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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Unknown

South African Bush Elephant

Loxodonta africana africana

Physical Characteristics

  • African elephants are the largest land mammal in the world. Both the male and the female have tusks. The head had large fan-like ears and a large, sloping forehead. The trunk is made up of more than 40,000 muscles and has two finger-like projections. The bottom of the feet are covered with thick pads. They have 6 sets of teeth.
  • Size of average adult and newborn
    • height: adult = 6-12 feet tall at the shoulder, newborn = 3 feet
    • weight: adult = 5,000-14,000 pounds, newborn = 200 pounds
  • Approximate life span is 50-60 years.

Diet

  • Wild: grasses, tree bark and fruits, also consume soil for mineral content

Behavior

  • Diurnal (active during the day)
  • Social: live in tightly organized herds of females and offspring led by a matriarch, adult males form own herds or travel alone
  • Communicate by a variety of sounds
  • Bathe in the wild 3-4 times a day
  • Eat 300-500 pounds of vegetation every day
  • No natural enemies
  • Good swimmers
  • Reproduction
    • sexual maturity: approximately 10 years
    • breeding season: males go into musth
    • single births
    • gestation: 22 months
    • nurses 3-4 years, start to eat solids at 6 months
    • most of growth by 15 years but continues to grow throughout its life

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: desert regions to grassy savannas to forests
  • Distribution: Africa, south of the Sahara Desert to north of South Africa
  • Numbers: estimated 600,000 in Africa (1994), 48 in SSP (1993)
  • Status: Threatened, CITES Appendix I
    • poaching: ivory tusks
    • habitat destruction: Human encroachment limiting space for herds
    • This species faces great threats due to the bushmeat crisis in Central and West Africa. For more information on this alarming problem, visit the website of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force at www.bushmeat.org.

Conservation Efforts

  • Banning of ivory trade
  • Law enforcement
  • Increased guard protection in National Parks and Reserves

Research and Investigative Programs

  • Wild: Cynthia Moss-behavior
  • SCZ: blood drawn to plot estrus cycles in preparation for future artificial insemination

Suggested Readings

  • Elephant Memories, Cynthia Moss
  • Among the Elephants, Iain & Oria Douglas-Hamilton
  • The Natural History of Elephants, Sylvia K. Sikes

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