Common Name:African Elephant
Scientific Name: Loxodonta Africana
Kingdom: Animalia
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family:Elephantidae
Savanna elephant, or otherwise known as African bush elephant, is the largest elephant in Africa. Considerably large ears help the animal radiate excess heat. The hind limbs are shorter than the fore-limbs. The animal possesses a tusk, which aids in marking, feeding, digging and fighting. The Savanna elephant impresses with its massive size: the largest individual of this species was 4 meters at the shoulder and as heavy as 10 tones.
African bush elephants occur in Sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, and Angola.
They move between a variety of habitats, including forests, dry and seasonally flooded grasslands, woodlands, shrubland, and wetlands to mountain slopes. In Mali and Namibia, they also inhabit desert and semi-desert areas.
elephants have a polygynous mating system, where males are constantly in search of breeding females. They breed throughout the year with peak periods, occurring during the rainy seasons. When mating, males usually stay less than a few weeks with each female and her herd. Gestation period lasts as long as 2 years, yielding a single baby (rarely - twins), which is nursed for about 2 years. The calf then continues to live under protection of the entire herd until 6 years old, when the young elephant is able to live independently. Males of this species are sexually mature after 20 years old, whereas females are mature after 10 - 11 years, being most reproductive at 25 - 45 years old.
These herbivorous animals mainly feed upon leaves, roots, bark, grasses, fruit and other vegetation.
This elephant is currently threatened by poaching for its ivory fetches, which are highly valued in black markets in Asian countries as well as the United States. In addition, war and over-exploitation of natural resources usually cause increased poaching for their meat. African bush elephants frequently come into conflict with people as a result of the growing human population: thus, about 70% of their range lies outside the protected areas, due to which they often damage agriculture and water supplies, leading to injuries and even mortality in both people and elephants. On the other hand, the growing human population combined with land conversion is one of the biggest threats to the population of this species, causing fragmentation of their natural habitat.
Vulnerable