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African elephant

 
Animal Encyclopedia: African elephant
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Loxodonta africana

SUBFAMILY

Elephantinae

TAXONOMY

Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach, 1797), Orange River, South Africa. Two subspecies.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Eléphant d'Afrique, eléphant africain; German: Der Afrikanische Elefant; Spanish: Elefante Africano.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

L. a. africana: weight 4.4–7.7 T (4–7 t), shoulder height 8.2–13 ft (2.5–4 m), back concave; L. a. cyclotis: weight 2.2–4.4 T (2–4t), shoulder height 6–9.8 ft (1.8–3 m), back straighter. Head less high than Asian species and single domed, ears larger and fold back at top, two fingers at end of trunk. Both sexes possess tusks, those of the female being relatively smaller.

DISTRIBUTION

Occurs in about 35 African states. In West Africa, only thinly scattered, small populations remain, mostly L. a. cyclotis; northernmost Sahel population (Mali) probably a western extension of L. a. africana. Central African rainforests: still substantial, largely continuous, populations of L. a. cyclotis. East and southern African savannas down to northernmost Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa (with large hole in central Angola and neighboring areas): L. a. africana.

HABITAT

L. a. africana: woodland, shrub and tree savanna, floodplain grassland, and desert; L. a. cyclotis: evergreen rainforest, moist semi-deciduous forest, woodland, and forest/grassland margins.

BEHAVIOR

L. a. africana, at least historically, had a tendency to aggregate in large herds, especially for seasonal migration. Social matriarchal society.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Daily adult food consumption 220–660 lb (100–300 kg). Molar teeth with fewer, lozenge-shaped enamel bands.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Female signals oestrus by a special walk, with the head held high while looking back over her shoulder, as well as loud vocalizations. In courtship, female's movements include spinning round and leading the male on a mock chase. Males are competitive. Gestation period is 22 months. Birth weight 265 lb (120 kg).

CONSERVATION STATUS

Listed as Endangered by the IUCN, and on CITES Appendix I, except some southern African countries; moved to Appendix II in 2002.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Hunted for meat and ivory. Rarely domesticated.

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Wikipedia: African elephant
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African elephants

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Superclass: Tetrapoda
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: Loxodonta
Anonymous, 1827
Species

Loxodonta adaurora †
Loxodonta africana
Loxodonta cyclotis

Distribution of Loxodonta africana (2007)

African elephants are the species of elephants in the genus Loxodonta, one of the two existing genera in Elephantidae. Although it is commonly believed that the genus was named by Georges Cuvier in 1825, Cuvier spelled it Loxodonte. An anonymous author romanized the spelling to Loxodonta and the ICZN recognizes this as the proper authority.[1]

Fossil Loxodonta have only been found in Africa, where they developed in the middle Pliocene.

Contents

Size

African elephants are bigger than Asian Elephants. Males stand 3.64 meters (12 ft) tall at the shoulder and weigh 5,455 kg (12,000 lbs), while females stand 3 meters (10 ft) and weigh 3,636 kg to 4,545 kg (8,000 to 11,000 lbs).[2] However, males can get as big as 6,800 kg (15,000 lb).

Teeth

A female African Bush Elephant in the Roger Williams Zoo, Providence, RI

Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 5 kg (11 lb) and measures about 30 cm (12 in) long. As the front pair wear down and drop out in pieces, the back pair shift forward and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.

Their tusks are teeth; the second set of incisors become the tusks. They are used for digging for roots and stripping the bark off trees for food, for fighting each other during mating season, and for defending themselves against predators. The tusks weigh from 23–45 kg (51–99 lb) and can be from 1.5–2.4 m (5–8 ft) long. Unlike Asian elephants, both male and female African elephants have tusks.[3]. The enamel plates of the molars are lesser in number than in Asian elephants.[4]

Species

Bush and Forest Elephants were formerly considered subspecies of the same species Loxodonta africana. However, they are nowadays generally considered to be two distinct species [1]. The African Forest Elephant has a longer and narrower mandible, rounder ears, a different number of toenails, straighter and downward tusks, and considerably smaller size. With regard to the number of toenails: the African Bush Elephant normally has 4 toenails on the front foot and 3 on the hind feet, the African Forest Elephant normally has 5 toenails on the front foot and 4 on the hind foot (like the Asian elephant), but hybrids between the two species commonly occur.

Conservation

Men with African elephant tusks, Dar es Salaam, c. 1900

Poaching significantly reduced the population of Loxodonta in certain regions during the 20th century. An example of this poaching pressure is in the eastern region of Chad—elephant herds there were substantial as recently as 1970, with an estimated population of 400,000; however, by 2006 the number had dwindled to about 10,000. The African elephant nominally has governmental protection, but poaching is still a serious issue.[5]

Human encroachment into or adjacent to natural areas where bush elephants occur has led to recent research into methods of safely driving groups of elephants away from humans, including the discovery that playback of the recorded sounds of angry honey bees are remarkably effective at prompting elephants to flee an area.[6] Some elephant communities have grown so large, in Africa, that some communities have resorted to culling large amounts to help sustain the ecosystem.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Shoshani, Jeheskel (November 16, 2005). Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds). ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd edition ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 91. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3. 
  2. ^ <http://www.pittsburghzoo.org/wildlife_lookUpAnimal_detail.asp?categoryname=&animal=15>
  3. ^ <http://www.denverzoo.org/animals/asianElephant.asp>
  4. ^ Clutton-Brock, Juliet (1987). A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals. p. 208. ISBN 0521346975. 
  5. ^ Goudarzi, Sara (2006-08-30). "100 Slaughtered Elephants Found in Africa". LiveScience.com. http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060830_chad_elephants.html. Retrieved 2006-08-31. 
  6. ^ Lucy E. King, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Fritz Vollrath (2007) African elephants run from the sound of disturbed bees. Current Biology 17: R832-R833

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