The African Elephant is the worlds largest land animal, and the most iconic animal that can be recognized anywhere in the world. The African Elephant is much larger than their relatives, the asian elephants. Another distinctive feature of the African Elephants are their long tusks that they use for protection against predators and in fights against other elephants. although they use their tusks to protect themselves, the tusks have attracted many humans who engage in the illegal ivory trade. Also Because of loss of habitat, and habitat fragmentation, elephants in africa have started running more and more into human communities and such encounters have resulted in conformation that usually result in the death of elephants and humans alike. There is a big problem that has to be addressed before we completely destroy the habitat and lives of these great giants that have been here long before we have.
There are two subspecies of African Elephants that consist of the savanna or bush elephant, and the forest elephant which is a little smaller and darker than the bush elephant. besides the small difference in size, the bush's elephant's tusks curve outwards and the forest ones grow a little more straight. standing 10 to 13 feet tall the African Elephant is twice as tall as a human and it weights 10,000 to 13,000 pounds. The elephants use their trunk, which is basically their nose and upper lip, to smell things or grab the leafs off the trees or to pick up grass or other things from the ground. The large ears of the elephant also serve another purpose besides allowing the elephants to have great hearing, the elephants use their ears to fan themselves out to try to help them stay cool under the hot african sun, the elephants skin is about two to three centimeters thick, and i bet being out in the sun all day can get quite uncomfortable sometimes, thats why the elephants also use their trunks to give themselves mud baths in order to try to keep themselves a bit cooler.
African Elephants are very community based animals, and they travel in herds across the african plains. Unlike other animal communities, the leader of the elephants herd is the oldest female, called the matriarch. This fact is very important for Elephants as the matriarch knows the best sources of food and water that are crucial for the survival of the herd. The matriarch decides when the herd will stop to eat, rest or attack a perceived threat. Elephant herds also are extremely protective of their young, and who can blame them, the gestation period for an elephant is 22 months and they only have singular offspring at one time. usually space between 3 to 9 years apart. the females are the most fertile between 25 and 40 and the males after the age of 20. Elephants can live up to 70 years! which might be why they develop such close communities and bonds between them they will also mourn their dead as humans would..
The African Elephant once had unlimited migratory range all over the african continent but due to human community growth, the elephant's habitat has been decreasing and its being fragmented throughout the years. Now elephants have been restricted to several patches of land in central and eastern Africa, and the new emerging communities and agricultural fields are now cutting off the elephants migratory routes. The conflict has resulted in hundreds of villagers dying every year because of elephants that feel threatened and have attacked the villagers. This does not mean that the elephants are going out of their way to hurt humans, but we have started moving into elephant lands and the confrontations are only getting more common as we have been pushing the elephants out of their habitat for years! but now there is no where else to push them to so the elephants have begun to push back.
Another big threat for the elephants are the hunters that kill the elephants in order to sell their tusks in the black market as ivory trade has been illegal since 1990, but there is still a great demand for it in eastern asia and some in the black market within Africa itself. These two factors are threatening the livelihood of the amazing African Elephants. not only do hunters diminish the elephant population but hey contribute to genetic alteration of the remaining elephants. in the old days it was not uncommon to see elephants with their tusks inches from the ground, those elephants would be chosen by females in the herds to mate with and the offspring would posses the long tusk gene but due to the "trophy" and "sport" hunting of the elephant, the females have been forced to accept mates who are smaller in size and that have smaller tusks and this has seriously affected the genetics of the remaining elephants communities.
We have to find a way to save the elephants or not only would we have lost one of the most iconic creatures know to us but we will also have had successfully destroyed the entire ecosystem where these giants live. The elephants need about 157 litters of water a day and they can eat up to 992 pounds of vegetation pre day. As these animals are nomadic and usually are always on the move they act as a great transportation method for many of the plants or trees in their habitats, their digestive system is not the greatest and only about half of what they eat is actually digested so they carry seeds from the vegetation they eat all over the place and this helps their ecosystem stay diverse. Without the elephants to help spread some of the forests seeds and plants the ecosystem would suffer greatly as many trees would not be able to disperse their seeds across the harsh lands of the savanna. Also without the elephants to eat a great part of the vegetation in the area, some of the plant species would take over some areas and kill off other smaller plants, the elephants act as a loan mover that keeps plants new and allows many smaller weaker plant species to have a chance to grow under some of the most adapted species.
Can you imagine a world without any living elephants? The idea of elephants being a thing of the past is really a saddening thought. knowing we are living in the time where these amazing creatures are still here makes feel like there is no way they could ever go away or go extinct but that will be the sad reality if we do not do something to help and preserve the Africa Elephants. Although it is easy to call someone to action and try to encourage people to care, the believes of 'someone else will do it' or 'there is no way we would let them go extinct' are prominent amongst our community and keep us from doing anything about the problem. we refuse to believe that this could ever happen and we rely on someone else to care and do something because we are too busy or we just do not know what to do to help or we just do not have the time to research ways to help. But by simply being knowledgeable about the problem and talking to those who are not will increase the awareness about the issue and this could come across someone who has the ability and time to help fix the problem, their help could be crucial to maintain a healthy population of African Elephants alive for future populations to enjoy and experience in real life instead of learning about it from book or tales about the time when elephants still walked the earth.
if anyone would like to help in any way there are people who dedicate their lives to protect the elephants from poachers by keeping a close eye on the natural reserves in africa and by tracking the elephant colonies to ensure they are not being hunted and killed. Most of the efforts being conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). they are helping to educate communities to stay out of the elephants habitats and migration areas, they are also working with local communities to help slow down the loss of natural habitats for the elephants and strengthening the efforts to stop poachers and stop the illegal ivory trade. The effort being put forward by these individuals in the organization deserves recognition and support to help them continue trying to help the elephants and preserve their habitat. Anyone can give them a hand in the fight to save the African elephant by donating some or any money to the foundation in order to help fund their efforts in Africa by going to: http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/support_wwf/donate/ ..which is the official cite of the World Wildlife Fund. if you are not able to help the African Elephant with a monetary donation you can also help by just spreading the word and letting everyone and anyone in your social media know about this growing problem! again, education about this topic can increase awareness and the help for the elephants will be on the way!
