African elephant

Historically, the African savanna elephant was present throughout the African continent. Nowadays, it has disappeared from most of its original range and only occupies 15% of it.

Currently, it is found from Mali in the north and west to South Africa in the south and Ethiopia in the east.

They inhabit many different environments such as savannas, bushlands, grasslands, forests, and even deserts.

There are 3 species of elephants on Earth: one in Asia and two in Africa.

The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, and the African elephants, which are divided into 2 species, Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis, known respectively as the savanna elephant and the forest elephant. Forest elephants are generally smaller and have thinner and straighter tusks, which help them move through the forest.

A gregarious animal, it lives in herds of 6 to 70 individuals led by the matriarch, often the oldest in the group. The males are solitary.

They are active animals throughout the 24 hours of a day. Constantly searching for food, they sleep only 4 hours per day, with periods of rest early in the morning and around midday.

They cover an average distance of 10 kilometers per day, but this depends on the food density. If there are abundant food resources, they will move very little; on the other hand, they can travel up to 40 kilometers in a single day if food becomes scarce. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see them undertake migrations of several hundred kilometers over the course of the seasons.

They use their trunks to spray themselves with water or to cover themselves with mud in order to protect their skin, maintain hydration, and regulate body temperature. They enjoy taking baths in water, mud, or dust.

Among elephants, communication is carried out through many vocalizations: grunting, rumbling, sniffing, and trumpeting. They are capable of emitting very low-frequency sounds, around 20 Hz, allowing them to communicate over several kilometers. In this way, they can warn other herds of their presence or signal that they are ready to reproduce.

They also use certain postures, their ears, trunk, and the sense of touch to communicate.

The elephant is considered a bioengineering species because of its importance for biodiversity. For example, it positively influences the diversity of reptiles and amphibians due to its ability to create diverse habitats when it breaks a tree.

It seems that elephants and white egrets have a mutualistic relationship. The birds rid the skin of all the parasites found there and are thus fed. This is therefore beneficial both to the elephant and the bird.

African savanna elephants are herbivores and consume a wide variety of foods: leaves, fruits, grasses, wood, bark, roots…

They are capable of knocking down relatively small trees to access food more easily. They can also stand on their two hind legs to reach food higher up.

Additionally, they use their trunk to store both food and water, which they will then pour into their mouth. During the dry season, an elephant consumes between 150 and 170 kilograms per day, with diets made up of 80% grass and 20% wood. During the rainy season, it consumes between 200 and 280 kilograms, with diets composed of 60% grass and 40% wood. To avoid deficiencies, they sometimes eat earth, which is rich in minerals. They drink between 80 and 200 liters of water per day.

Reproduction takes place throughout the year. Males detect females in heat thanks to the smell of their urine. From that point, the solitary male approaches the group of females and marks the area using his tusks and a chemical substance on trees and bushes. Confrontations can break out between males for access to females. The winner then tries to court the female by caressing her with his trunk until she reciprocates. A female may mate with several males during her heat.

After 22 months of gestation, the female most often gives birth to one calf at a time; cases of twins are relatively rare. Birth takes place away from the group and the male does not participate in parental care. All members of the clan help raise the young. Due to the investment the mother makes in her calf, she only gives birth every 3 to 9 years and will, on average, only have 4 calves in her lifetime.

Newborns weigh between 90 and 120 kilograms and are weaned at around 4 months but continue to nurse for comfort until 3 years old. They become independent at about 8 years, but sexual maturity comes only at 11 years for females and 20 years for males.

Life expectancy is between 60 and 70 years.

Lions, African wild dogs, hyenas, and crocodiles may attack the young. As for adults, they very rarely fall prey to predators.

The IUCN has classified the African savanna elephant as endangered. This is justified by the halving of the population over the past 75 years. Nevertheless, this population decline is not uniform across the entire African continent. In fact, some populations are stable or increasing, while others are experiencing varying degrees of decline.

Legal hunting in certain areas as well as poaching for their meat, skin, and tusks, which are made of ivory, greatly impact the species.

Moreover, human expansion leads to loss of habitat. To slow the decrease in their numbers, certain populations are relocated to protected areas. Unfortunately, about 70% of their range is still unprotected.

Here at the Amnéville zoo live a male, Niko (26 years old), and a female named Inga (40 years old) who both came from a circus.