[citation needed]. [70], In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora listed the African elephant on CITES Appendix I. [43], Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation,[44] self-awareness, memory and possibly language. Because of this muscular structure, the trunk is so strong that elephants can use it for lifting about 3% of their own body weight. [60] [15] They are all considered synonymous with the African bush elephant.[1]. [76][77] It is also praised for its size, longevity, stamina, mental faculties, cooperative spirit, and loyalty. Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests, Flooded Grasslands and Savannahs, Miombo woodlands, Acacia savannahs. ", "The ivory trade and elephant conservation", "Le braconnage et la population d'éléphants au Parc National de Zakouma (Tchad)", "Tanzania elephant population declined by 60% in five years, census reveals", "Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits", "Poaching behind worst African elephant losses in 25 years", "China and US agree on ivory ban in bid to end illegal trade globally", "Elephants still at risk with Laos replacing China as ivory market", "Status and trends of the ivory trade in Africa, 1989–1999", "African Elephant Specialist Group report", "Near-total ban imposed on sending wild African elephants to zoos", "383. Historically, elephants were classified into two species, the African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian (Elephas maximus) elephants. Twenty-two long observations showed that age and musth are extremely important factors; "… older males had markedly elevated paternity success compared with younger males, suggesting the possibility of sexual selection for longevity in this species." [8] Its back is concave-shaped, while the back of the African forest elephant is nearly straight. WWF helps governments produce and adopt elephant conservation strategies, allowing them to survey, and manage elephant populations and to implement the CITES system for Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE). "[68] In response Chinese consumers moved to purchasing their ivory through markets in Laos, leading conservation groups to request pressure be put on Laos to end the trade. In Quirimbas National Park, Mozambique, WWF worked with the local government and community to establish a park management system that would protect wildlife and livelihoods. This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "African elephant" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GFDL. [74] The elephant's penis can reach a length of 100 cm (39 in) and a diameter of 16 cm (6 in) at the base. Learn how a scientific name is relevant for identification Elephants belong to the family Elephantidae, which includes the three other extant species of elephants as well as the extinct species like straight-tusked elephants and mammoths. During the 10th century AD, the people of Igbo-Ukwu, near the Niger Delta, buried their leaders with elephant tusks.[80]. [24], The dental formula of elephants is 1.0.3.30.0.3.3 × 2 = 26. [79] Many societies believed that their chiefs would be reincarnated as elephants. This highly sensitive organ is innervated primarily by the trigeminal nerve, and thought to be manipulated by about 40,000–60,000 muscles. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals provided financial support for four years to implement the West African Elephant Conservation Strategy, which forms the central component of this intergovernmental treaty. African elephants show sexual dimorphism in weight and shoulder height by age 20, due to the rapid early growth of males. Female African elephants are able to start reproducing at around 10 to 12 years of age,[50] and are in estrus for about 2 to 7 days. Beautiful old Elephant Bull with 7ft Ivory on both Tusks! [41] They have a very large and highly convoluted neocortex, a trait they share with humans, apes and some dolphin species. "Living African elephants belong to two species: "Genetic Evidence for Two Species of Elephant in Africa", "Proboscidean Mitogenomics: Chronology and Mode of Elephant Evolution Using Mastodon as Outgroup", "Genomic DNA sequences from mastodon and woolly mammoth reveal deep speciation of forest and savanna elephants", "Reconciling Apparent Conflicts between Mitochondrial and Nuclear Phylogenies in African Elephants", "The Ears as a Race-Character in the African Elephant", "Four new species of Elephantidae from the Plio-Pleistocene of northwestern Kenya", "Cytonuclear genomic dissociation in African elephant species", "Palaeogenomes of Eurasian straight-tusked elephants challenge the current view of elephant evolution", "General information on elephants with emphasis on tusks", "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans", "Forest elephant videos, photos and facts – Loxodonta cyclotis", "Secrets of male elephant society revealed in the wild", "The maximum attainable body size of herbivorous mammals: morphophysiological constraints on foregut, and adaptations of hindgut fermenters", "Selective feeding by a megaherbivore, the African elephant ( Loxodonta africana )", "Phylogenomic analyses reveal convergent patterns of adaptive evolution in elephant and human ancestries", "Elephants know when they need assistance in a cooperative task", "In Africa, Decoding the 'Language' of Elephants", "Elephants Outwit Humans During Intelligence Test". Other important facts are: 1. [56] Most observed matings are by males in musth over 35 years of age. To reduce the illegal killing of elephants through improved protection and management, WWF equips and trains law enforcement teams so they can conduct regular and effective antipoaching patrols. Limited resources combined with remote and inaccessible elephant habitats make it difficult for governments to monitor and protect elephant herds. The population in the Tanzanian Selous Game Reserve, once the largest of any reserve in the world, dropped from 109,000 in 1976 to 13,000 in 2013. This leads males to compete with each other to mate, which results in the females mating with older, healthier males. Country: Namibia. In addition to the saguaro cactus, the signature plant of the desert, common types include the barrel cactus, organ-pipe cactus, prickly pear, cholla, ocotillo, yucca, century plant, ironwood, palo verde, elephant tree, mesquite, and creosote bush; endemic to Baja California are the cardon … They include their habitat, diet, range, lifespan, countries to find them, population, and more. Males over the age of 25 compete strongly for females in estrus, and are more successful the larger and more aggressive they are. With a mass of just over 5 kg (11 lb), the elephant brain is larger than that of any other terrestrial animal. Male elephants can also smell the hormones of a female ready for breeding. The illegal demand for ivory is the biggest driver of elephant poaching. By Staff Writer Last Updated Apr 9, 2020 8:07:14 PM ET Generally speaking, elephants are broadly classified as either Loxodonta africana, if African, or Elephas maximus, if Asian. © 2021 World Wildlife Fund. [23], Both male and female African elephants have tusks that grow from deciduous teeth called tushes, which are replaced by tusks when calves are about one year old. African elephants have 24 teeth in total, six on each quadrant of the jaw. [31] [citation needed], Based on vegetation types that provide suitable habitat for African elephants, it was estimated that in the early 19th century a maximum of 26,913,000 African elephants might have been present from the Sahel in the north to the Highveld in the south. Migration and movements In the northwestern Kunene Region, where rainfall averages less than 150mm annually, desert elephants will migrate long distances in search of food and water. It was believed at one time that they were a subspecies of the African bush elephant, but this is no longer thought to be the case. As its name suggests, the Sumatran elephant is found exclusively on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. [54] Bigger males tend to sire bigger offspring. Their thickset bodies rest on stocky legs. In the 1980s, it was difficult to carry out systematic surveys in several East African range countries due to civil wars. There are also differences in the size and shape of the skull and skeleton between the two subspecies. Well organized networks facilitated smuggling the ivory through Sudan. [13], Gene flow between the two African elephant species was examined at 21 locations. The scientific name of Desert Spoon is the botanical name or formal name. They use it for smelling, touching, feeding, drinking, dusting, producing sounds, loading, defending and attacking. View our inclusive approach to conservation, WWF Statement on U.S. Attorney's Wildlife Trafficking Indictment, WWF Statement on CITES' 2019 African Elephant Poaching Data, Vietnam Tightens Controls on Trade and Consumption of High-Risk Wildlife, Reducing Elephant Ivory Demand Among Travelers, Demand Under the Ban: China Ivory Consumption Research 2019, China’s Ivory Market after the Ivory Trade Ban in 2018 from TRAFFIC, Factsheet: Demand under the Ban – China Ivory Consumption Research, Demand Under the Ban: China Ivory Consumption Research (2017). Explore the scientific name of African Elephant only at BYJU’S Biology. [10] 1250 24th Street, N.W. [66] The International Union for Conservation of Nature released a report in September 2016 that estimates Africa's elephant population at 415,000. Male reproductive success is maximal in mid-adulthood and then begins to decline. The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), which lives in rainforests, was The African elephant is the largest animal walking the Earth. Scientific names are used to universally identify and name an organism. However, females are not guarded in the early and late stages of estrus, which may permit mating by younger males not in musth. WWF has helped train park guards, villagers and communities in elephant conservation and management. By 2014 it was estimated that only 50,000 elephants remained in Central Africa. All rights reserved. The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months and fertile females usually give birth every 3–6 years, so if they live to around 50 years of age, they may produce 7 offspring. Building on 50 years of experience, WWF addresses illegal hunting for meat and ivory, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflict to protect African elephant populations. [3] Loxodonte was proposed as generic name for the African elephant by Frédéric Cuvier in 1825. in 1825. The impacts of war and over-exploitation of natural resources often lead to increased poaching as elephants are also regarded as source of wild meat. Research has found that regular outbound Chinese travelers have the highest interest in purchasing elephant ivory despite the ban in China. Fossil remains of Loxodonta species have been excavated in Africa, dating to the Middle Pliocene. The divergence between the Asian elephant and the woolly mammoths is estimated 2.5 – 5.4 million years ago, which strongly supports their status as distinct species. Hunting African elephants for the ivory trade accelerated the decline from the 1970s onwards. Scientific Name: Loxodonta africana Species: Elephant -67lbs Tusker Region: NG 35 Country: Botswana These Tusks were 7ft in length!! In addition to being smaller, forest elephants are darker and their tusks are straighter and point downward. The presence of African elephants helps to maintain suitable habitats for many other species. Poverty, armed conflict and the displacement of people by civil conflict also add to habitat loss and fragmentation. [65], According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, in 2014 the total population of African elephants was estimated to be around 700,000, and the Asian elephant population was estimated to be around 32,000. [47][49], African elephants are at their most fertile between the ages of 25 and 45. Playback of the recorded sounds of angry honey bees has been found to be remarkably effective at prompting elephants to flee an area. The analysis revealed that several African bush elephants carried mitochondrial DNA of African forest elephants, indicating they hybridised in the savanna-forest transition zone in ancient times. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair moves forward, and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. A male elephant's testes are located internally near the kidneys. Scientific Name: Elephas maximus sumatranus Number Left: 2,400 - 2,800 The Sumatran Elephant … Their herds wander through 37 countries in Africa. [22] Elephants sometimes swim underwater and use their trunks as snorkels. Around 40 to 60 years of age, the elephant loses the last of its molars and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death. The elephant's brain is similar to a human brain in terms of structure and complexity; the elephant's cortex has as many neurons as that of a human brain,[42] suggesting convergent evolution. In the western African Kingdom of Dahomey (now part of Benin) the elephant was associated with the 19th century rulers of the Fon people, Guezo and his son Glele. [22] Tusks are used for digging for roots and stripping the bark from trees for food, for fighting each other during mating season, and for defending themselves against predators. [75], Many African cultures revere the African Elephant as a symbol of strength and power. They do not mate at a specific time; however, they are less likely to reproduce in times of drought than when water is plentiful. [64], Conflicts between elephants and a growing human population are a major issue in elephant conservation. Help the men and women on the front lines of conservation. In Chad's Zakouma National Park, more than 3,200 elephants were killed between 2005 and 2010. Established in 1964, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of … [30], African elephants are distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa, where they inhabit Sahelian scrubland and arid regions, tropical rainforests, mopane and miombo woodlands. [59] This name refers to the lozenge-shaped enamel of the molar teeth, which differs significantly from the rounded shape of the Asian elephant's molar enamel. [51][52] Musth also serves a purpose of calling attention to the females that they are of good quality, and it cannot be mimicked as certain calls or noises may be. [6] In 1936, Glover Morrill Allen considered this elephant to be a distinct species and called it 'forest elephant';[7] later authors considered it to be a subspecies. Males usually stay with a female and her herd for about a month before moving on in search of another mate. (Hollister-Smith, et al. All of these push elephants into smaller islands of protected areas and hinder elephants’ freedom to roam. This often leads to conflicts that elephants invariably lose. The African elephant goes by the scientific name Loxodonta Africana and is the largest land animal. We help establish new protected areas within elephant ranges and improve management effectiveness within existing protected areas. Desert pupfish are considered to be living fossils, offering evidence of a historic interconnection among lakes and survival through natural selection to adapt to shrinking and heating bodies of water, including desert pools, springs This is reported as the worst decline in the past 25 years. Despite a global CITES ban on international sales of ivory since 1990, tens of thousands of elephants are killed to meet a growing demand for ivory products in the Far East. African elephant classification is ongoing research. In the desert, elephant family groups are quite a bit smaller, often consisting of a single adult female and her calves, or two adult sisters with their dependent offspring. Loxodonta is one of two extant genera of the family Elephantidae. [30] The calves are cared for by their mother and other young females in the group, known as allomothering.[32]. Where farms border elephant habitat or cross elephant migration corridors, damage to crops and villages can become commonplace. In the 1970s and 1980s, the price for ivory rose, and poaching for ivory increased in particular in Central African range countries where access to elephant habitats was facilitated by logging and petroleum mining industries. To increase public support for elephant conservation by reducing conflict, WWF trains wildlife managers and local communities to use modern methods and tools to mitigate human-elephant conflict. They are easily recognized by their trunk that is used for communication and handling objects. Elephant Ear in Spanish Every plant has different names in different languages. Previously, export had been allowed in Southern Africa with Zimbabwe capturing and exporting more than 100 baby elephants to Chinese zoos since 2012. This includes implementing the CITES Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) which monitors and tracks elephant ivory seizures. As habitats contract and human populations expand, people and elephants are increasingly coming into contact with each other. Loxodonte was proposed as generic name for the African elephant by Frédéric Cuvier in 1825. [58], The first continental elephant census was carried out in 1976. Protected Species. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. An Indian Elephant can travel at speeds of up to 27 miles per hour. [78] The animal's religious importance is mostly totemic. World Wildlife Fund Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (tax ID number 52-1693387) under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. According to National Geographic, African elephants can grow to a height of 13 feet and a weight of seven tons. During the middle of estrus, female elephants look for males in musth to guard them. And three great video too. Upper incisor teeth develop into tusks in African elephants and grow throughout their lifetime. [34][35], Elephants use some vocalisations that are beyond the hearing range of humans,[36] to communicate across large distances. Tusks are composed of dentin, which forms small diamond-shaped structures in the tusk's center that become larger at its periphery. Decrease of suitable habitat was the major cause for the decline of elephant populations until the 1950s. In 1989, only 608,000 African elephants were estimated to have survived. The Big 5 African bush elephant – Loxodonta africana From the Greek word “loxós” meaning slanting, or crosswise, and “odoús” meaning tooth – referring to the grooves in an elephant’s molars. Populations of elephants—especially in southern and eastern Africa—that once showed promising signs of recovery could be at risk due to the recent surge in poaching for the illegal ivory trade. A close-relative After the ban came into force in 1990, retail sales of ivory carvings in South Africa have plummeted by more than 95% within 10 years. Data on desert elephant numbers is incredibly important as this project is the only organisation providing accurate figures to the government on the elephants in this area! [10][11][12][13][14], In 1907, Richard Lydekker proposed six African elephant subspecies based on the different sizes and shapes of their ears. However, genetic research has provided new insight to elephant "relatedness" and taxonomic classification at the subspecies level. [59] Savanna elephants are larger than forest elephants, and their tusks curve outwards. The scientific name for the Indian Elephant is Elephas maximus indicus. [69], In 1986, the African Elephant Database was initiated with the aim to monitor the status of African elephant populations. 2011 saw the highest volume of illegal ivory seized since global records began in 1989. [55] Wild males begin breeding in their thirties when they are at a size and weight that is competitive with other adult males. The africana part is relatively self-explanatory (though those interested should read up about the fascinating debate around the history of the name “Africa”) [31] Human encroachment into natural areas where bush elephants occur or their increasing presence in adjacent areas has spurred research into methods of safely driving groups of elephants away from humans. [31], Both African elephant species live in family units comprising several adult cows, their daughters and their subadult sons. [28], The African forest elephant is smaller with male shoulder heights of up to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft). Between 1976 and 1980, about 830 t (820 long tons; 910 short tons) raw ivory was exported from Africa to Hong Kong and Japan, equivalent to tusks of about 222,000 African elephants. [24] Fermentation of the food takes place in the hindgut, thus enabling large food intakes. They are curved forward and continue to grow throughout the elephant's lifetime. The last major populations are present in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. [62] African elephants have less room to roam than ever before as expanding human populations convert land for agriculture, settlements and developments. Elephant Ear in Spanish can be different from Elephant Ear in English. It is S-shaped when fully erect and has a Y-shaped orifice. Photos: Desert elephant bull and cow photographed by Vernon Swanepoel. About Desert Sage (Salvia dorrii) 8 Nurseries Carry This Plant Add to My Plant List Salvia dorrii (Tobacco sage, Dorr's sage, Mint sage, Purple sage) is a herbaceous perennial in the family Lamiaceae. The validity of Loxodonta has therefore been questioned. Males sire few offspring in periods when they are not in musth. African Forest Elephant Scientific Classification Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Class Mammalia Order Proboscidea Family Elephantidae Genus Loxodonta Scientific Name Prey Grass, Fruit, Roots Name Of Young [1], Elephas (Loxodonta) cyclotis was proposed by Paul Matschie in 1900, who described three African elephant zoological specimens from Cameroon whose skulls differed in shape from elephant skulls collected elsewhere in Africa. New research suggests that bulls maintain ecological knowledge for the herd, facilitating survival when searching for food and water, which also benefits the young bulls who associate with them. The African Elephant population that once showed promising signs of recovery, could be at risk due to the recent surge in poaching for the illegal ivory trade. This database includes results from aerial surveys, dung counts, interviews with local people and data on poaching. The African elephant (Loxodonta) is a genus comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (L. africana) and the smaller African forest elephant (L. cyclotis). No reasonable doubt that the last individual has died, Known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalised population, Facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the Wild, Facing a high risk of extinction in the Wild, Likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future, Does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, or Near Threatened. is the botanical name or formal name. Let's get started! Explore the scientific names of relatively well-known plants and animals. But loss of life can occur on both sides, as people may be trampled while trying to protect their livelihoods, and game guards often shoot "problem" elephants. The park did not have sufficient guards to combat poaching, and their weapons were outdated. In places like the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, WWF monitors interactions between humans and elephants and works with local communities to develop sustainable practices of mitigating conflict with elephants. Hunting elephants is banned in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal. [63] 287). The first scientific description of the African elephant was written in 1797 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who proposed the scientific name Elephas africanus. Each family unit is led by an older cow known as the matriarch. However, conservative estimates were that 23,000 African elephants were killed by poachers in 2013[61] and less than 20% of the African elephant range was under formal protection. The common name of any plant can differ region to region. The vegetation of the Sonoran is the most diverse of all the North American deserts. Numbering three to five million in the last century, African elephant populations were severely reduced to its current levels because of hunting. With only 100 Desert Elephants left, we, the Admins of this page, based in Namibia and … [61] Forest elephants, a distinct subspecies of African elephants, are uniquely adapted to the forest habitat of the Congo Basin, but are in sharp decline due to poaching for the international ivory trade. [20], Sequence analysis of DNA from fossils of the extinct Eurasian Palaeoloxodon antiquus shows it to be much closer related to the African forest elephant than to the African bush elephant. [29] It is the third largest terrestrial animal. [37], The bulls were believed to be solitary animals, becoming independent once reaching maturity. Explore the scientific name of Elephant only at BYJU’S Biology. … [a] The animal is believed to evoke strength, royal legacy, and enduring memory as related by the proverbs: "There where the elephant passes in the forest, one knows" and "The animal steps on the ground, but the elephant steps down with strength. While females are the most active members of African elephant groups, both male and female elephants are capable of distinguishing between hundreds of different low frequency infrasonic calls to communicate with and identify each other. [8][9][2] Morphological and genetic analyses provided evidence for species-level differences between the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant. Cows are 2.2–2.6 m (7.2–8.5 ft) tall at the shoulder and weigh 2,160–3,232 kg (4,762–7,125 lb), while bulls are 3.2–4 m (10–13 ft) tall and weigh 4,700–6,048 kg (10,362–13,334 lb). However, DNA tests show that the Borneo pygmy elephant is genetically different from the Asian elephant. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, et F. Cuvier. In 2012, The New York Times reported a large upsurge in ivory poaching, with about 70% of the product flowing to China. However there have been incidents of poaching and in the early 1980's the number of desert … In this post, you'll learn 13 fun facts about African bush elephants. The elephants’ range shrank from three million square miles in 1979 to just over one million square miles in 2007. This listing banned international trade of African elephants and their body parts by countries that signed the CITES agreement. South Africa uses elephant tusks in their coat of arms to represent wisdom, strength, moderation and eternity. At the time, 1.34 million elephants were estimated to range over 7,300,000 km2 (2,800,000 sq mi). An anonymous author used the Latinized spelling Loxodonta in 1827. And their large ears allow them to radiate excess heat. They reported that in the past decade, this is a decline of 111,000 elephants. 100% of your donation will benefit WWFs Back a Ranger project. To reduce the illegal trade in elephant products, WWF supports antipoaching efforts within and around protected areas. The Desert Elephant, which belong to the savanna elephant subspecies (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), are a protected species. The largest recorded individual stood 3.96 metres (13.0 ft) at the shoulder, and is estimated to have weighed 10,400 kg (22,900 lb). As a result of the trade ban, African elephant populations recovered in Southern African range countries. Elephants replace their teeth four to six times in their lifetimes.