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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
African
elephant, savannah elephant |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Mammalia |
| ORDER: |
Proboscidea |
| FAMILY: |
Elephantidae |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Loxodonta
(slanting tooth) africana (from Africa) |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
Largest
of all land mammals, with large ears, a long trunk,
and large tusks |
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| SIZE: |
3-4
m (10-13 ft.) tall at shoulder; 6-7.25 m long (20-24
ft.) |
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| WEIGHT: |
3200-6400
kg (7000-14000 lb.); females are smaller |
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| DIET: |
Herbivore
that eats all types of vegetation such as grasses,
leaves, fruits, and bark |
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| SEXUAL
MATURITY: |
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| MALE |
10-20 years (bulls) |
| FEMALE |
10-11 years (cows) |
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| LIFE
SPAN: |
Up
to 70 years |
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| RANGE: |
sub-Saharan
Africa; There is a distinct sub-species, the forest
elephant, found in the tropical forests of central
Africa. |
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| HABITAT: |
Found
in forests, grasslands, marshes, scrub, and semi-desert
areas |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
No
data |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Vulnerable |
| CITES |
Appendix
II |
| USFWS |
Threatened |
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| 1. |
Elephants
live in a highly organized social structure referred
to as a matriarchal herd. The herd is typically
composed of up to ten females and their young. All
of the females in the herd are directly related
to the matriarch, who is typically the oldest and
largest female. Males beyond the age of maturity
are with the herd only during mating. |
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| 2. |
African
elephants are capable of making a wide variety of
vocal sounds, such as grunts, purrs, bellows, whistles,
and the obvious trumpeting. Elephants are also capable
of making low frequency sounds that are below the
human range of hearing; this allows wandering
individuals within the herd as well as several different
herds to stay in direct contact over distances of
many miles. |
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| 3. |
The
most obvious characteristic of elephants, besides
their massive size, is their trunk. The trunk is
nothing more than an elongation of their nose and
upper lip. Besides being used for breathing and
smelling it is also used as an appendage, much like
an arm or hand. Elephants are capable of pulling
up to 11.5 liters (3 gallons) of water into the
trunk to be sprayed into the mouth for drinking
or onto the back for bathing. They also use two
finger-like projections that are at the tip to manipulate
small objects and to pluck grasses. |
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| 4. |
Female
elephants are one of the few mammals other than
humans who live beyond their reproductive years.
The typical cow will end her reproductive period
between 45-50 years. During this post-reproductive
time she assists with the care of other young. |
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Elephants,
like humans, have a great impact upon their environment.
Elephants are referred to as a keystone
species, a species upon which many other organisms
depend. Elephants make pathways through
the environment that are used by other animals
to access areas normally out of reach. The
pathways have been used by several generations
of elephants, and today people are converting
many of them to paved roads. During the
dry season elephants use their tusks to dig into
dry river bottoms to reach underground sources
of water. These newly dug water holes may
become the only source of water in the area.
Forest elephants create clearings that allow sunlight
to reach the forest floor. This gives ground
vegetation a chance to grow and feed the smaller
forest animals.
Elephants
and people have always had an interesting relationship.
People have had to contend with elephants
destroying their crops. However, it is the
elephants who have had the greatest burden.
They have been hunted and poached for their ivory
tusks, been prevented from migrating between feeding
and water sites, and have lost due to conversion
into agricultural areas and human dwellings.
While the whole elephant population throughout
Africa is declining, some countries in southern
Africa have the opposite problem: too many elephants.
The future of the elephant in Africa is a complex
issue that will need to resolve overpopulation
in some areas and underpopulation in others.
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| Benyus,
Janine M. Beastly Behaviors. Reading,
Massachusetts. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1992. |
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| Estes,
Richard D. The Safari Companion. Post
Mills, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Co.,
1993. |
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MacDonald,
David. The Encyclopedia of Mammals: 2. London:
George Allen & Unwin Co., 1985.
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| Nowak,
Ronald M. Walker's Mammals of the World. Fifth
edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1991. |
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