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Habitat The African elephant lives, as one might expect, only in Africa. However, they cannot be found in all parts of Africa. Centuries ago, and even in more recent memory, Africa was a more lush, wetter country. Now it has become dryer, and some areas have lost the green forests that once characterized their landscapes. This trend has limited the extent of the African Elephants inhabitance in Africa (see diagram below). In northern Africa, where elephants are thought to have once been present, there are now none. The same is true for the southern most parts of the African continent. Between the the Sahara desert and the Kalahari desert lies the current range of the African Elephant's existence. This region extends from below parts of Niger and Chad to parts of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. The African Elephant does not inhabit the island country of Madagascar. This range of inhabitance is characterized by the presence of savannas, woodlands, tropical rain forests, and grasslands. Within this range there are several subspecies of African elephant - Loxodonta africana africana, or the Savannah elephant; Loxodonta africana cyclotis, or the forest/round-eared elephant; and the more recently identified desert elephant of Namibia. As the names imply, these subspecies once lived in very different habitat types. Now, due to environmental and anthropologic forces, the Savannah and forest elephants can often be found to coexist in the same habitat type - the desert elephant continues to be located only in the deserts of Namibia (Orenstein/Beck, 1991 and Sikes, 1971). General Information There are several small differences between the Savannah elephant and the forest elephant. The forest elephant has smaller, rounder ears; tends to be shorter; typically has straight tusks; and often has more hair than the Savannah elephant. There are very few differences in social behavior between these two subspecies (Sikes, 1971). Thus, for the purposes of this webpage, the two subspecies will be addressed simultaneously whenever the word 'elephant' is used. The Asian Elephant, which has more pronounced morphological differences, also shares a very similar social behavior with the African Elephant. Pictures of both species are shown below. |
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S. K. Sikes
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Public Domain African Elephant
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Permission pending from the Little Rock Zoo Asian elephant |
The African Elephant, above left, is slightly different from the Asian elephant, above right. The African Elephant's ears are larger and rounder and it's forehead slopes forward (Online source).
The African Elephant can live to be upwards of 70 years old (Benedict,1936). If an elephant makes it to this age without being killed by poachers or other natural phenomenon, it will die when its sixth and final set of molars wears out (Sikes, 1971). Essentially, the life span of any African elephant is limited by the amount of time it takes to wear out their six sets of molars (Sites, 1971). The diagram below shows the relationship between size, age and molar number as well as the maximum heights for both cows (females) and bulls (males)..
S. K. Sikes, public domain
The African elephant is a migratory species. The Savannah, forest, and desert subspecies of the African elephant all migrate, although the forest subspecies often does so to a lesser extent. During the dry season, elephants tend to remain in more forest like environments, with the exception of the desert elephant which moves about 100 km (60 miles) per day due to the fact that there are few human settlements in the way of their migration paths. When the wet season begins, the elephants move to Savannah landscapes. In the Savannah, grasses, herbs, flowers, and other vegetable matter sustains the elephants (Orenstein/Beck, 1991). A single adult bull consumes between 160 and 770 pounds of food per day. During the dry season, elephants feed primarily as browsers, uprooting bushes and even knocking trees down to gain access to food during times of drought - some elephants have been observed to knock down as many as 1,000 trees per year. In the wet season, Elephants survive primarily on grasses (DiSilvestro, 1991). The elephant is probably best known for its trunk. The tip of the trunk has two finger like protrusions that allow the elephant to grasp at grasses and leaves. The trunk also helps the elephant to drink from a pool of water without having to bend down and use its mouth. The elephant can simply suck a portion of water into its trunk and then release that water into its mouth (Sikes, 1971)
The migratory routes follow the same paths year after year. An abundant water supply is necessary for the elephants survival. An elephant may drink as much as 45 gallons of water per day and requires even more to keep its skin moist (Orenstein/Beck, 1991). When lakes or swamps do not provide adequate water, an elephant may dig holes in the earth to find water. They seem to have an uncanny ability to tell exactly where they must dig to find water (Sikes, 1971). The reasons for this abillity are unknown.
Elephants can survive a wide variety of temperatures ranging from below freezing to 120° F (these extremes can only be survived for short periods of time). Surviving such temperatures, however, requires the availability of food, water, and, in cases of extreme heat, access to shade. To supplement their basic diet of vegetable matter, elephants can often be observed to seek out salt licks or waters that have elevated mineral concentrations (Sikes, 1971).
Onward to Social Spacing
