Vital Statistics There are
two sub-species of African elephant - the (or bush) form, and the forest (or
dwarf) form. Male elephants (bulls) are far larger than females (cows) and
weigh up to 6300kg. Mature females range between 2000 and 3500kg. There is much
less sexual dimorphism among forest elephants (restricted to the Congo Basin
and Guinea forests) which range between 900 and 3500kg in weight. The longest
tusks on record for a elephant are 3.5 metres, at a weight of 130kg! Forest
elephants are often tuskless. The two forms interbreed where forest and
ecosystems meet. Elephants have four toes on their front feet, and three on
their hind feet. Their thick hide sports sparse bristles and sensory hairs. The
male's penis is invisible when retracted but extends for up to a metre when
erect; his testicles are internal. The two teats are situated high on the
underside, between the forelegs.
Born to Eat Elephants feed for up to 16
hours each day and consume a huge amount of plant material. Individuals eat up
to 300 kilograms of leaves, grass, bark, pods and roots per day. Over half of
the food consumed is not properly digested and is deposited as fibrous dung
within 24 hours. In this way, elephants break down and consume plant material,
but also promote regeneration through seed dispersal, soil fertilisation and
the "opening-up" of previously shaded areas to the light. Along with the
minuscule but equally crucial termites, elephants are the "landscape gardeners
of Africa". Although elephants may appear to be indiscriminate feeders, they
are, in fact, very selective and favour particular plants at certain times of
the year. In general, elephants eat a higher percentage of grass during the wet
season, with foliage, roots and bark predominating in the dry months. The tusks
and trunk are used to good effect when feeding, the former as stripping and
excavating tools, and the latter as a prehensile grasper.
Elephant Society It is most unusual to
see an elephant alone. Mature females and their offspring (up to 14 years in
the case of males) live in so-called breeding herds which have intimate
knowledge of a home range in which they may move randomly, or in synch with the
seasons. Adult males - and "teenagers" of 12 and older - typically range in
pairs, threesomes or groups of a dozen or more. The main purpose of living in
groups for these long-lived pachyderms may be to pass on individual experience
and knowledge (where the best feeding areas are at certain times of the year,
for example), as well as to defend the newborn young. A single mother elephant
is quite capable of defending her young 120kg calf from a lone lion or hyena,
but these super-predators hunt in groups and would have little difficulty in
seizing newborns which were not protected within a herd. Elephants can live up
to 60 years, with females surviving long past their reproductive age. The old
matriarchs make decisions on a daily basis as to where the herd will forage or
move. Adult cows give birth to a single youngster (twins are a rare phenomenon)
after a gestation period of 650-660 days, once every four or five years. She
comes on heat again soon after weaning her calf at four years (although young
can eat "solids" after two years), and is sexually receptive for only about a
week. Male suitors are typically in a state of musth - a condition of high
testosterone levels characterised by leaking temporal glands and dribbling
urine - and often intimidate other bulls with their head held high and
swaggering gait. Only if two musth bulls come together will a physical fight
ensue. Mating - when it eventually happens - is extremely brief. Contrary to
popular thought, copulation takes place on dry land, not in deep water.
Communication Elephants "talk" to one
another through various growls, snorts, squeals, trumpets and rumbles which
convey a host of emotions and signals. Sub-sonic infrasound - inaudible to the
human ear - was discovered only in 1987 and may be the most important means of
communication.
Conservation Elephant populations have
undergone major fluctuations in recorded history, and have no doubt been
subjected to highs and lows due to climatic cycles over the millennia. They
were exterminated from North Africa by about the 4th century AD (due to hunting
for ivory and climate change) and in Southern Africa during the 18th and 19th
centuries. They are now absent north of the Sahel, but again flourish in South
Africa thanks to natural recolonisation from the north and man's reintroduction
programmes. Large numbers of elephants were killed for their ivory when trade
of gold, slaves and spices flourished on Africa's east coast. Numbers
throughout much of the continent then grew steadily between 1920 and 1970 (the
era of colonialism and the formation of many protected areas) to an estimated
high of some ten million, but crashed in the 1980s when the demand for ivory
from the Far East was met by corrupt politicians, soldiers and traders, at a
time when global policing was hard if not impossible. Factions in the Angolan
civil war were known to be partly funded by ivory exports, and the same is
probably true for countries such as Uganda, Sudan, Somalia and Mozambique. In
south-eastern Zimbabwe and elsewhere, elephants were the innocent victims of
callous land mine warfare.
Although the current continental population is
estimated at less than one million (calculated at 582 000 in 1992), there are
some protected areas in which elephants are considered to be too numerous. In
fenced reserves elephants can quickly outstrip their resources and then have a
major impact on other wildlife. In such cases, they have traditionally been
"managed" (i.e. culled, with tusks, hide and meat being sold) but with the
current global ban on ivory exports, the emphasis is nowadays on relocation and
expansion of reserve frontiers.
African "Big Five"
