Elephants
The elephant is a large mammal with a long trunk and tusks. The trunk is an elongated nose used for feeding, drinking, bathing, blowing dust, and testing the air. The tusks are upper incisor teeth composed entirely of dentine (ivory) used for defense, levering trees, and scraping for water. Elephants are long-lived (50–70 years) and reach maturity at 12 years. They reproduce slowly (one calf every two to three years) due to a 21-month gestation period and an equally long weaning period. A newborn elephant stands 3 ft (1 m) at the shoulder and weighs 200 lb (90 kg). The Elephantidae includes two living species and various extinct relatives.
Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) grow to 10 ft (3 m) high and weigh 4 tons. The trunk ends in a single lip, the forehead is high and domed, the back convex, and the ears small. Asian elephants are commonly trained as work animals. They range from India to southeast Asia. There are four subspecies, the most abundant of which is the Indian elephant (E. m. bengalensis) with a wild population of about 20,000. The Sri Lankan (E. m. maximus), Malayan (E. m. hirsutus), and the Sumatran elephants (E. m. sumatranus) are all endangered subspecies.
In Africa, adult bush elephants (Loxodonta africana oxyotis) are the world's largest land mammals, growing 11 ft (3.3 m) tall and weighing 6 tons. The trunk ends in a double lip, the forehead slopes, the back is hollow, and the ears are large and triangular. African elephants are also endangered and have never been successfully trained to work. The rare round-eared African forest elephant (L. a. cyclotis)
Elephants at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, Africa. (Photograph by Wolfgang Kaehler. Corbis-Bettmann. Reproduced by permission.)is smaller than the bush elephant and inhabits dense tropical rain forests.
Elephants were once abundant throughout Africa and Asia, but they are now threatened or endangered nearly everywhere because of widespread ivory poaching. In 1970 there were about 4.5 million elephants in Africa, by 1990 there were only 600,000. Protection from poachers and the 1990 ban on the international trade in ivory (which caused a drop in the price of ivory) are slowing the slaughter of African bush elephants. However, the relatively untouched forest elephants are now coming under increasing pressure. In West Africa recent hunting has reduced forest elephants to less than 3,000.
Elephants are keystone species in their ecosystems, and their elimination could have serious consequences for other wildlife. For example, wandering elephants disperse fruit seeds in their dung, and the seeds of some plants must pass through elephants to germinate. Elephants are also "bulldozer herbivores," habitually trampling plants and uprooting small trees. In African forests elephants create open spaces that allow the growth of vegetation favored by gorillas and forest antelope. In woodland savanna elephants convert wooded land into grasslands, thus favoring grazing animals. However, large populations of elephants confined to reserves can also destroy most of the vegetation in a region. Culling exploding elephant populations in reserves has been practiced in the past to protect the vegetation for other animals that depend on it.
Resources
Books
———. Battle for the Elephants. New York: Viking, 1992.
Martin, C. The Rainforests of West Africa. Boston: Birkhauser Verlag, 1991.
Shoshani, J., ed. Elephants: Majestic Creatures of the Wild. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1992.
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