About Elephants
Elephants are incredibly smart. They use materials in their environments to solve problems in creative ways, such as stuffing a bell attached to its neck with mud or leaves to stop it from ringing so that people don't hear it, or chewing bark and using the wad to plug up and save a source of water. Do you know the saying "An elephant never forgets?" Well, it's true! They remember places, other elephants, and people. They also know the difference between groups of people - if one group of people was nice to them, and another group was mean, they remember. They also call each other by name and remember each other's voices.
Elephants use deep rumbles to vibrate the ground to communicate with other elephants that are miles away. They also use higher pitched calls, touch, body movements, and scent to communicate. They comfort each other, take care of injured elephants, protect the calves, and visit the graves of elephants that have died.
There are three species of elephants in the world: African savannah elephants, African forest elephants, and Asian elephants. African savannah elephants live in the middle and bottom part of Africa. They are the heaviest land animals in the world, with adult males about as heavy as 4 cars, and as tall as a one-story house. One type of African savannah elephant is the African desert elephant, which lives in Namibia. They are as tall as other African savannah elephants but weigh less because they have less food avaiable to them. They have learned to survive with little food and usually live near rivers. The African forest elephant is the smallest of all elephants, only 6 to 10 feet tall. They live in the western and central forests of Africa. Asian elephants are only a little smaller than African savannah elephants. Their skin is less wrinkled than African elephants. The wrinkles of the African elephants store water to prevent their skin from drying out in the desert. Asian elephants live in more humid areas, so they don't need wrinkles.
Elephants are important to the balance of life in the areas where they live. They spread seeds to allow more plants to grow. Their footsteps make dents in the land that fill with water, where tadpoles and other animals grow. When they travel, they create paths that other animals can take to find food.
Elephants use deep rumbles to vibrate the ground to communicate with other elephants that are miles away. They also use higher pitched calls, touch, body movements, and scent to communicate. They comfort each other, take care of injured elephants, protect the calves, and visit the graves of elephants that have died.
There are three species of elephants in the world: African savannah elephants, African forest elephants, and Asian elephants. African savannah elephants live in the middle and bottom part of Africa. They are the heaviest land animals in the world, with adult males about as heavy as 4 cars, and as tall as a one-story house. One type of African savannah elephant is the African desert elephant, which lives in Namibia. They are as tall as other African savannah elephants but weigh less because they have less food avaiable to them. They have learned to survive with little food and usually live near rivers. The African forest elephant is the smallest of all elephants, only 6 to 10 feet tall. They live in the western and central forests of Africa. Asian elephants are only a little smaller than African savannah elephants. Their skin is less wrinkled than African elephants. The wrinkles of the African elephants store water to prevent their skin from drying out in the desert. Asian elephants live in more humid areas, so they don't need wrinkles.
Elephants are important to the balance of life in the areas where they live. They spread seeds to allow more plants to grow. Their footsteps make dents in the land that fill with water, where tadpoles and other animals grow. When they travel, they create paths that other animals can take to find food.
Conservation
All elephants are endangered. African forest elephants are the most endangered because people have been cuting down the forest trees, which takes away their food and makes it possible for poachers (people who kill elephants illegally) to enter the forest to kill them for their tusks. Even though their tusks are basically the same as human teeth, many people believe that tusks are special, calling their material ivory, and pay money for jewelry and statues made out of them. Poachers hunt African elephants to sell their tusks.
Asian elephants are endangered because people have taken over their land. Elephants need to eat a lot of plants in order to survive, which means they need to travel across a lot of land to find enough plants. When people take over that land, elephants lose their food source. People also shoot elephants when they get upset that elephants have eaten their crops.
Several countries and organizations, including Desert Elephant Conservation, the International Elephant Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund, and Elephant Voices, are working to protect elephants by sharing information about elephants so that people will appreciate them, fighting to make selling ivory illegal, training rangers to protect elephants from poachers, encouraging people to stop buying products made from ivory, and building fences and giving farmers other ways to keep elephants off of their crops.
For more information about elephants and their conservation, you can go to
https://www.elephantvoices.org/elephant-intelligence,
https://www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/elephantine-intelligence,
www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/elephantine-intelligence, https://elephantconservation.org/about-elephants, https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/elephant, and https://desertelephantconservation.org/about-desert-elephants
Asian elephants are endangered because people have taken over their land. Elephants need to eat a lot of plants in order to survive, which means they need to travel across a lot of land to find enough plants. When people take over that land, elephants lose their food source. People also shoot elephants when they get upset that elephants have eaten their crops.
Several countries and organizations, including Desert Elephant Conservation, the International Elephant Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund, and Elephant Voices, are working to protect elephants by sharing information about elephants so that people will appreciate them, fighting to make selling ivory illegal, training rangers to protect elephants from poachers, encouraging people to stop buying products made from ivory, and building fences and giving farmers other ways to keep elephants off of their crops.
For more information about elephants and their conservation, you can go to
https://www.elephantvoices.org/elephant-intelligence,
https://www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/elephantine-intelligence,
www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/elephantine-intelligence, https://elephantconservation.org/about-elephants, https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/elephant, and https://desertelephantconservation.org/about-desert-elephants