Elephants

Elephants (family Elephantidae) are a group of large mammals – all modern species have thick grey and mostly hairless skin, and the males have tusks. Although they have a long evolutionary history that includes at least 195 fossil species, only three species survive today and all are threatened. The African bush elephant (*Loxodonta africana*) from the grasslands of Africa, and the Asian elephant (*Elephas maximus*), from tropical Asia, are both listed as Endangered. A third species, the African forest elephant (*Loxodonta cyclotis*), lives only in the African rainforest and is listed as Critically Endangered.

## Appearances in Dorling Kindersley Vision media

The African bush elephant is the seventh most commonly-recurring mammal species in Dorling Kindersley Vision programmes, appearing in twenty-seven episodes. When combined with the Asian elephant, this number goes up to thirty episodes.

### Eyewitness

In Eyewitness, eleven episodes contain at least one species of elephant. Seasons two and three both have four episodes, while season one has three episodes that contain an elephant. Six of these episodes contain only African bush elephants, two contain only the Asian elephant (Dinosaur and Mountain) and the other three contain both species.

* **SEASON ONE**: Elephant, Dinosaur, Skeleton
* **SEASON TWO**: Desert, Tree, Ape, Mammal
* **SEASON THREE**: Survival, Mountain, Life, Natural Disasters

The Elephant episode has the most screen-time of elephants of either species, although there is a dedicated segment to them in the Mammal episode as well. Most other appearances are short or incidental.

As well as the two living species, Eyewitness also includes several models of extinct elephants that appear in the Elephant episode – these are *Moeritherium*, *Gomphotherium* and *Deinotherium*, as well as the woolly mammoth. Although a woolly mammoth appears on the cover of Prehistoric Life, it does not actually appear in the episode. The three fossil elephant models are stock images taken of actual models on display in London’s Natural History Museum.

An African bush elephant briefly appears in the opening sequence for the first season of Eyewitness.

### Amazing Animals

In Amazing Animals, eighteen episodes contain an elephant. Season two has the most, with seven episodes, closely followed by season one with six. Season three has three episodes and season four has two episodes. All but one of the episodes contain African bush elephants. Asian elephants appear in six episodes along with African elephants, but only in Animal Helpers do Asian elephants appear on their own. An elephant is one of the eleven symbols on the top of Henry’s toybox in the intro, and an elephant sound can be heard in the introduction as well.

* **SEASON ONE**: Animal Appetites, Animal Senses, Animal Weapons, Armoured Animals, Animal Babies, Animal Journeys
* **SEASON TWO**: Desert Animals, Animal Records, Animal Mothers, Animal Pets, Animal Families, Endangered Animals, Prehistoric Animals
* **SEASON THREE**: Animal Neighbors, Giant Animals, Extinct Animals
* **SEASON FOUR**: Around the World, Animal Helpers

The elephant wins the top prize in the Golden Gecko Awards for both Armoured Animals and Animal Families. This makes them the third highest-scoring animals in the awards (only the spiders and crocodilians beat them).

A stock image of a model of a woolly mammoth, photographed in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada, appears in the Prehistoric Animals episode.

As well as the real elephants, Amazing Animals also includes a cartoon Elephant. This character is the fifth most commonly recurring cartoon character in the Amazing Animals series.

### Baby Animals

In the Baby Animals episode From The Wild, an elephant calf is one of the baby animals being searched for. Eventually, a herd of African bush elephants with young calves is found – the footage for this episode was probably filmed at Howletts Zoo.

### Hullaballoo

One of the two main cartoon characters in Hullaballoo is a blue elephant named Buddy.