African Elephant Research Paper

The African elephant is the largest living land mammal and one of the most impressive animals on Earth. The elephant trunk serves as a nose, hand, extra foot, helps gather food, siphoning water, dusting, and digging. The trunk can reach up to 23ft. The elephant habitat is dense forest to open planes. Elephants are herbivore. An elephant's lifespan is 60 to 70 years. A elephants predator is a human.

The official title of the world’s largest land dwelling animal belongs to the elephant, more specifically, the African elephant. Elephants also are some of the most deadly animals, which therefore increase the danger of human and elephant interactions. The more human interactions occur, the more deaths result, whether it is the elephant or the human who dies. These animals, surprisingly, are socially apt; their trunk is used for more than just eating and drinking- it is used for socializing. They are complex animals who live in large familial herds-females stay with their family throughout their entire lives while males only stay for approximately fifteen years (Elephant Protection, 1). Elephants possess a great memory and only forget what they learn occasionally and rarely, giving way to the “an elephant never forgets” saying (Maloiy, 178c). Despite how many people use the beloved saying, elephants may not be around much longer due to the shortened life span and increased mortality rates. Due to their incisor teeth, tusks, being extremely expensive and profitable, they are being murdered for the wealth they carry. This, coupled with the life span shortening because of malicious treatments and brutal practices reduces the life span of the African elephant from 56 to 16 years and the Asian elephant from 42 to 19 years (Elephant Protection, 1). According to what the statistics show, elephants may be following their ancestors to their death. Of the group of mammals called

The African Bush elephants are found in eastern and southern Africa. Some of the areas with the highest densities of the Bush elephant is: Tanzania, South African, Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The African Bush elephant is terrestrial. The Bush elephant usually live in the grasslands, semi-deserts and the bush lands. They also clear out forest and turn them into more of grassland, by knocking down the trees. The climate that the Bush elephant normally lives in is dry and hot. Their thin hairs and ears help them stay cool. Another way that they stay cool is that their hides become more permeable in the heat. Scientists has performed research on 13 elephants (African and Asian), they measure the release of heat and moisture. What they have found was that their skin opens up at air temperatures as low at 10°C to 12°C, this is what allows them to perspire. Elephants are different than most mammals, that sweats through glands connected to pores, elephants only have pores between their toes. Elephants do not sweat (Phillips, 1992). By all of the skin being permeable they lose more

West Africa is home to one of the last herds of desert elephants -- the other desert herd lives in Namibia. Like elephants http://www.care2.com/causes/7-easy-ways-to-help-this-world-elephant-day.html

Back in the early 20th century, there were millions of African elephants and 100,000 Asian elephants. Now days there are only 450,000 – 700,000 African elephants and only

Though there are many different types of elephant across the world, they are most commonly classified as either African or Asian elephants then from there are broken down into different genuses. Growing ten to twelve feet in height and weighing up to eleven tons, the biggest of all the elephants and the largest land-mammal is my personal favorite, the African bush elephant. These massive animals are found walking the plains and grasslands in southern and central Africa, always on the move searching for food and watering holes.

Scientists regard African elephants as one of the most intelligent animal species on Earth. They are highly social and can recognize specific individuals, use tools, teach skills to their offspring, imitate sounds, and show strong indications of self-awareness, emotional capacity, and memory recall. Until recently, experts believed these abilities were unique to the great apes. The IUCN red list considers African elephants vulnerable due to habitat loss and ivory poaching. Although international conservation efforts and heightened law enforcement have increased populations in recent years, poaching remains an imminent threat. Elephants are known change their behavior in response to nearby human activity, but new research shows that these typically daytime animals are trying to save themselves – by taking on the graveyard shift.

An Asian Elephant is six and a half feet tall, twenty-one feet long, and weighs around eleven thousand pounds. Although Asian Elephants look and sound to be big they are not as big as the African Elephant their skin is also a lot smoother than African Elephants. Their color range from a dark grey color to brown, with pink patches on their forehead, ears, base of the trunk, and their chest. These elephants can live up to fifty to seventy years in the wild, but

Many pay little to no attention to this specie just like a hippopotamus or an animal that seems to stand out as if it were a white tiger. These creatures are mostly located around South Africa, North Africa and there are a few around East Africa as well (White Rhino; White Rhinoceros). The white rhino is very muscular, “white rhinos have a square upper lip with almost no hair” and has its two front ivory horns (White Rhino). These creatures travel in herds and mark their territory usually with “vigorously scraped dung piles” (White Rhinoceros). Males have a small land range of 1-3km although the females land range is about 6-20km or even lager depending on the population density and the land quality (White

Elephants are a kind hearted large mammal who could potentially be forgotten about over time. This topic relates to what we have discussed in class because this article demonstrates the catastrophic decline of Elephants in Africa due to poaching (D-Arian). The article also exemplified the harsh dealings in Africa regarding the Ivory trade throughout Africa and China (Asiah). The issue itself is very disturbing some individuals had no sympathy about the life of an elephant however, they are looked at as a resource (Tyaira). Overall this article and what it stands for opened my eyes to how violent and lucrative the ivory trade is in Africa and China (Cherisse). But we are very thankful that there are recent laws past that to protects the elephants

Elephants now join an elite club of social cooperators: chimpanzees, hyenas, rooks, and humans. In the video Elephants show cooperation, the article Elephants can lend a helping trunk, and the passage Elephants know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task, The authors demonstrate the intelligence of elephants. They conduct an experiment which shows how elephants work together to achieve a goal. All three sources illustrate the cognitive ability of these sagacious creatures.

Elephants were used to scare other people away. Recent studies have found that elephants had a helpful part when it comes to the army because of their size and speed. In this article Lockie discuss their research. Researchers found this, “War elephants were usually deployed in the center of the line, where the imposing beasts would charge at up to 20 mph toward the enemy. They were also used to carry heavy materials across difficult terrain before tanks and helicopters were an option,” (Lockie, 2015). Researchers also found,

Asian elephants have been integral to the history of Asia and India, proving to be useful in many things such as warfare and construction. Asian Elephants are huge mammals that can weigh up to 6 tons, shoulder height of 10 feet, and 21 feet from head to tail. Their size and strength are very useful in hauling things such as logs and are a military might unrivaled for thousands of years. They can live up to 60 years but the

Elephants are a vital part of the range of animals and plants that Africa has to offer. It is important to protect this variety of life, known as biodiversity. However, the ivory trade is causing the number of elephants in the world to decrease. As many elephants are illegally killed by poachers for their ivory tusks.

"Elephants will spend most of their time chained by the foot only being able to move one step forwards and back, 90% or more of their time is spent like, in the wild, they will roam in family herds up to 25 miles per day," stated in the article Cruelty at the Circus, written by Society for the Advancement of Animal Wellbeing in 2007. These large animal's anatomy is made to travel throughout their entire lives. Walk mosting of the day it provides exercise and health for these massive mammals. Arthritis, locked joints, and calluses can be found in these animals if they are not walking or exercising as much as they should.