Help Save the African Bush Elephant
By: Taylor Hall
Endangered Species
The African Bush Elephant was last seen roaming Africa's plains, forests, and deserts. They are known as Africa's peaceful giants. They require so much land and food to survive, that they destroy their own habitat. Along with that, they are also fighting deforestation and poaching for their ivory tusks. Help save the peaceful giants!
Size
They are the largest land animal on the planet. They can be 24 feet long, 13 feet tall and weigh up to 11 tons. Both male and female have large ivory tusks.
Trunk
They trunk is very strong, it contains 40,000 tendons and muscles.
Characteristics
The elephants have been proven to show affection, care deeply for their young, and grieve for their relatives that pass away.
Why they're important
There are more than a dozen elephant-dependent tree species. The fruit bearing trees rely on the elephants for their seed distribution. This process is called mega faunal dispersal syndrome. Over the large areas that they travel, they disperse the seeds all over their travels by their excrement. 18 out of 14 trees where the elephant population dropped 98% were not producing enough new trees to account for the ones that were dying. This could have wide range ecological effects because many animals rely on these trees for food and shelter. We also use some of these trees for traditional medicines.