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Elephant Facts
African elephant
Loxodonta
The African elephant (Loxodonta) is a genus comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (L. africana) and the smaller African forest elephant (L. cyclotis). Both are social herbivores with grey skin, but differ in the size and colour of their tusks and in the shape and size of their ears and skulls. Northern African elephants tend to be slightly smaller than southern Africa elephants.
Plight of Elephants
Both species are considered at heavy risk of extinction as of 2021, the bush elephant is considered endangered and the forest elephant is considered critically endangered. They are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and poaching for the illegal ivory trade is a threat in several range countries as well.
Global warming, hunger, degradation of land, poaching - these are just a few of the many problems confronting African elephants today. So, you may be asking yourself, with all the issues that happen globally, why do elephants matter? The answer is that we cannot sit back and allow the senseless slaughter of thousands of innocent animals to continue. Elephants are the largest land-living mammals and among the most intelligent animals on earth. Adult elephants have no natural predators; the main threat to elephants is from humans. Humans kill elephants for their ivory tusks and humans destroy the elephants’ habitats. Because the threat to elephants
comes from us, only we can stop the madness. Elephants are vital to the web of life in Africa. As a keystone species, they help balance all the other species in their ecosystem, opening up forest land to create firebreaks and grasslands, digging to create water access for other animals, and leaving nutrients in their wake. Sometimes called the "mega gardeners of the forest," elephants are essential to the dispersal of seeds that maintain tree diversity.
Elephant Evolution
The largest of all land beasts, elephants are thundering, trumpeting six-tonne monuments to the wonder of evolution. From the tip of that distinctive trunk with its 100,000 dextrous muscles; to their outsize ears that flap the heat away; to the complex matriarchal societies and the mourning of their dead; to the points of their ivory tusks, designed to defend, but ultimately the cause of their ruin.
African and Asian elephants are more closely related to the woolly mammoth than to each other. The ears are said to be a geographical guide. In Asia, elephants have smaller India-shaped ears. While in Africa their huge ears are the shape of the whole continent.
Killing African elephants for their ivory is devastating the species. In 1979, the elephant population in Africa was approximately 1.3 million. Today, there are estimates that fewer than a third of that number. What accounts for this dramatic decline? The primary cause is poaching. According to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, at least 30,000 elephants were killed in Africa in 2012.
Savelephant's is committed to raising awareness of the plight of endangered elephants and to raising funds to support the organizations that are working to stop elephant poaching. Together, we can turn the tide and save these exceptional animals. We can show the world that we care and that we stand with the elephants.
Still poached for ivory
Despite a ban on the international trade in ivory, African elephants are still being poached in large numbers. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed every year for their ivory tusks. The ivory is often carved into ornaments and jewellery – China is the biggest consumer market for such products.
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At the end of 2013, there were an estimated 500,000 African elephants living in the world. 95 percent of the elephant population has been killed during the last 100 years. According to wildlife charities, nearly 100 African elephants are killed each day by poachers.
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Where do they live?
In Africa, elephants are most common in the savannahs, elephants still inhabit a wide variety of landscapes. They can be found in the Saharan and Namibian deserts. Almost everywhere, these great nomads are restricted to ever-decreasing pockets of land.
Elephant Populations
In 1800 there may have been 26 million elephants in Africa alone, although it’s hard to be precise. But today, after years of poaching and habitat destruction, those numbers are a tiny fraction of what they once were. estimated that African elephant numbers fell from one million to 400,000 during the 1980s. Ivory-seeking poachers have killed 100,000 African
elephants in just three years, according to a new study that provides the first reliable continent-wide estimates of illegal kills.
The African elephant (Loxodonta) is a genus comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (L. africana) and the smaller African forest elephant (L. cyclotis). Both are social herbivores with grey skin, but differ in the size and colour of their tusks and in the shape and size of their ears and skulls. Northern African elephants tend to be slightly smaller than southern Africa elephants.
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