African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana)

Scientific Classification

Class: Mammal (Mammalia)

Order: Proboscidea

Family: Elephantidae

Genus: African elephant (Loxodonta)

Species: African Bush Elephant (africana)

Other Loxodonta

• Forest elephant (cyclotis)

Common Names

Elephant

The African bush elephant is

• Herbivorous
• Hierarchical
• Polygynous
• Precocial
• Seed disperser
• Social
• Viviparous

Adaptation data provided by Animal Diversity Web

Where can I see them?

Conservation Status

The African bush elephant is Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)

1. EX - Extinct
2. EW
3. CR - Threatened
4. EN - Threatened
5. VU - Threatened
6. NT
7. LC - Least concern

Population trend: Increasing

Year assessed: 2008

What's the threat?

Overexploitation of elephants for their ivory has been a major factor in the massive population declines over the past two hundred years. Hunting of elephants has soared at various times during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, in conjunction with increased demand from India and China following the decline of the Asian elephant, and later from Europe and the USA for the manufacture of billiard balls and piano keys. At the beginning of the twentieth century it is estimated that up to a thousand tonnes of ivory was being exported each year. The 1970s saw another period of large-scale uncontrolled trade, and many populations were devastated, particularly in eastern and central Africa. In Kenya alone, numbers crashed from an estimated 167,000 in 1973 to just 19,000 in 1989. This exploitation also had profound effects on the age and social structure of elephant populations, with adult males and matriarchs being targeted by hunters for their larger tusks. In some areas there are now so few adult males that females may be unable to find a mate. The loss of a matriarch can have a devastating effect on a family unit, who depend on them for leadership. Although hunting has decreased since the ivory ban came into effect in 1990, elephants are still hunted both legally and illegally for their tusks, and this exploitation remains a problem. Habitat loss and fragmentation is now considered a serious threat to surviving elephant populations. Rapid growth of human populations, particularly in west Africa and the fertile east African highlands during the twentieth century, and the extension of agriculture into rangelands and forests have brought humans and elephants into direct conflict. The vast majority of elephants occur outside protected areas, and human-elephant conflicts occur when farming activities take place within this range. Elephants frequently cause widespread damage to agriculture and water supplies, and may injure or even kill local people, who often retaliate by killing the elephants.

Information about the threat is provided by the Zoological Society of London's EDGE of Existence programme