Loxodanta African Elephant Research Paper

Not surprisingly, elephants are known for being more emotional and empathetic animals than the rest. According the three articles, “Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk”, “Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk in a Cooperative Task”, and “Elephants Console Each Other” elephants understand when they need each other’s assistance. All two authors describe the studies of elephant behavior differently, but with a similar purpose.

Textual Evidence: “Social Beasts: The elephant’s massive stature and instantly recognizable trunk are familiar to people around the world. Elephant society is matriarchal; the groups are highly social and ruled by an older, dominant

The official title of the world’s largest land dwelling animal belongs to the elephant, more specifically, the African elephant. Elephants are some of the most deadly animals, which increases the danger of human and elephant interactions. Increased human and elephant interactions lead to increased deaths of both humans and elephants. Surprisingly, these animals are socially apt. The 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

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

Genetic diversity is essential for a healthy population, and conservationists believe that the introduction of eight bulls to Addo from the Kruger National Park, will not only increase the diversity of the gene pool but reintroduce a dominant tusk gene (SANParks Media Release, 1). The bulls selected were also not known to be aggressive towards other elephants and humans as park officials did not want to introduce behavior inconsistent with those of the Addo elephants. To ensure that these 8 bulls have a greater chance of becoming dominant and adding their genes into the Addo herds, officials relocated a number of dominant Addo males into other parks.

The year is 1,002,016 and it’s scorching hot! The African Bush Elephant’s trunk has evolved to be six inches longer. The ancient elephants had a different variation of the trunk, some of them had a smaller trunk, some elephants with longer trunks. Now that there was different types of elephants natural selection came into place so, more and more of the elephants had longer trunks, but as time has passed water became scarce. As a result, the elephants with the smaller trunks in the population diminished. Since they were not able to survive. The elephant with the longer trunk were able to survive more. Now the trait will help the elephant survive since, it was able to adapt to their new dry sandy habitat since it be able to smell the water

Elephant has long been known as one of man’s best friends, who have peacefully coexisted along with humanity for thousands of years. However, the relationship between the two is no longer in the equilibrium state. In “An Elephant Crackup?”, Charles Siebert discusses the downfall of the elephants. He gives a depiction of the recent raging and violent acts of the elephants among themselves and toward other species, including humans, and presents an educated and almost unexpected explanation to their behaviors. He says elephants are just like us; they have feelings and now are “suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma”(Siebert 354). The similarity that should be something fascinating is now slowly turning them into the immensely savage beasts before wiping them out of existence. Even when the appearance of the words “stress” and “trauma” looks like a serious case of “anthropocentric conjecture”, it provides a totally new vision, a fresh way of looking at the boiling issue of the disappearance and sadistic acts of elephants specifically and wild animals at large. With the help of two powerful essays: “Great to Watch” by Maggie Nelson and “The Power of Context” of Malcolm Gladwell, the issue of the unusual behaviors of the elephants is thoroughly illuminated and its solution no longer seems to be out of human’s reach.

The adult bush African elephant is generally no natural predators because of its large size, but the calves (especially infants) are vulnerable to lions and crocodiles attacks, and (rarely)

The largest animal on earth is the African elephant. They grow to be ten to twelve feet tall at the shoulders. They may weigh six tons. That is about the same as what a big truck weighs. African elephants have three traits. They have large ears, long curved tusks, and flexible trunks. Their big ears help the elephants to keep cool. They move their ears back and forth like a fan. African elephants also use their ears for communication. Happiness and anger are two feelings they show. Male and female elephants have curved tusks that stick out of the sides of their mouths. The tusks may grow up to eight feet long. The elephants’ trunks are used for many purposes. They use them for breathing, for sucking up water, for smelling, and

Thanks for the post Lauren! I read an article a few days ago about how an increasing number of African elephants are being born without tusks. As you discussed, poachers often kill elephants for their ivory tusks, so much so that the species is facing extinction in certain parts of the country. Scientist believe that to avoid poaching, elephants are evolving to be tuskless. For those with tusk, the sizes have decreased significantly. While in theory, being tuskless is a helpful development to ward off poachers, scientist believe tuskless elephants will be crippled in the wild when it comes to self-defense and digging for food. Ultimately, it looks like poaching is far threatening to species survival, then being able to defend oneself and

Just imagine life without any elephants, wiped out just like the dinosaurs. In the early 1980’s, there were more than a million reported elephants in Africa. Tragically, during that decade, 600,000 elephants were destroyed for ivory products. Today, conceivably no more than 400,000 elephants remain across the continent. Elephants are facing a very real threat of extinction; In fact, the African elephants are listed on the

produced a study that examined the later-life consequences of breeding on a population, particularly breeding early in life. Hayward et al. also used the Myanmar timber camp Elephas maximus to perform the research, looking at the records of 416 reproductive captive born mothers and their offspring. The elephants used were from 8 regions of the Myanmar timber camps with the youngest breeding being 5 years of age and the oldest being 53. The mean age at the first birth of offspring was 19.48 years with the maximum number of lifetime calves being 10 calves. Hayward et al. discovered that individuals who didn’t produce calves before the age of 19 had lower calf survival than those who produced one or more calves before the age of 19. Although beginning reproduction earlier in life is correlated with a shorter lifespan, the cost is outweighed with higher annual breeding success as well as increased calf survival (Hayward et al). The investment of energy and resources into breeding at an early age increases the chance of calf survival but also results in shorter lifespans compared to those who begin reproduction later in life (Hayward et al.). Based on the findings, the costs of early-life reproduction are offset by higher lifetime breeding success in younger elephants. The breeding success of younger elephants can be attributed not only to early reproduction, but also to older females in a herd. While Hayward et al. observes the effects of young

Elephants make many calls that humans can hear, from the shrill trumpets to the low groans. The deepest elephant calls we hear are called grunts or rumbles and they are so low and powerful that they can travel for miles through the Asian forests. Elephants communicate with every sense: touch, taste, smell, vision, and hearing. Elephants can keep track of odors on the ground while their heads are held up due to their long trunks. They routinely touch and smell each others' bodies with their trunks as well. The hearing of elephants is completely baffling. They can hear from a long distance, making long-distance communication, mating, and elephant society

He is a world-renowned elephant expert, and has largely contributed to the elephant conservation community. He is the author of “Gone Astray: The care and management of the Asian elephant in Domesticity”. In this book, Lair addresses the issues of conservation, and the future for the Asian elephant in domesticity. His research has shown that a large cause for the population decline of the elephant, is habitat

The study and research of reproduction in elephants is increasingly critical in consideration of the quickly dwindling population numbers and estimates. The current Asian elephant population is estimated to lie between 50,000-70,000 across the world, with 15,000 of these individuals in captivity. African elephant population numbers are low as well after serious culling through hunting and poaching. These numbers make the low reproduction rates a great concern as elephants do not currently sufficiently reproduce at an adequate rate to sustain population size.12