shape of the African continent as shown on a map. The ears of Asian elephants are rounder and smaller.
How elephants keep cool
In the hot African climate it is often necessary to cool down. Elephants love water and use their trunks to suck up water and spray over their bodies. They then spray a dust over their skin which helps to protect against the sun.
The trunk of an elephant is very versatile with around 100,000 different muscles and has multiple uses. On the end of the trunk can be found to small limbs like fingers that help with grasping and holding. It is also used to smell, drink and breathe.
African elephants; male and female, also have tusks which they use for stripping bark from trees, and digging for food and water. They are also used by males as weapons when fighting.
Elephant poaching
Unfortunately, the tusks are of ivory which is valuable to humans attracting poachers. This results in the deaths of many elephants for ivory. All though poaching is now illegal it is difficult to eliminate completely and is endangering elephant populations in some areas.
African elephants have been classified as a near threatened species under the IUCN Red List. They greatly benefited from the 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on ivory.
Diet
A fully grown African elephant can eat up to 300 pounds of food a day. They are herbivores and their diet includes bark, fruit, roots and grass. They sleep little and tend to forage while roaming in search of enough food to satisfy their needs.
In the hot African climate it is often necessary to cool down. Elephants love water and use their trunks to suck up water and spray over their bodies. They then spray a dust over their skin which helps to protect against the sun.
The trunk of an elephant is very versatile with around 100,000 different muscles and has multiple uses. On the end of the trunk can be found to small limbs like fingers that help with grasping and holding. It is also used to smell, drink and breathe.
African elephants; male and female, also have tusks which they use for stripping bark from trees, and digging for food and water. They are also used by males as weapons when fighting.
Elephant poaching
Unfortunately, the tusks are of ivory which is valuable to humans attracting poachers. This results in the deaths of many elephants for ivory. All though poaching is now illegal it is difficult to eliminate completely and is endangering elephant populations in some areas.
African elephants have been classified as a near threatened species under the IUCN Red List. They greatly benefited from the 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on ivory.
Diet
A fully grown African elephant can eat up to 300 pounds of food a day. They are herbivores and their diet includes bark, fruit, roots and grass. They sleep little and tend to forage while roaming in search of enough food to satisfy their needs.
Elephants are a keystone species
Elephants have an enormous impact on the environment they live in. They are regarded as a keystone species. A keystone species is one that other organisms rely upon for their own wellbeing.
For example, elephants make pathways through forests and dense vegetation. This give access for other animals to places they would not otherwise be able to reach. They also create clearings in forests allowing sunlight in causing vegetation to grow providing food and shelter for other species.
Another example is when the dry season arrives elephants will use their tusks to dig into dried up river beds to reach water lying underneath creating watering holes. These watering holes are often the only source of water for many animals and birds until the rains come again.
Female elephants are called cows and live in herds with their calves, while bulls, the adult males, tend to be solitary wanderers. Elephant cows have the longest pregnancy of any mammal of around 22 month, giving birth to one calf every 2-4 years. Calves often weigh around 200 pounds and may be a little over 3 feet tall at birth.
African elephants can reach a shoulder height of up to 13 feet and can grow to 24 feet in length, weighing up to 14,000 pounds. Their average lifespan in the wild is up to 70 years unless they are killed by poachers.
Elephants have an enormous impact on the environment they live in. They are regarded as a keystone species. A keystone species is one that other organisms rely upon for their own wellbeing.
For example, elephants make pathways through forests and dense vegetation. This give access for other animals to places they would not otherwise be able to reach. They also create clearings in forests allowing sunlight in causing vegetation to grow providing food and shelter for other species.
Another example is when the dry season arrives elephants will use their tusks to dig into dried up river beds to reach water lying underneath creating watering holes. These watering holes are often the only source of water for many animals and birds until the rains come again.
Female elephants are called cows and live in herds with their calves, while bulls, the adult males, tend to be solitary wanderers. Elephant cows have the longest pregnancy of any mammal of around 22 month, giving birth to one calf every 2-4 years. Calves often weigh around 200 pounds and may be a little over 3 feet tall at birth.
African elephants can reach a shoulder height of up to 13 feet and can grow to 24 feet in length, weighing up to 14,000 pounds. Their average lifespan in the wild is up to 70 years unless they are killed by poachers.
Two Species of African Elephant
The BBC reported that new genetic research from the National Cancer Institute, Maryland, US, and the Mpala Research Center in Kenya published in Science magazine appears to show that there are two separate species of African elephant. One species lives on the savannah, the African Bush, or Savannah elephant (Loxodonta Africana) while the other lives in the forests, and is called the African Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).
It has been long recognised that forest elephants are smaller, having thinner and straighter tusks, and their ears are rounder, and the structure of the skulls are different than those elephants that live in forests. Previously forest elephants had been regarded as a sub-species but this new genetic evidence refutes this showing them to be a separate species.
Distribution of African elephants
Populations of African Bush elephants are founded in pockets across western, eastern and southern Africa. Forest elephants inhabit central and western African rainforests.
© 14/10/2009 zteve t evans
The BBC reported that new genetic research from the National Cancer Institute, Maryland, US, and the Mpala Research Center in Kenya published in Science magazine appears to show that there are two separate species of African elephant. One species lives on the savannah, the African Bush, or Savannah elephant (Loxodonta Africana) while the other lives in the forests, and is called the African Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).
It has been long recognised that forest elephants are smaller, having thinner and straighter tusks, and their ears are rounder, and the structure of the skulls are different than those elephants that live in forests. Previously forest elephants had been regarded as a sub-species but this new genetic evidence refutes this showing them to be a separate species.
Distribution of African elephants
Populations of African Bush elephants are founded in pockets across western, eastern and southern Africa. Forest elephants inhabit central and western African rainforests.
© 14/10/2009 zteve t evans
References and Attributions
Copyright zteve t evans October 14, 2009
Copyright zteve t evans October 14, 2009
- African elephant From Wikipedia
- BBCNews - African elephant 'is two species'
- National Geographic - African Elephant Loxodonta africana