On the Map

African elephants are found in 23 countries within Africa. The largest populations are in Southern and Eastern African countries. Countries include Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa.

Of the entire population of elephants only 40,000-50,000 are left in the wild of both Asian and African, the species of elephants both African and Asian elephant is classified as endangered. Thus many live in conservation parks.

African elephants will use their tusks as a defence mechanism against other wildlife predators or when opposed by another elephant by using them to lift, hit and even puncture other animals. During the dry season, elephants will also use their tusks to dig water holes in dry riverbeds to get water.

D E F E N C E

M E C H A N I S M S

Elephants also have very thick wrinkled skin in appearance. The wrinkles act as a cooling mechanism against high temperatures by increasing the skin's surface area. The additional skin and wrinkles trap moisture, making the time to evaporate longer, thus keeping the elephant cooler Elephants also have very flat feet, this unique foot structure allows proper movement over uneven terrain and swampy ground without getting hurt from the ground

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I M P O R T A N C E O F T H E E A R S

Elephants have big ears which allow them to radiate excess heat to keep them cool. This works as they have tiny blood vessels, which are visible at the outer margins of ears. What happens is the warm blood cools as it circulates through the vessels in the ear, and due to the thin layer of skin that separates it from the outside air. The cooler blood then circulates back into the body, helping reduce the overall body temperature of the elephant.

Interspecfic And Intraspecfic Competition

Intraspecific Competition

When competing for mates, male elephants will use their tusks to duel and compete against each other violently but this is rare as elephants do not mate for life, and can have many partners, within one herd! This may lead to tusks being broken and smaller than their calmer counterparts.

Interspecific Competition

Elephants don’t compete with many animals due to their big size. However, they compete with rhinoceros for food. They compete with rhinoceros for food as they have the same food source as they are both megaherbivores (eat trees, grass etc…). The interesting part of this competition is how it was discovered. This interspecific competition was found after comparing the poop of rhinoceros and elephants to see that they had similar diets. Furthermore, rhinoceros shift their diet in the presence or absence of elephants. They can eat around 300 kg of biomass daily and forage up to 8 meters above the ground.

P r e d a t o r a n d P r e y

The African elephant has many predators Carnivores (meat eaters) such as lions, hyenas, and crocodiles may prey upon young, sick, orphaned, or injured elephants. Humans are the greatest threat to all elephant populations ( explanations on page 10). Elephants are herbivores so do not prey on animals. They instead spend their time collecting grasses, bark, twigs, roots, leaves, fruits, and vegetables using their trunk.

African elephants have a mutualistic relationship with birds The birds (ex oxpeckers and cattle egrets birds) will feed on the skin parasites of the elephants, providing them with a meal while ridding the elephants of some parasites.

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M E N S A L I S M

The African elephants have a symbiotic relationship of commensalism with the dung beetle. The dung beetle retrieves its nourishment from the elephant’s dung, while on the other hand, the elephants are totally indifferent to what happens to its waste.

Herbivory

Elephants are herbivores that eat grasses, bark, twigs, roots, leaves, fruits, and vegetables, which they scavenge for and typically used tusks can rip down trees to eat. They are considered megaherbivores as they can eat up to 350kg of food and usually spend ⅔ of the day scavenging for food.

Different types of parasites, specifically nematodes in elephants.

In African elephants, nematodes (worms) are frequently found, with hookworms in particular that have been reported to cause pathological lesions, and hemorrhages in the bile ducts and liver, as well as the intestines affecting elephant health. An elephant-specific issue was the intestinal fluke Protofasciola robusta, which is an ancestral species within the Fasciolidae ( a type of trematodes), which has been related to intestinal tissue damage in elephants and leads to, hemorrhage and death.

Across

2 Names of worms associated with parasitism

5 Elephant's main interspecific competition

7 Type of insectsElephants have a relationship with

9 Female-led groups are referred to as

10 The amount of countries elephants are found in

11. Defence mechanism involving skin

Down

1 Elephants fight each other for

3 The animal that has a mutualistic relationship with an elephant

4 Based on an elephant diet they are

6 An elephant's distribution pattern

8. Colour of elephants