African elephant

The African elephant are the two species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta. This is one of the two living genera in Elephantidae. It is the biggest terrestrial animal.

Female elephants travel in herds and male elephants travel alone and sometimes in bachelor groups.

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

African elephants are very intelligent.

Males of the African bush elephant can grow to  tall at the shoulder and weigh . It is the largest living elephant. Females may reach  and weigh  to .Laurson, Barry & Bekoff, Marc 1978. Loxodonta africana. Mammalian Species 92: 1–8. 

African elephants are different from Asian elephants. They have larger ears, long, pillar-like legs, a dipped down back, and a fourth toenail on front, and third on the back. African elephants are bigger than Asian elephants. They skin of African elephant is wrinkled, gray, and thick.

 Teeth 
At any one time, elephants have one molar in each jaw bone (two upper, two lower). Each weighs about  and measures about  long. As they wear away at the front, new molars emerge in the back of the mouth and gradually replace the old ones.Burnie D. 2001. Animal. London: Dorling Kindersley. Elephants replace their teeth  six times. If it survives to 60 years of age the elephant no longer has teeth  and will die of starvation.

Their tusks are also teeth, the second set of upper incisors become the tusks. They are used for digging for roots and stripping the bark off trees for food, and, fighting each other during mating season, or defending themselves against predators. They weigh from  to  and may be from  to  long. However, a result of poachers killing elephants with the biggest tusks has been a survivor population with much smaller tusks. Both bulls and cows have tusks.

 Species 
 Loxodonta adaurora, extinct, presumed antecedent of the modern African elephants.
 African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana).
 African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).

Bush and forest elephants are nowadays generally considered to be two distinct species.  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 four toenails on the front foot and three on the hind foot, the African forest elephant normally has five toenails on the front foot and four on the hind foot (like the Asian elephant). Hybrids between the two species do occur.

Conservation
Poaching greatly reduced the population of elephants in Africa in the 20th century. In the eastern region of Chad, elephant herds were substantial as recently as 1970, with an estimated population of 400,000. However, by 2006 the number had dropped to about 10,000. The African elephant nominally has governmental protection, but poaching is a serious issue.

People moving into or near areas where elephants occur naturally is a problem. There is research into methods of safely driving groups of elephants away from humans. Playing recorded sounds of angry honey bees is remarkably effective at prompting elephants to flee an area.Lucy E. King, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Fritz Vollrath 2007. African elephants run from the sound of disturbed bees. Current Biology 17: R832-R833  Sometimes elephant communities have grown so large that culling was needed to sustain the ecosystem.BBC: Elephant explosion triggers cull row

Gallery

References

Other websites
 Elephant Information Repository  - An in-depth resource on elephants
 "Elephant caves" of Mt Elgon National Park 
 ElephantVoices - Resource on elephant vocal communications
 Amboseli Trust for Elephants - Interactive web site

Category:Elephants
Category:Mammals of Africa