Elephants are the largest mammals on land. There are three different species of elephants: African bush elephant or savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), African forest elephant (L. cyclotis), and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Elephants are known for their features like proboscis (trunk), tusks, large ears, pillar-like legs, and gray skin. Elephants use their trunk to bring food and water to their mouths, and they also use it to grab things.
Elephants are found in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephants prefer habitats like savannahs, forests, deserts, and marshes. They have plant-based diets, and if possible, they prefer to stay close to water. Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild. Elephants are very communicative mammals. They use touch, sight, smell, and sound for that, and over long distances, they use infrasound and seismic communication. Scientists believe that elephants have self-awareness, and they show concern for their dying and dead herd members.
African bush elephants and Asian elephants are listed as endangered, and African forest elephants are critically endangered. In 1979, the population of elephants in Africa was around 1.3 million. In 2016, the population was around 415 000 individuals. The biggest threat for elephants is the ivory trade, because the mammals are poached for their ivory tusks. The other threats are habitat destruction and conflicts with people. Elephants need big areas for their survival.
Elephants feed for up to 18 hours per day, and they eat hundreds of pounds of plants every day. Elephants need a lot of water for their survival. They drink up to 250 liters per day. Since temperatures are rising and the rain in Africa is becoming less frequent, elephants are in danger. So this has a direct impact on the elephant population since the trying seasons are longer and the resources are harder to find.
Elephants help us to preserve forest and savannah ecosystems for other species and are inextricably linked to biodiversity richness. They are important ecosystem engineers. They create pathways in a thick forest habitat that allow other animals to pass through. An elephant’s footprint can also provide a micro-ecosystem, which, in its water-filled form, can offer habitat for tadpoles and other organisms. Elephants also help plant trees, and by doing that, they fight climate change. Elephants walk long distances, and by doing that, they spread the seeds all over the forest. And if we have more rainforests, then they can store more carbon in their trunks, which helps us control the CO2 level in the atmosphere.
The Asian elephant inhabits the areas where people are most concentrated and may be restricted to small pockets of forest between human-covered landscapes. Elephants usually trample and eat crops, which results in conflicts with humans, leading to hundreds of deaths of both elephants and humans. The need to mitigate these conflicts is important for nature conservation. One solution is the protection of wildlife corridors, which give populations greater connectivity and space.
Rising temperatures are threatening the survival of elephants. Elephants are sensitive to heat. For example, the optimum temperature for an Asian elephant is 23 degrees Celsius. If the temperature keeps rising, it will be a threat to the animal. Since elephants can’t sweat, they have to cool their bodies by flapping their ears, swimming, being in the shade, or just spraying their bodies with mud and water. So if the elephants can’t cool their bodies,they might get a heat stroke. The habitats that elephants are using are decreasing, and scientists predict that by 2050 in Zimbabwe, elephants will lose more than 40% of their habitat.
As already mentioned, elephants are herbivores, which means they have a plant-based diet. They have to eat 450 kilograms of plants every day. In Lope National Park between 1986 and 2018, the production of wild fruits dropped by 81%. Due to this, African forest elephants have experienced an 11% reduction in body condition, and their bones are also visible. Some fruits that the elephants feed on are very sensitive to temperatures. Some trees rely on temperature drops at night, and since it barely happens, they don’t even start to flower, therefore they don’t produce fruits.
Some trees (Omphalocarpum procerum) need elephants to distribute their seeds. The fruits of the tree are only eaten by the elephants, so if there are now elephants, then the tree also becomes instinctive.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/elephant
https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/wildlife/african-elephants
https://dunboynecollege.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Climate-Change-article-AF.pdf
https://wildaid.org/5-ways-climate-change-is-affecting-elephants-and-1-surprising-way-they-help-fight-it/
