Both male and female African elephants grow fangs and each individual can stand left or right, and the one they use most is smaller due to wear. These elongated teeth can be used to protect the elephant’s trunk, to lift and move objects, to collect food and to remove the bark from trees. In dry times, elephants even dig holes with their teeth to find water underground. As the largest land animals in the world, there are two different types of elephants today: the Asian elephants and the African elephants. African elephants can grow to a height of approximately 13 feet and weigh more than ten tons or 20,000 pounds! Although smaller, Asian elephants can still grow to a height of 12 feet and weigh more than seven tons .
The WWF works with various stakeholders, particularly managers and wildlife communities, to integrate tools and technologies such as electric fences, deterrents and other tools to prevent potentially harmful encounters. We also participate in efforts to educate communities that change behavior that minimize negative effects. We help community response teams respond to human-elephant conflicts and work with communities to develop alternative livelihoods to minimize the economic impact of crop loss. Unfortunately, a person is the greatest threat to an elephant. Many elephants have lost their lives in the name of the ivory trade through senseless hunting. Over time, elephants have developed into a protected species that limits ivory production.
They have the largest brain and the longest gestation period of a land animal with an average of 21.5 months. Female elephants are connected by nature, which means that they focus their efforts on social interactions. Generally experienced older women, so-called matriarch lead elephant families.
Men whose fangs are larger than female fangs also fight their teeth. Under the leadership of a matriarch, elephants are divided into complex social structures for women and calves, while male elephants tend to live in isolation or in small groups of singles. Every four to five years and after a 22-month gestation period, the longest of all mammals, a single calf is born to a woman. The boys can keep their maternal flock for the rest of their lives while the males leave the herd when they reach puberty. The social groups of forest elephants differ slightly and can only consist of one adult woman and her descendants.
Within a few minutes of its birth, the calf must literally stand on its own feet. Calves must be upright to reach breast milk, otherwise they will die. An elephant baby is called a calf and can weigh about 200 pounds and be about 3 feet tall. They cannot see very well when they are born, but like human babies, they can recognize their mothers by touch, aroma and sound.
During the dry season, they will dig to find water and make large holes in seemingly dry stream beds with their feet, trunks and teeth until they reach the water supply. In this way, they also produce troughs that other animals can drink. Once male elephants are old enough to find and protect themselves, they leave the herd and live alone or form herds of singles with other men. Only after they grow up do they visit herds of women, and that is only for a short time to reproduce. Male elephants can grow significantly larger than their female colleagues. Still a powerful animal, female elephants or “cows” only grow at about 9 and 13 feet and weigh between 6,000 and 8,000 pounds.
These desirable goods are essential for elephants to defend, offensive, excavate, feed, lift, collect food and remove tree bark – they cannot survive without them. The illegal trade in wild animals also threatens the Asian elephant population. In addition to ivory, elephants are also slaughtered for their meat, skin and tail hair. It is estimated that poaching dramblys such products has resulted in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam losing three quarters of their wild elephants in the late 1980s and 1990s. Elephants are the largest land mammals on earth and clearly have massive bodies, large ears and long trunks. They collect objects, trumpet warnings, greet other elephants or absorb water for drinking or bathing with their trunks.
The human population in Africa and Asia has quadrupled since the turn of the century, the fastest growth rate on the planet. The forest and habitat of the savannas, in which elephant herds once lived, were converted into farmland, pasture and wood in order to obtain protection and fuel. Elephants are key species that play a crucial role in their environment. During the dry season, African bush elephants, also known as African savanna elephants, dig deep holes in river channels with their teeth and feet to gain access to water. They create mini irrigation holes that also use many other animals such as zebra, giraffe and baboons. The size and strength of elephants means that they often trample on vegetation and the covered brush when they wander through landscapes.