Tanzania - African Elephants

Our first sighting of the African Elephant was in Tarangire Park. It was a small herd with several babies. With large flapping ears, they were busy feeding on the grass. The babies looked especially cute with their proportionately large ears on their small baby faces. 

We were staying in a tent in a camp. The first night we heard the elephant just outside our tent. It was a little unnerving at first but gradually we got used to the sound and slept. Our first morning in the camp, we came out of the tent and saw this massive tusker just outside. Our very own special security guard. 

During the day, we saw several elephant herds and several lone bulls. 

Elephants are the largest land mammals and are herbivores. They move around in herds and have an average life span of 70 years in the wild. They weigh anywhere between 2.5 tons to 7 tons and have a height at the shoulder ranging from 8.2 to 13 feet. They can be differentiated from their Asian counterparts by their unusually large ears. 

Keystone species are those species which are vital to their environment. African elephants are one such species and have been called "ecosystem engineers" for the various ways they change their environment. They construct watering holes that are accessible to a variety of species by using their tusks to excavate dry riverbeds during the dry season. 

Their excrement is rich in seeds, which aid in the spread of plants across the ecosystem. Dung beetles also find ideal habitat in their excrement. 

They help smaller animals navigate through the forest by feeding on trees and bushes, and they maintain the savanna open for zebras and other plains animals by uprooting trees and eating their saplings.

The ears of the elephants radiate heat. This helps in keeping them cool. They also love to bathe in water bodies and spray water on themselves through their trunks. The elephant trunks are actually long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things. It has over 40,000 muscles. 

The tusks are a common feature among both male and female although males tend to have longer tusks and use them to fight one another. Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds of food in a single day.

Elephants are matriarchal, meaning they live in female-led groups. The matriarch is usually the biggest and oldest. She presides over a multi-generational herd that includes other females, called cows, and their young. Adult males, called bulls, tend to roam on their own, sometimes forming smaller, more loosely associated all-male groups.

With a gestation period of almost 22 months, having a baby is a very serious commitment. Cows usually give birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh some 200 pounds and stand about three feet tall. Elephants are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and poaching for the illegal ivory trade.