My quest continues to find and photograph the big 5 of Africa. Up next on the list is the mighty African Elephant.

The African elephant is the largest mammal walking on the earth, It can be found in 37 countries on the continent of Africa.

There are two species of the African elephant. I will mention both but the majority of this article will focus on the African bush elephant

The two species:

1. The African Bush Elephant

2. The African Forest Elephant

The bush elephant is the largest of the two species with it's tusks coming forward and curving outward while the forest elephant is much smaller with it's tusks being straighter and pointing downward. By the way both male and female elephants have tusks.

Tell of the Tape:

This is quite amazing. The bush elephant weighs in at a weight of 6000-15000 pounds(males). He is up to 14 foot tall at the shoulders and is 30 feet long from the trunk to the tail. Speaking of the trunk, it is a large muscular extension and is used for plucking their food and communicating with one another.

Family Life:

The family group is called a herd (family unit). The males usually live alone and leave the herd at 12 to 15 while the herd or family unit is made up of around 10-100 closely related females and their calfs. The leader of this group is called the matriarch and she is the boss. There is strength in numbers and a herd of elephants are a formidable foe. During my trip I witnessed what devestation they can cause to their suroundings. I would liken it to the devistation of a tornado, pretty awesome to see and very surreal.

Diet:

African elephants are herbivores. Their diet consits of grasses, buds, fruits, leaves, roots and bark. They can eat up to 992 pounds of vegitation a day. With this amount of food being consumed the elephant is really in need of a probiotic and digestive enzymes since only 40 percent of the 992 pounds of food is properly digested.

Intelligence:

Elephants are among the world's most intelligent species. They have a brain mass of over 11 pounds and is larger than any other land animal ( told you ther were big). Just to give you a comparison the largest whale's in the ocean have twenty times the mass of your typical elephant and their brains are just barely twice the mass of the elephant's brain.

Elephant's are so amazing and exhibit a wide variety of behaviours including....

1. Grief

2. Learning

3. Mothering

4. Mimicry

5. Art

6. Play

7. Sense of humor

8. Use of tools

9. Compassion

What an amazing animal!

The African Elephant is such an amazing animal but sadly their territory is shinking at a fast pace. Their number one predator is man poaching the elephants for the worldwide Ivory trade. Elephants are also in danger of their loss of habitat due to the elephant and man conflict. It's the same everywhere, man expands and animals suffer.