The African Elephant

Vital Statistics

 The Social Organization of Elephants

The African Elephants have several group organizations with the most common being a large herd of elephants led by the matriarch, which is usually the oldest and strongest female of the herd.  Within this herd, you will find related females, alongside their offspring, young daughters and their offspring, etc. This type of herd can have anything from two to twenty-four individuals; however, it is normal to find about 9-11 individuals in an average size herd. These numbers can obviously increase and have been recorded in the past. This large number in a herd usually has to do with habitat degradation or limited resources, forcing the herd to congregate near the available and limited food sources.
You will notice when you come across a herd of elephants that are actively feeding that they will seem to fragment, with some individuals being a couple of meters away from each other and spaced apart. The matriarch will determine the activity, direction, and pace at which the herd will be traveling.
When a herd of elephants experience danger or are disturbed, they will cluster around each other and look at the matriarch for leadership. Since leadership plays a fundamental role in the lifespan of an elephant, it is the female elephants that sometimes expand their average lifespan of 60 to 56 years, well beyond their age of reproduction.
As soon as the matriarch turns 50 or 60 years old, a new matriarch will take her place and the old matriarch will then leave the herd.
Young male elephants between the age of 12-19 year will leave the matriarchal herd during a gradual separation process whereby the young males become peripheral, following the matriarchal herd at a safe distance; firstly not wanting to leave the comfort of their mothers and the herd, but soon after leave. If they do not want to break away from the herd, the individual will be pushed out by older females or their mothers due to intolerance of the boisterousness and sexual precociousness of pubescent males.
After the young bull elephants finally become independent, they will either walk alone or join a bachelor herd that is usually a herd of between 2-14 individuals but can also grow to quite large numbers.

Food and feeding behavior of African Elephants

Elephants are grazers and browsers, meaning they graze the grass below and browse up high for tree leaves, flowers, fruits, bark, thorns, etc. Some people refer to this as mixed feeders.
Elephants can be quite destructive when feeding, as they break trees to either get to the roots or the inaccessible leaves on the top of the tree.
Elephants due to their size have to consume a large amount of vegetation in order to get their energy levels up to sustain their needs. Elephants can eat anything from 150-300kg of plant matter daily, depending on their size. Elephants also have poor digestion and only 40% of what they eat gets absorbed into nutrition for the body. Elephants not only eat a lot but also require plenty of water. They can drink anything from 160 liters and up in a single day, depending on their size of course.

Reproduction of the African elephants

Females that are sexually mature and ready to mate, go into a hormonal phase called estrous or oestrus. During this phase, they exhibit certain behaviors around bull elephants whereby females become wary of approaching bulls and try to walk or run away – this is also called the estrous walk, and if the male is adamant to mate, the walk turns into a chase which is the estrous chase. The female will only give in if the male can reach and touch her. He will then proceed into a brief ritual whereby the male elephant lays his tusks on the female’s shoulders & head and then moving to rest his tusks or chin on her rump in other to mount her successfully.
After a long gestation of 22 months, a single calf is born, weighing about 10-130kg (9284 lbs.) and stand about 90cm (36 inches) tall. The elephant calf can stand within a few hours and suckles with its mouth from the mother’s teats or mammary glands that are located between the two front legs. The calf will explore and experiment with vegetation at around 6 months old. Young elephants are only fully independent at the age of 10 years, the second-longest period of adolescent dependency after humans.

African Elephant communication

African Elephants are extremely social and converse in conversation that is tactile, olfactory as well as vocal. They also make use of a wide range of signaling gestures that symbolize greeting, caressing, and affection. Elephants rumble, trumpet, squeal and scream. There are over 30 postures and movements conveying dominance, threatening, defense, submissiveness as well as fighting displays.
Another fascinating way of communication that elephants use is called Infrasound- these are sounds originating outside our range of hearing but can travel several kilometers over vast distances.

The African Elephant’s trunk

The elephant’s trunk is an extension of the nose and has no bones in it. It is prehensile and capable of grasping a small rock to wrapping the trunk around a big branch with its two finger-like protrusions that almost resemble fingers on the tip of the trunk.
The trunk is used to communicate, produce sound (trumpet), signal, gesture, breath, smell, and of course suck up water like a straw to spew into the mouth to drink.

The African Elephant’s  Tusks 

The tusks of elephants are an iconic feature of elephants. Both male and female elephants bare tusks, but some are born without them. The tusks are basically elongated upper incisor teeth that protrude from the mouth.
Males have bigger, longer, and more thickly tucks than females. Tusks continue to grow indefinitely. An elephant’s tusks are made from ivory that is a sought-after material, loved by many people. Many elephants in the past, as well as the present, are killed annually for their ivory.

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