A thriving tourist trade enables elephants to bring in money for local communities. That figure has grown as Botswana has strengthened its protection of elephants. The community now benefits directly from wildlife tourism. The revenue generated from healthy elephant populations means community members can improve their homes, expand their businesses and send their children to school. To help protect elephants, African nations are leading the Elephant Protection Initiative, a coalition of 18 African nations committed to closing their ivory markets and eliminating or placing their ivory stockpiles out of commercial use.
As co-secretariat, Conservation International is working to support this African stand for elephants. The initiative also supports the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary , which saves orphaned elephants together with the local Samburu community. Foundation and in conjunction with Passion Pictures and Vision3.
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African elephants range throughout the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa and the rainforests of Central and West Africa. The small, nomadic herd of Mali elephants migrates in a circular route through the desert in search of water.
An elephant can destroy an entire season of crops in a single night. A number of conservation programs work with farmers to help them protect their crops and provide compensation when an elephant does raid them. Elephants are matriarchal , meaning they live in female-led groups. The matriarch is usually the biggest and oldest. She presides over a multi-generational herd that includes other females, called cows, and their young.
Adult males, called bulls, tend to roam on their own, sometimes forming smaller, more loosely associated all-male groups. Having a baby elephant is a serious commitment. Elephants have a longer pregnancy than any other mammal— almost 22 months.
Cows usually give birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh some pounds and stand about three feet tall. Before the Europeans began colonizing Africa, there may have been as many as 26 million elephants.
By the early 20th century, their numbers had dropped to 10 million. Hunting continued to increase. By , their numbers were down to 1. Between and , hunting and poaching put the African elephant at risk of extinction, reducing its population by another half.
In the years since, poaching has continued to threaten both species: Savanna elephants declined by 30 percent between and , while forest elephants declined by 64 percent from to as poaching worsened in Central and West Africa. In , the International Union for Conservation of Nature recognized them as separate species for the first time , listing savanna elephants as endangered and forest elephants as critically endangered.
As few as , remain today. Compounding the problem is how long it takes for elephants to reproduce. With reproduction rates hovering around 5 to 6 percent , there are simply not enough calves being born to make up for the losses from poaching. African elephants are also losing their habitat as the human population grows and people convert land for agriculture and development. Elephants need a lot of room, so habitat destruction and fragmentation not only makes it harder for them to find food, water, and each other, but it also puts them in increased conflict with humans.
The decision to recognize African elephants as two separate species is seen as an important step for conservation, as it highlights the different challenges that each species faces. Scientists hope that the listing will bring more attention to forest elephants, which have often been overlooked by governments and donors when grouped together with more visible savanna elephants.
African elephants are protected to varying degrees in all the countries of their geographic range. There have been recent efforts to bring re-legalize the international trade in ivory, but those so far have failed. Conservation groups and governments have worked to set aside land for wildlife— including corridors that connect those protected lands.
Still, researchers believe that up to 70 percent of elephants' range is on unprotected land. To curb poaching, stopping the illegal trade is key. Advocates have launched campaigns that address both the supply side poaching and the demand side people who buy ivory. Since the ban went into effect, public demand for ivory seems to have fallen. On the supply side, protecting elephants from poaching also requires a local approach.
How fast can elephants run? Elephants have been clocked to run at 15 mph, however it is believed that, over a very short sharp distance, elephants could run as fast as 25mph. Adult elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating — they require up to kg of food and litres of water each day. Elephants have 6 sets of molar teeth, upon which they depend for survival. When the last set is lost, the animal is unable to eat and eventually dies of starvation. Besides being a long nose used for smelling, breathing and trumpeting, it is also used as a hand to grab things — it is sensitive enough to pick up a blade of grass, and strong enough to rip the branches off a tree.
The trunk is also used as a huge straw — elephants can suck up to 14 litres of water a time into their trunks and then blow this water into their mouths to drink. When bathing, they also use their trunk to spray themselves with water and mud. Amazingly the answer is 40,! Elephants have very sensitive skin and use mud as a form of sunscreen. They need to take regular mud baths in order to protect themselves from sunburn, insect bites and moisture loss. Elephant feet are covered in a soft padding that helps to support their weight, as well as preventing them from slipping and dulling the sound of their footsteps.
As a result, elephants can walk almost silently, despite their huge weight. Furthermore, elephants use their feet to listen to the sub-sonic rumblings made by other elephants through vibrations in the ground.
They have been observed to listen by putting their trunks on the ground and carefully positioning their feet. Female elephants remain pregnant for 2 years — the longest gestation period of all mammals. Having a baby elephant is no small commitment either. You may ask how much does an elephant weigh at birth, and the answer is a staggering kg!
An elephant can smell water from up to 12 miles away. Elephants communicate with one another using sound, touch and scent. Their hearing is excellent they can hear a trumpeting call from up to 5 miles away , and they use a wide range of sounds to talk to each other — including those which humans are not able to hear. Elephants are highly sensitive and caring animals, and have been observed to express grief, compassion, altruism and play. Elephants will pay respect to the bones of their dead by gently touching the skulls and tusks with their trunks and feet.
Elephants are able to recognise themselves using mirrors. Such displays of self-recognition indicates a very high level of awareness, and is something which only humans, apes, cetaceans and magpies are otherwise known to do. Being extremely sensitive creatures, elephants have been known to display behaviour patterns similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Female elephants spend their whole lives living in tight family groups with their female relatives. The eldest female normally leads the group. Male elephants leave the herd between the ages of 12 and 15, and usually live alone although may sometimes form small groups with other males. Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have excellent memories. Matriarchs rely on this memory during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past.
Elephants are able to recognise and distinguish human voices. They can tell the difference between human languages, male and female voices, friendly voices and those associated with danger.
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