Background Information
Common Name: African Elephant
Scientific Name: Loxodonta africana
Geographic Distribution:
The African elephant inhabits 37 countries throughout the Sub-Sahara African region and the rain forests of central and West Asia. The northernmost African elephants found in Africa are located in Mali's Sahel desert.
Existing Population Numbers:
The African elephant once roamed across most of Africa from the Mediterranean coast to the southern tip. It is thought that there may have been as many as 3-5 million African elephants in the 1930's and 1940's. However, in the midst of intensive hunting for trophies and tusks in the 1950's, elephant numbers throughout the continent fell dramatically.
In the 1980's, for example, an estimated 100,000 elephants were being killed per year, and up to 80% of herds were lost in some regions. Although the species still remains in parts of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, the elephant distribution is becoming increasingly broken apart across the continent.
There is thought to be less than 400,000 African elephants remaining on Earth today. This number continues to decrease daily. An estimated number of 100 African elephants are killed each day by poachers seeking ivory, meat, and other body parts.
Scientific Name: Loxodonta africana
Geographic Distribution:
The African elephant inhabits 37 countries throughout the Sub-Sahara African region and the rain forests of central and West Asia. The northernmost African elephants found in Africa are located in Mali's Sahel desert.
Existing Population Numbers:
The African elephant once roamed across most of Africa from the Mediterranean coast to the southern tip. It is thought that there may have been as many as 3-5 million African elephants in the 1930's and 1940's. However, in the midst of intensive hunting for trophies and tusks in the 1950's, elephant numbers throughout the continent fell dramatically.
In the 1980's, for example, an estimated 100,000 elephants were being killed per year, and up to 80% of herds were lost in some regions. Although the species still remains in parts of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, the elephant distribution is becoming increasingly broken apart across the continent.
There is thought to be less than 400,000 African elephants remaining on Earth today. This number continues to decrease daily. An estimated number of 100 African elephants are killed each day by poachers seeking ivory, meat, and other body parts.
Above is a map of the distribution of the African elephant from 2007 to 2009
Diet:
African elephants are herbivorous; their diet consists only of vegetation. These animals have an extremely varied diet including grasses, fruits, bark, roots, twigs, leaves, small plants, bushes, and seed pods. African elephants spend about 16-18 hours a day feeding (80% of their day). They also require about 18 to 26 gallons of water daily.
African elephants are herbivorous; their diet consists only of vegetation. These animals have an extremely varied diet including grasses, fruits, bark, roots, twigs, leaves, small plants, bushes, and seed pods. African elephants spend about 16-18 hours a day feeding (80% of their day). They also require about 18 to 26 gallons of water daily.
Why They Matter
As of 2011, the world is losing more African elephants than the population can reproduce, threatening the future of the species across the continent. Elephant numbers have dropped by 62% over the last decade. Under these circumstances, the possibility of extinction of these animals by the end of the next decade is high.
The damage that will ensue as a result of the extinction of the African elephant is not limited only to the species—it threatens the rain forests of Africa as a whole. African elephants are responsible for the germination and seed dispersal of approximately 30% of tree species in African forests. These forest elephants play the most vital role in the long-distance dissemination of seeds than any other species in Africa, including birds and other mammal species. Their herbivorous diet calls for the consumption of the fruits of over 96 different plant species. In other words, African elephants allow for the dispersal of over 96 different types of plant seeds, a variety of large and small, in their dung as they roam across the rain forests. Furthermore, the elephant is capable of dispersing the seeds a full 35 miles away from the original point of consumption. This species acts as the gardener of the tropical rain forests of Africa; without the African elephant, the ecological well-being of African rain forests hangs in the balance.
Lower-quality rain forests are bad news for humans as well. It is the source of food, water, and shelter for more than 75 million people. Furthermore, it is a cornucopia of medicinal riches: bark from the cinchona tree provide the quinine extract used in the treatment of malaria, the rosy periwinkle offers remission from lymphocytic leukemia and Hodgkin's disease, and neostigmine from the Calabar bean provides treatment for glaucoma—not to mention the thousands of different plant species used by indigenous peoples in herbal concoctions. Moreover, plants from the rain forest provide for about 7,000 compounds used in Western medicine and could potentially provide new drugs that can be used in the cure for cancer or AIDS. Simply put, the tropical rain forest is mankind's medicine cabinet. It does not only hold the remedies of today's most prominent illnesses, but it also possesses the healing power to combat the deadly diseases of the future.
The damage that will ensue as a result of the extinction of the African elephant is not limited only to the species—it threatens the rain forests of Africa as a whole. African elephants are responsible for the germination and seed dispersal of approximately 30% of tree species in African forests. These forest elephants play the most vital role in the long-distance dissemination of seeds than any other species in Africa, including birds and other mammal species. Their herbivorous diet calls for the consumption of the fruits of over 96 different plant species. In other words, African elephants allow for the dispersal of over 96 different types of plant seeds, a variety of large and small, in their dung as they roam across the rain forests. Furthermore, the elephant is capable of dispersing the seeds a full 35 miles away from the original point of consumption. This species acts as the gardener of the tropical rain forests of Africa; without the African elephant, the ecological well-being of African rain forests hangs in the balance.
Lower-quality rain forests are bad news for humans as well. It is the source of food, water, and shelter for more than 75 million people. Furthermore, it is a cornucopia of medicinal riches: bark from the cinchona tree provide the quinine extract used in the treatment of malaria, the rosy periwinkle offers remission from lymphocytic leukemia and Hodgkin's disease, and neostigmine from the Calabar bean provides treatment for glaucoma—not to mention the thousands of different plant species used by indigenous peoples in herbal concoctions. Moreover, plants from the rain forest provide for about 7,000 compounds used in Western medicine and could potentially provide new drugs that can be used in the cure for cancer or AIDS. Simply put, the tropical rain forest is mankind's medicine cabinet. It does not only hold the remedies of today's most prominent illnesses, but it also possesses the healing power to combat the deadly diseases of the future.
