Elephants

These African elephants are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Their habitat ranges from sea level to 16,000 feet (4,877 m). The African elephant is the largest living land animal and weighs up to 5,400 kg. It inhabits the Savannah, brush, forest, river valleys, and semi-desert regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a...
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These African elephants are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Their habitat ranges from sea level to 16,000 feet (4,877 m). The African elephant is the largest living land animal and weighs up to 5,400 kg. It inhabits the Savannah, brush, forest, river valleys, and semi-desert regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two "fingers" at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the Asian species.

African elephants are capable of making a wide variety of vocal sounds, such as grunts, purrs, bellows, whistles, and the obvious trumpeting. Elephants and people have always had an interesting relationship.

People have had to contend with elephants destroying their crops. However, it is the elephants who have had the greatest burden. They have been hunted and poached for their ivory tusks, been prevented from migrating between feeding and water sites, and have lost due to conversion into agricultural areas and human dwellings. While the whole elephant population throughout Africa is declining, some countries in southern Africa have the opposite problem: too many elephants. The future of the elephant in Africa is a complex issue that will need to resolve overpopulation in some areas and under population in others.

The African elephant can be quickly distinguished from the Indian elephant by its greater size and its larger ears, which may reach a length of about 5 ft from top to bottom. The African elephant is tallest at the shoulder, has more wrinkled skin, and bears tusks in both male and female. The Indian elephant is tallest at the arch of the back, bears tusks in the male only, and has one lobe instead of two on its trunk.
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