African Elephant -Loxodonta sp.
Welgevonden Game Reserve has a very extensive elephant population control plan that is quite interesting. To read about their efforts in controling the elephant population click here.
Did You Know?
African elephant (Loxodonta sp) is the largest living terrestrial animal. Males stand 10–13 ft tall at the shoulder and weigh 10,360–13,330 lbs, while females stand 7–9 ft tall and 4,762–7,125 lbs. Their upper lip and nose form a trunk. The trunk acts as a fifth limb, a sound amplifier and an important method of touch. African elephants' trunks end in two opposing lips, whereas the Asian elephant trunk ends in a single lip.
Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 11 lb and measures about 12 in long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair shifts forward, and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age, the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.
Tusks weigh from 51–99 lb and can be from 5–8 ft long and are used for digging for roots and stripping the bark off trees for food, for fighting each other during mating season, and for defending themselves against predators. They are curved forward and continue to grow throughout the elephant's lifetime and unlike Asian elephants, both male and female African elephants have tusks.
African elephants are highly intelligent, and amongst the world's most intelligent species. With a mass of just over 11 lb, elephant brains are larger than those of any other land animal, and although the largest whales have body masses twenty-fold those of a typical elephant, whale brains are barely twice the mass of an elephant's brain. The elephant's brain is similar to that of humans in terms of structure and complexity. Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, use of tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory and possibly language.
Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 11 lb and measures about 12 in long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair shifts forward, and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age, the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.
Tusks weigh from 51–99 lb and can be from 5–8 ft long and are used for digging for roots and stripping the bark off trees for food, for fighting each other during mating season, and for defending themselves against predators. They are curved forward and continue to grow throughout the elephant's lifetime and unlike Asian elephants, both male and female African elephants have tusks.
African elephants are highly intelligent, and amongst the world's most intelligent species. With a mass of just over 11 lb, elephant brains are larger than those of any other land animal, and although the largest whales have body masses twenty-fold those of a typical elephant, whale brains are barely twice the mass of an elephant's brain. The elephant's brain is similar to that of humans in terms of structure and complexity. Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, use of tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory and possibly language.