Predators:

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Adult elephants, due primarily to their size, are relatively invulnerable to natural predation. The majority of the elephants killed are killed by humans. Smaller elephants, however, are somewhat vulnerable to lions, hyenas, wild dogs, and crocodiles. Even so, protection from the young elephant's maternal group typically precludes the possibility of a predator successfully picking off a juvenile. Thousands of elephants fall prey to poaching/slaughtering each year despite the efforts of local governments (Sikes, 1971). There are now approximately half as many elephants as there were half a century ago. East Africa has lost more than 85% of its elephant population to ivory traders and poachers. Elephant populations took a great hit when ivory traders hunted out the biggest elephants with the largest tusks. These large elephants, because of their tusks and body size, were often the members of the species that were reproducing the most. Thus, by destroying them, poachers damaged the reproductive output of the species as a whole (Ornstein and Beck, 1991).

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