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African elephants. Distribution area. The West, Middle, Eastern and southern of Africa is the distribution area of Africa elephants . The northern subspecies had become extinct in the middle of nineteenth Century due to human hunting and habitat loss.
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The West, Middle, Eastern and southern of Africa is the distribution area of Africa elephants . The northern subspecies had become extinct in the middle of nineteenth Century due to human hunting and habitat loss.
Africa elephants live in tropical forests, forest and grassland areas, it is the largest living mammals live in land. Gregarious, to be led by a female elephant, diurnal, no settled. With grass, leaves, shoots, bark for food. Breeding season is not fixed, pregnancy about 22 months, each producing 1 Aberdeen, sexual maturity in 13 - 14 years old, life of 70 years. The Beijing zoo began breeding exhibition in 1954.
Size • Length: 6 to 7.5m • Shoulder height: 3.3m • Weight: 6 tonnesColour • The African elephant usually has a brownish-gray skin colour.
Habitat&Ecology • The African forest elephant lives in central and western Africa's equatorial forests. • The savanna elephant is found throughout the grassy plains and bushlands of the continent.
Social Structure • The complex social structure of elephants is organized around a system of herds composed of related females and their calves. • African elephant herds can form temporary aggregations, reaching over 1,000 individuals, mainly in East Africa. These associations occur during drought, human interference, or any change brought to the normal pattern of social life. • In the savanna subspecies, each family unit usually contains about 10 individuals, although several family units may join together to form a 'clan' consisting of up to 70 members led by a female. Forest elephants live in smaller family units. • When threatened, elephants will group around young calves and the matriarch, the leader of the group, may attack the foe. Young elephants stay with their mother for many years and are also cared for by other females in the group.
Young elephants wean after 6 to 18 months, although they may continue nursing for over 6 years. Male elephants leave their natal group at puberty and tend to form much more fluid alliances with other males. This species lives up to around 70 years, with females mostly fertile between 25 and 45. Males need to reach 20 years of age in order to successfully compete for mating. Life Cycle
Usually, a single calf is born every 2.5-9 years at the onset of the wet season, after a gestation period of 22 months. Breeding
Diet • The diet consists mainly of leaves and branches of bushes and trees, but they also eat grasses, fruit, and bark.
Current population and distribution • The forest elephant is found in the tropical rainforest zone of west and central Africa, where relatively large blocks of dense forest remain. The savanna elephant occurs in eastern and southern Africa, with the highest densities found in Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia and South Africa.
So bad~~ • Elephant numbers vary greatly over the 37 range states; some populations remain endangered, while others are now secure. For example, most countries in West Africa count their elephants in tens or hundreds, with animals scattered in small blocks of isolated forest; probably only three countries in this region have more than 1,000 animals. In contrast, elephant populations in southern Africa are large and expanding, with some 300,000 elephants now roaming across the sub-region. Significant elephant populations are now confined to well-protected areas. However, less than 20% of elephant range is under formal protection.
What is WWF doing? • Through its African Elephant Programme, WWF has identified 5 issues that need to be addressed in order to conserve African elephants and diminish the factors that threaten them:
Slowing the loss of natural habitat. • Strengthening activities against poachers and the illegal ivory trade. • Reducing conflict between human and elephant populations. • Determining the status of elephant populations through improved surveys. • Enhancing the capacity of local wildlife authorities to conserve and manage elephants.
What can we do? • We can put them in game parks with video cameras around their necks. • The law can help the elephants by preventing poaching. • We can ban the selling of ivory. People endangering the elephants must go to jail. • We can protect them by putting radios around their necks and by monitoring them regularly.
