Elephant
(Loxodonta Africana)
- Height of Bull 280 – 300 cm
- Weight 5-6 tons or more
- Breeding Every four years in favourable conditions
- Gestation 22 Months
- Longevity 68-70 years
In 1970-73 the United Nations: Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) surveyed the South Luangwa National Park ’s drainage area and recorded an Elephant population of over 100,000. During the following decade, excessive commercial poaching for ivory built up, and it is estimated that more than 80% of the population was slaughtered.
Fortunately, the commercial poaching racket has been outlawed and
the numbers of African Elephants are becoming quite reasonable. Visitors
on Safari should be privy to seeing family units consisting of four
to six cows and young and bulls either on their own or in small bachelor
groups.
African Elephants have similar life cycles to humans. They mature sexually at ten to twelve years and continue to develop until twenty years of age. Unlike any other animal, except crocodiles, elephants continue to grow throughout their life. At around the age of seventy the elephant will use up its last set of molars and is unable to continue eating and dies.
Elephants have one of the longest pregnancies of any animal, taking up to 22 months. A female in oestrus is able to transmit an infrasonic ‘song’ which will carry for 5 – 10 kms and can alert any bull in the vicinity.
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