The Disturbing Facts About Endangered Elephants
The endangered elephants are the African species. The other family member is the Asian elephant that is also referred to as the Indian elephant with this species being the smaller of the two. African elephants are classified into two groups being forest elephants and savanna/bush elephants.
These magnificent endangered elephants are the world's largest mammals. Poaching and loss of habitat are the reasons behind their disturbing, dwindling numbers in the wild. In the 1970s there was an estimated 1.3 million that was dropped to a diminished number between 450,000 and 650,000 in 2007 and those numbers are reported to have declined even further to date.
Habitat And Physical Features
The African endangered elephants are noticeably different in appearance from the Asian elephants by their substantially larger size and bigger ears. Also, they have a concave back and are considerably less hairy. Both female and male African elephants have tusks unlike the Asian species where tusks are only present in the male sex. Additionally, Asian elephants have one finger at their trunk's end where the African ones have two fingers. The biggest difference between the two is that African endangered elephants do not find themselves domesticated like Asian elephants.
African males often are 3.64 meters tall at the shoulders and females can grow to be 3 meters tall. Males can weigh an astonishing 6,800 kilograms and females average between 3,500 kilograms and 4,500 kilograms. Their skin is brownish-gray and their tusks can grow to be three meters long. The savanna/bush elephants have three toenails on their hind feet and four on the front while the forest species have four on their hind feet and five on the front. Forest elephants are smaller than savanna elephants and they have thinner and straighter tusks that bend downwards. Also, their ears are rounder and their jawbones are more narrow.
Savanna elephants make their homes in marshes, lake shores and open grasslands in the savanna zone while the forest elephants are found in deep rainforests of western and central Africa. Occasionally they will venture out of their habitat on accident which results in interbreeding.
Food And Behavior
These gentle, endangered elephants are herbivores with their diet being made up of fruits, bark, roots and grass. An adult elephant will often consume 140 kilograms of food everyday and they only take naps rather than sleep for long hours so that they can travel more ground to search for food.
The female endangered elephants travel in herds of ten or so members along with all of their young ones with the largest and oldest to supervise. The young males reach maturity when they are around 13 years old and then leave the herd to roam on their own. Interestingly, they mate when it is rainy. Females begin to breed when they are 10 and have a baby every 4 years, carrying each one for a period of 22 months. If undisturbed, elephants can live to be 60 years old.
These social mammals communicate by rumbles, moans, trumpets and growls. They can produce a sound that can travel one mile. These low frequency sounds are received by other elephants through their skin in their trunk and feet. Their ears work to keep them cool when it is hot and they will suck up water into their trunk and then shower it all over themselves.
Status
These endangered elephants that once roamed freely throughout Africa are now threatened due to human's hunting them for their ivory. Human encroachment and deforestation have led to loss of habitat. Drought is another threat that results in frequent deaths of the young. In 1989, there was an ivory ban implemented with very strict anti-poaching measures. Despite these laws, these endangered elephants continue to be hunted for ivory trade.