African Elephant
African elephants are the largest animals walking the Earth. Their herds wander through 37 countries in Africa. They are easily recognized by their trunk that is used for communication and handling objects. And their large ears allow them to radiate excess heat. Upper incisor teeth develop into tusks in African elephants and grow throughout their lifetime. There are two species of African elephants—the savanna (or bush) elephant and the forest elephant. Savanna elephants are larger than forest elephants, and their tusks curve outwards. In addition to being smaller, forest elephants are darker and their tusks are straighter and point downward. There are also differences in the size and shape of the skull and skeleton between the two species.
Forest elephants are uniquely adapted to the dense forest habitat of the Congo Basin, but are in sharp decline due to poaching for the international ivory trade and habitat loss and fragmentation. It is estimated that probably one-quarter to one-third of the total African elephant population is made up of forest elephants.
In good news for elephants, Africa’s largest savanna elephant population is stable
Seven aircraft surveyed over 40,000 miles of southern Africa’s Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) to estimate the number and distribution of Africa’s largest savanna elephant population. The first-ever synchronized transboundary survey took two months, from August 22 to October 28, 2022, to cover what equates to nearly twice the circumference of the globe. The results were just published and found an overall stable and slightly increased population of 227,900 elephants in the region.
The African Elephant Family
Why They Matter
The presence of African elephants helps to maintain suitable habitats for many other species. In central African forests, up to 30 percent of tree species may require elephants to help with dispersal and germination. They play a pivotal role in shaping their habitat because of the enormous impact they have on factors ranging from fresh water to forest cover.
- Population Approximately 415,000 in the wild
Numbering three to five million in the last century, African elephant populations were severely reduced to its current levels because of hunting. In the 1980s, an estimated 100,000 elephants were killed each year and up to 80% of herds were lost in some regions. In recent years, growing demand for ivory, particularly from Asia, has led to a surge in poaching. 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.
Illegal Wildlife Trade
The illegal demand for ivory is the biggest driver of elephant poaching. 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. Asia stands behind a steadily increasing trend in illegal ivory and there are still thriving domestic ivory markets in Africa. Limited resources combined with remote and inaccessible elephant habitats make it difficult for governments to monitor and protect elephant herds. 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. 2011 saw the highest volume of illegal ivory seized since global records began in 1989.
Habitat Loss and Fragmentation
African elephants have less room to roam than ever before as expanding human populations convert land for agriculture, settlements and developments. The elephants’ range shrank from three million square miles in 1979 to just over one million square miles in 2007. Commercial logging, plantations for biofuels and extractive industries like logging and mining not only destroy habitat but also open access to remote elephant forests for poachers. Poverty, armed conflict and the displacement of people by civil conflict also add to habitat loss and fragmentation. All of these push elephants into smaller islands of protected areas and hinder elephants’ freedom to roam.
Human-Elephant Conflict
“Chili bombs,” a mixture of dried elephant dung and hot chili, are placed in crop fields to keep elephants away because they do not like the smell of chili.
As habitats contract and human populations expand, people and elephants are increasingly coming into contact with each other. Where farms border elephant habitat or cross elephant migration corridors, damage to crops and villages can become commonplace. This often leads to conflicts that elephants invariably lose. 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.
What WWF Is Doing
Ivory confiscated in Gabon.
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.
Fighting Illegal Wildlife Trade
To reduce the illegal trade in elephant products, WWF supports antipoaching efforts within and around protected areas. We also work to establish new protected areas to provide safe havens for elephants. We work with TRAFFIC, the world’s largest wildlife trade monitoring network, to assess trends in the illegal trade in elephant products. This includes implementing the CITES Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) which monitors and tracks elephant ivory seizures.
Protecting and Managing Habitats
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. We help establish new protected areas within elephant ranges and improve management effectiveness within existing protected areas.
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). We facilitate training in elephant conservation and management techniques and help update and enforce legislation to protect elephants. WWF has helped train park guards, villagers and communities in elephant conservation and management. 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. WWF also develops and supports community-based wildlife management plans that contribute to elephant conservation while providing benefits to local people.
Managing Conflict
To increase public support for elephant conservation by reducing conflict, WWF trains wildlife managers and local communities to use modern methods and tools to manage human-elephant conflict. 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 managing conflict with elephants.
Projects
Reducing Elephant Ivory Demand Among Travelers
Research has found that regular outbound Chinese travelers have the highest interest in purchasing elephant ivory despite the ban in China. Their travel gives them access to ivory in some of the destinations most popular with Chinese travelers where elephant ivory is still on the shelves. To achieve the goal of the ban—saving Africa’s elephants—we must curb consumer purchase of ivory outside China.
African Elephants (Loxodonta africana and L. cyclotis) Fact Sheet: Physical Characteristics
This fact sheet, like an elephant, is aging gracefully. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is working to bring you an updated version of the African Elephants Fact Sheet with new science and conservation information. Thanks for your patience, as our tusks go to the ground and dig into this huge project. Please check back soon. SDZWA team members can email questions to [email protected].
Looking for more elephant facts? Get a trunkful of SDZWA stories and news.
Physical Characteristics
| Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) | Forest Elephant (L. cyclotis) | |||
| Bull (male) | Cow (female) | Bull (male) | Cow (female) | |
| Body Weight | 4,000-6,300 kg (8,818-13,889 lbs) | 2,400-3,500 kg (5,291-7,716 lb) | 2,700-6,000 kg (5,952-13,228 lb) | 2,700-6,000 kg (5,952-13,228 lb) |
| Shoulder Height | 4 m (13 ft ) | 2.2 – 2.6 m (7.2-8.5 ft) | 2.4 – 2.8 m (8-9 ft) | 1.8 – 2.4 m (5.9-7.9 ft) |
- Largest living land mammal
- Tip of trunk to tip of tail 7-8.8m (23-29 ft)
- A proboscis or trunk
- Relatively large ears
- Long tusks
- Columnar legs
- Thick skin (pachydermous)
- Lack of hair on most of adult body
Head and facial features
- Ears
- Size
- Very large; 2 times the size those of the Asian elephant
- Large surface area aids in thermoregulation (maintenance of body temperature)
- A positive correlation exists between the number of times an elephant flaps its ears and increasing air temperature
- Often likened to the continent of Africa
- Spread ears indicate threat
- Position ears to aid balance
- Hear low frequency sounds better than any animal tested, one study (Heffner & Heffner 1980)
- Size
- Length: 6-6.5 ft
- Weight:150-200 kg (330-440 lb)
- Fusion of the nose and upper lip
- 2 nostrils set at the tip
- Muscles
- 8 major muscles on each side of trunk
- 150,000 muscle fascicles (portions of muscles) for the entire trunk
- Nose through which air is inhaled
- 70% of air inhaled is through the trunk, the rest comes through the mouth
- May have developed for snorkeling
- Modern day elephant is only mammal that can remain submerged far below the surface of the water while snorkeling (West 2001) (also discussed in How Elephants Snorkel)
- Tip prehensile; capable of grasping objects
- Small “fingers” on the top and bottom of the trunk aid in securing grip
- Elephants do not “drink” water through the trunk
- Water is sucked up and squirted into the mouth
- The trunk can hold more than 8 liters (2 gallons) of water
- A single pair, most commonly
- More may result from abnormal branching as a calf
- Present in both males and females
- Length approximately equal in both sexes
- Incisor teeth
- Unlike those of pigs, hippopotami and walruses whose tusks are specializations of the canine teeth
- Term “ivory” should be applied only to elephants and mammoths
- Hardness of ivory depends on the animal’s origin, habitat and sex
- Use of ivory for piano keys
- Ivory keys produced from the late 1800s until the early 1900s (Chadwick 1992)
- A standard keyboard used 1.5 lbs. of ivory
- These patterns are unique to elephants and mammoths
- Often used by customs officials to determine source of the ivory
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- Shape
- Savannah elephant: curved out and forward
- Forest elephant: point straight down
- Record length and weight
- Record length: 3.264 m (10 ft 8.5 in)
- Record weight: 102.7 kg (226 lb 7oz)
- Data collected during the last few decades suggests a decrease of 1-2 lbs/year (from Shoshani 1992, p. 73)
- 1970: average tusk weight 26 lb 7 oz
- 1990: average tusk weight 6 lbs 10 oz
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- Development
- Continually grow
- Size may be used to determine age
- Elephants are “right-tusked” or “left- tusked” (one tusk shows definite wear with age)
- Digging (for water, salt, roots)
- Stripping tree bark
- Lifting
- Marking trees
- Sexual display
- Defense and offense
- Protection for trunk
- Skull
- Weight in adults averages 52.2 kg (115 lb)
- Cranium filled with honeycomb-like spaces which allow the large skull to be relatively light-weight
- Short
- Individuals cannot turn the head completely to the side
- 20-21 pairs of ribs
- Last 4 pairs are floating
- Orientation of bones in limbs is almost vertical
- Supports enormous weight but prohibits any type of leaping movement
- Highly specialized dentition(from Vaughn et al. 2010)
- 2 upper incisors (tusks)
- Usually six cheek teeth in each half of each jaw in a lifetime
- Erupt in conveyor-belt fashion, one after another (don’t erupt vertically)
- Only one or two functional in each jaw half at a time
- Old worn-out teeth pushed forward and out
- Last set usually lost between 60 and 70 years of age (Eltringham 1991)
- Molars
- Replaced as an individual ages
- May produce 6 sets during a single lifetime
- 1.5 to 2 years
- 3.5 to 4 years
- 8 to 10 years
- 20 to 25 years
- 40 to 45 years
- Color
- Gray typically
- Often appear brown because of mud baths
- Frequent bathing, showering, and powerdering (with dirt) is important for skin care
- Paper thin inside ears, mouth, and anus
- 1 inch thick on back and head
- Well-supplied with nerves
- No visible sweat glands
- Longer hair on tip of tail, chin, elbow and knees
- Babies are covered with hair which decreases with age becoming short
Feet
- Toes
- Loxodonta africana (savannah elephant): 4-5 nails on forefoot, 3-5 on hindfoot (Tassey and Shoshani 2013; Nowak 2018)
- Parker and Graham (2017) found that 5 nails on forefoot and 4 nails on hindfoot was most common in 3 populations from East Africa
- Commonly, 5 nails (hooves) on forefoot and 4 nails on hindfoot (Nowak 2018)
- Cushioned
- Structure helps absorb chock
- May serve as sensory receptors (from Weissengruber et al. 2006)
- Vater-Pacinian cells in the cushion respond to pressure and vibration
- Meissner nerve endings in adjacent skin detect light touch
- Mammary Glands
- 2 located between forelegs
- Females produce milk that is 20% fat, 7% sugar and 3-4% protein
- Fat content 5 times higher than in the cow
- Located on the cheeks between the eye and ear are modified sweat glands
- Produce an oily secretion containing cholesterol, phenol and cresol
- Secrete throughout the year, becoming especially active in bulls during mating season
- Rarely over 1 kg in females
Internal Organs
- Organs are not proportionately larger than other mammals
- Heart
- Weight
- 27 – 46 lb (12-21 kg)
- Unique, with a double pointed apex instead of the typical cone shaped mammalian heart
- Manatees and dugongs also have double apex hearts
- 25-30 beats/min, standing
- 72-98 beats/min, lying down
- Anatomy unique among mammals
- Pleural cavity is obliterated by slippery connective tissue
- In all other mammals, the lungs are surrounded by 2 layers of a thin membrane with a teaspoon of liquid in between
- Animal can swim underwater using its trunk as a snorkel
- Elephants’ closest relatives are manatees, dugongs and sea cows that live full-time in the water
- 4-6 breaths/min, when calm
- Doubles when active
- Lack gall bladder
- Testes
- Located inside abdomen near the kidneys
- Weight over 11 lb
- 1/500th of the body weight
- Human brain weighs about 1.6 kg (3 lbs 8oz) or 1/50th of the body weight
- Eyesight poor
- Best in dim light
- Harderian glands (accessory lachrymal glands associated with the nictitating membrane or third eyelid) lubricate the eyes
Distinguishing features of savannah and forest elephants
- Body shape
- Savannah elephants more “slender”
- Back markedly concave
- Back straight
- Savannah elephants more “slender”
- Pleural cavity is obliterated by slippery connective tissue
- Weight
- Loxodonta africana (savannah elephant): 4-5 nails on forefoot, 3-5 on hindfoot (Tassey and Shoshani 2013; Nowak 2018)
- Replaced as an individual ages
- Continually grow
- Development
- Shape
- Size
