African savanna elephant
Help save African elephants by researching the products you buy to ensure that you are not inadvertently purchasing animal products that support the illegal wildlife trade.
Conservation Messaging Opportunities
Physical features
African elephants are Earth’s largest land animals. They are sexually dimorphic as far as size, with males being larger.
Males weigh 10,000-14,000 pounds, equal to the weight of around three mid-size pickup trucks. Females weigh 7,000-9,000 pounds on average.
Females can reach 10 feet tall, around the same height as a regulation NBA basketball hoop. Males are taller, reaching up to 13 feet. Most females are closer to 8 feet tall, while most bulls are closer to 10-12 feet.
Male and female African elephants have tusks, although a lack of tusks in females does sometimes occur naturally. An elephant’s tusks can grow 1-3 inches a year, occasionally reaching 10 ft. in length and 200 lbs in males.
Elephant tusks are two upper middle teeth. Young elephants have temporary tusks, much like human baby teeth, that fall out at around 3 years of age and are replaced by the adult tusks. The tusks grow throughout the elephant’s adult life.
Elephants have four molars at one time. They go through six sets of teeth during their lifetime. They experience heavy wear as they chew on woody plants. The teeth are pushed forward as they wear and are replaced by the next set of new teeth developing behind them.
Elephants use their tusks for digging, offense and defense, displaying/visually communicating, and in gathering food.
The trunk serves as both upper lip and nose. It is boneless and contains around 100,000 muscles and tendons. It is powerful enough to kill an animal with a single blow or push down a small tree but also nimble enough to pick up a dime.
A series of long muscles runs along the length of the trunk to raise, lower, or move it from side to side. Other, shorter muscles are perpendicular to the length of the trunk, while others are wrapped like a barber pole along the length of the trunk, producing the trunk’s unique twisting abilities.
An elephant’s trunk can hold 1 ½ gallons of water. To drink they first suck up the water into their trunk and then squirt the water into their mouth.
The skin along an elephant’s back may be 1 ½ inches thick but is still sensitive enough to feel a fly land on it.
Bristly, coarse hairs sparsely grow on the elephant’s body, with more on the chin and trunk. They also have longer hair growing from the end of the tail that can be up to 1 ½ feet long.
Elephants’ ears contain many blood vessels, and they will flap their ears to cool their blood which will then flow through their body and cool their body core.
The large size of an elephant’s ears helps to pick up distant or faint sounds. This is the same concept as a radar dish. The larger the dish, the more sounds it can pick up.
An elephant’s brain weighs around 10 ½ lbs on average.
Recent research suggests that African elephants have more than 2,000 genes dedicated to scent discrimination – that’s twice as many as dogs have, and more than five times what humans have.
Range and Habitat
Range – Most parts of Africa, south of the Sahara
Habitat – Predominantly the area between grasslands and forest, but also deep forests, open savannas, wet marshes, and semi-desert areas.
Diet: Herbivore
Wild – Elephants are non-ruminating herbivores, eating 200-300 lbs. of food a day. Their diet consists of 50% grasses supplemented with bark, leaves, twigs; roots, and some fruits, seeds, and flowers. Elephants can drink 20-30 gallons of water a day.
Zoo – Hay, grain, browse, plus fruit and vegetable treats such as apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, and romaine lettuce.
Lifespan
African elephants can live up to 50-55 years.
Reproduction
Male elephants are called bulls, female elephants are called cows, and baby elephants are calves. Groups of elephants are herds. Family groups that inhabit the same area may socialize with one another.
Elephants reach sexual maturity between 10 and 15 years of age.
Females produce offspring around 12 – 14 years old and in some cases will continue to reproduce into their 40s. Males often do not reproduce until they are in their 20s, and older males are more successful than younger males.
Mature bulls enter into a period of heightened sexual and aggressive behavior called musth. There is a significant increase in testosterone levels during this time and musth males seek out and approach estrous females for breeding, although they do not have to be in musth to breed. Males usually enter their first musth by the age of 30. Each male has his own cycle and males in musth usually rank above non-musth males. When two males that are both in musth meet, interactions are aggressive, even if a female is not present. Outside of musth, interactions between related and non-related elephants are usually amicable and non-confrontational, unless there are limited resources like food and water.
Elephant gestation is 22 months, which is more than twice that of humans, and the longest of any mammal.
A cow will generally give birth to a single calf, typically standing, but they may also lie down. Twins are very rare.
The calf is born weighing 200 - 250 lbs. and stands only up to his mother's knee. The calf will stand, with assistance, in about 30 minutes, and can travel with the herd in 2 to 3 days.
Infant elephants will nurse for six to 18 months, but some calves may continue to nurse for well over five years. Young elephants will learn from adults what plants to eat and will even put their trunk in an adult elephants mouth for a sample of what they are eating.
It takes several months to a year for a calf to gain full control over its trunk and be able to use it purposefully.
Conservation: Endangered
What’s the issue?
Major threats include poaching for ivory and illegal hunting, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat loss.
Elephant tusks are some of the most valuable commodities on Earth for poachers engaged in the illegal ivory trade. Tens of thousands of elephants are killed for their tusks each year to be valued on a global scale. The U.S. remains one of the world’s largest importers of ivory. The illegal ivory trade is more than just devastating for elephant populations. Funds from the trade enable the trafficking of illegal drugs and firearms. The trade is also highly sophisticated, with poachers using their own technology to avoid detection.
Humans and elephants are neighbors in many parts of the African elephant’s range and rely on the same natural resources. A decline in suitable habitat and food availability pushes wild elephants closer to the borders of local communities, where they see crops as an easy food source.
In this human-elephant conflict, it is not the total number of elephants (which has been declining) that is an issue, but concentrations of elephants in specific areas where humans live, compounded by habitat loss and fragmentation.
How does this affect humans?
Many of the people who live in areas where there are elephant populations nearby depend on crops for their livelihood. Elephants are killed or persecuted for destroying crops in areas where agriculture represents a community’s sole source of income. Conservationists look for solutions to benefit both elephants and people. Solutions such as planting chili peppers or installing beehive fences have proven to be effective deterrents to elephants in areas where these conflicts occur.
What is Zoo Atlanta doing to help?
In 2018, Zoo Atlanta announced a partnership with Conservation South Luangwa, a nonprofit organization based in Zambia, to protect African elephants and other wildlife impacted by illegal wildlife trade and human-wildlife conflict.
Conservation South Luangwa works to identify and prevent illegal wildlife trade using anti-poaching patrols, aerial surveillance and detection dogs trained to find ivory, animal skins, ammunition and firearms, and certain species killed for bushmeat.
More than ½ the people inhabiting this region of Zambia make a living from agriculture and natural resources. Human-animal conflict is a major threat for African elephants and other wildlife when animals are persecuted by humans for exploiting crops. Conservation South Luangwa also has a strong focus on mitigating these conflicts by working directly with local people to safeguard their crops and livelihoods while engaging them as advocates for conservation.
Zoo Atlanta is also a proud partner of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s 96 Elephants campaign and has supported Elephants for Africa through the Quarters for Conservation program.
What can you do to help?
Avoid purchasing ivory and rhino horn. Research the products you buy to ensure that you are not inadvertently purchasing animal products that support the illegal wildlife trade.
You have a voice! Support policies that protect elephants and other wildlife. Be aware of policy changes that may have a negative impact on laws created to protect species and their habitats.
If traveling to Africa or to other parts of the world, engage in responsible ecotourism that helps sustain local communities. If shopping or dining abroad, do your research before purchasing items that may support the illegal wildlife trade.
Make choices that use energy and fuel responsibly: carpool, bike or walk to work; unplug electronics when not in use; support your local farmer’s market or purchase foods grown no more than 50 miles from your home.
Interpretive Information
Elephants communicate with one another in a number of ways. They will use their trunk, ears, body postures, and movements as a visual means of expressing a diverse array of messages. They can also communicate chemically, with secretions from a gland (the temporal gland) between the eye and ear, glands in the feet (interdigital glands), anogenital tracts, and eyes. They communicate vocally with low-frequency sounds, but also trumpeting, snorts, screams, barks, cries, and roars.
Elephants can detect sounds over great distances, detecting these sounds with their front feet. They have large fat pads inside the bottoms of their front feet, placing their feet in solid contact with the soil. Low-frequency sounds can be airborne or carried in the soil and are not audible by humans. These very low frequencies, like whales communicating in the ocean, can communicate across miles and elephants can recognize the “voices” of others they know.
Elephants live in family herds, ranging from a few individuals to over 100 that are usually, but not always, related and led by a matriarch. The matriarch is usually an older, more experienced female. Males leave the group at age 12 – 15 and may live a solitary life or join a bachelor herd with other males.
Elephants respond to the death of another of their species in ways that are rare in the animal kingdom. They show great interest in the bones of other elephants who have died and will examine them, touching them with their trunks. They show particular interest in tusks especially and also in skulls. Recent research has shown that they respond to the remains of both related and non-related deceased elephants in this way and do not respond in the same manner to the remains of other species.
Elephant graveyards (specific places elephants intentionally travel to at the end of their lives before passing) are a myth. When concentrations of elephant bones have been found in the same area, it is likely due to a hunting incident, drought, food shortage, etc.
Elephants apply water and mud to their skin for natural protection from the sun. Mud also provides a built-in layer of protection from biting insects. Water and mud also help to cool them down.
Elephants are a keystone species and keep vegetation from becoming overgrown. They help disperse seeds through their poop and help to re-plant their environment.
Lions and hyenas are natural predators, but they prey primarily on calves and young elephants.
Elephants can swim and will hold their trunk up so that they can breathe. They will also walk along the bottom in shallow water.
Differences between African and Asian elephants include:
Skin: African elephants have more wrinkled skin.
Size: African elephants tend to be larger, both in height and weight.
Ears: African elephants have much larger ears with a different shape.
Head shape: African elephants do not have the “bulges” on the top of the head like Asian elephants.
Back shape: African elephants’ backs are concave, while Asian elephants’ backs are convex or flat.
Trunk: African elephants have two “fingers”/digits on the end while Asian elephants only have one.
Toenails: African elephant front feet have 4 – 5 and 3 – 5 on the back feet, Asian elephants have 5 on the front feet and 4 – 5 on the back feet.
References
Blanc, J. 2008. Loxodonta africana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T12392A3339343. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T12392A3339343.en. Downloaded on 13 July 2019.
Conservation South Luangwa. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2019, from https://cslzambia.org/
Fowler, M., & Mikota, S. K. (Eds.). (2006). Biology, Medicine, & Surgery of Elephants (1st ed.). Ames, IA: Blackwell Publishing.
Kingdon, J., & Hoffman, M. (Eds.) Family Elephantidae. (2013). In Mammals of Africa (Vol. 1, pp.176 - 194). A&C Black.
Loxodonta africana - African Elephant. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2019, from http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/0MProboscidae/Elephantidae/Loxodonta/Loxodonta_africana/Loxodonta_africana.htm
McComb, K., Baker, L., & Moss, C. (2006). African elephants show high levels of interest in the skulls and ivory of their own species. Biology letters, 2(1), 26–28. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2005.0400
Neubauer, R. ., & Yue, X. (2012). Evolution and the Emergent Self: The Rise of Complexity and Behavioral Versatility in Nature. Columbia University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/neub15070
The African Savanna: African Elephant. [Word Document]. (2018, October 4). Zoo Atlanta.
Final draft of signage
Updated July 2019