African Elephant: Big Mammal, Huge Impact

Welcome to the Family The Serengeti welcomes another creature -- a baby elephant has just been born. Though not exactly small and fragile - a baby elephant can measure up to three feet (1 m) in length and weigh between 100 and 300 pounds (45 - 135 kg) at birth - the baby elephant has a lot to learn about life in the Serengeti.

Elephant families - or herds as they are known - are close-knit social groups, usually consisting of several generations of related females (cows) and their offspring. Together, herds care for and protect their young.

A herd is usually comprised of 8-10 elephants, including offspring.

Female elephants typically stay with one herd forever. Male elephants, on the other hand, spend limited time living with a herd. Once a male elephant (a bull) hits its teen years, he will strike out on his own, unless he has already been forced out by the cows in the herd. During the teen years and into adulthood, bulls will roam alone or gather with other "bachelors", rejoining female herds temporarily to mate.

When it comes to elephants, females are in charge -- elephants are matriarchal.. Typically, the leader of an elephant herd (the matriarch) is the oldest and most experienced female. The matriarch calls the shots, deciding when and where the herd will eat, rest, and move.

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Article by Valerie Deveraux
Photographs by $PLAYER

Elephants begin having babies after age 13 or 14. A healthy elephant will have a calf every four years.

Young male elephants strike out on their own in their teens.

Elephants use their ears to communicate, including signaling danger. The ears also play a huge role in keeping an elephant cool. By flapping its ears on a hot day, an elephant can help reduce its body temperate by 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius).

Sensitivity that Runs More than Skin Deep Just as it appears, an elephant's skin is relatively thick, often measuring up to one inch. But, despite its thickness, an elephant's skin is extremely sensitive to touch, heat and sun. In fact, an elephant's skin is so sensitive that it can actually feel a fly land on it. To help stay comfortable, elephants often spray themselves with water or roll in the mud or dust for protection from biting insects and sun.

An elephant's sensitivity goes beyond the skin. In fact, elephants are exceptionally affectionate and sensitive mammals - they cry, laugh, and play. All members of the herd take ownership in raising the young. If a baby complains, the entire herd will go to the baby and offer comfort in the form of touch.

Elephants are also thought to display grief and compassion, especially if a member of their herd is injured or dies.

Eat Baby, Eat

Eating is a huge part of an elephant's day. In fact, these herbivores can typically spend 16 hours a day collecting and eating food. An elephant eats about 5 percent of its body weight each day - that's a range of 220-440 pounds (100-200 kg). More than half of an elephant's daily diet consists of grasses. The other half is made up of leaves, twigs, bark, roots, small amounts of fruits, seeds and flowers. Elephants have to eat this much volume because their digestive systems are so inefficient. In fact, 60 percent of the food an elephant eats leaves its body undigested. Needless to say, elephants leave a lot of dung in their trail.

Although it will only be a few months until a baby elephant acquires the strength and coordination to join its herd in eating grasses, a calf will nurse for two years. Some calves will continue to nurse until their mother is pregnant again.

A baby elephant uses its mouth - not its trunk - to nurse.

Elephants maintain close social bonds by touching, caressing and smelling each other with their trunks. Their friendliness isn't limited to their own herds. In fact, elephants will often pause to exchange touches with passing herds.

Elephants communicate with rumbles, moans and growls. Some of these low-frequency sounds travel a mile or more.

Adult elephants excrete huge amounts of dung each day- 300 pounds (135 kg) or more.

Trunk and Tusks: Prized Possessions Two of the most prized and powerful characteristics of the African elephant are its trunk and tusks. An elephant's trunk is its key to survival. Weighing up to 400 pounds (180 kg), these boneless, but muscular extensions of the upper lip and nose serve as a nose, extra foot, signaling device, and gathering and digging tool. With more than 40,000 muscles and two finger-like lobes, this powerful feature is strong enough to tear a tree from its roots, while dexterous enough to pick up grain-like items. The trunk is so valued by elephants that in battle they will hold the trunk close to their body rather than risk injury.

Both male and female African elephants have tusks that they use for digging, fighting and even as a resting place for their trunk. Ivory tusks grow over life and differ in size, shape and direction from elephant to elephant. Although tusks have been known to be as long as 10 feet (3 m), most tusks are shorter these days since ivory hunters have taken elephants with larger tusks.

Ivory hunters have decimated the African elephant population. Although no one knows for sure, it was estimated that Africa had more than 1.2 million elephants in the late 1970s. Today, fewer than 500,000 elephants remain. Since 1989 an international ban on the trade of ivory has greatly reduced - but not eliminated - elephant poaching.

An Elephant's Footprint

When they need to, elephants can walk almost silently. But, in reality, the elephant's tread is anything but silent. Some argue that elephants are highly destructive to the environment. In search of food, elephants frequently "destroy" everything in their path, including uprooting trees, breaking vegetation, and disrupting soil.

If elephants are in fact so destructive, why work so hard to protect this threatened species? Elephants actually play a vital role in the ecosystem they inhabit. Their destructive footsteps make way (literally) for others to thrive.

As elephants tread across the earth, their footsteps convert savanna and woodlands to grasslands. They knock down vegetation and uproot trees, making way for light-dependent plants that are the diet of the Serengeti's grazers. Impressions from their bodies and feet leave depressions in the soil that capture much needed rainfall. Their huge amounts of undigested fecal matter help disperse already fertilized seeds. Even as they walk through high grass, elephants help provide food for birds by disturbing small creatures in their path, including small reptiles, amphibians, or insects.

The destruction caused by elephants helps other species survive. That's why elephants are considered a keystone species - they affect biodiversity in the regions they inhabit. So, in protecting the great elephants of the Serengeti, we protect a whole lot more.

Elephants use their tusks to gouge into the succulent bark of Baobab trees. In time, they can wear a hole completely through even large trees.

High elephant densities can be damaging to tree populations, however the extent of this relationship is the subject of ongoing studies.

An elephant's trunk is not generally used for fighting, except when involved in trunk wrestling matches with other elephants.

An elephant has five hooved toes on each forefoot but only four on each hind foot.

For more information, visit: African Wildlife Foundation: Elephant Savanna Elephant Vocalization Project World Wildlife Fund: Elephants Save the Elephants
Elephant Watch Safaris

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