African elephant and its growth
Introduction
The African elephant is the largest animal that walks on the earth. Their herds wander through 37 countries in Africa. They are easily recognized by their trunk that is used to communicate and manipulate objects. And their great ears allow them to radiate excess heat. The upper incisive teeth become fangs in African elephants and grow throughout their lives. There are two subspecies of African elephants: the savanna or bush elephant and the forest elephant.
Sabana elephants are larger than forest elephants and their fangs curve out. In addition to being smaller, forest elephants are darker and their fangs are more straight and point down. There are also differences in the size and shape of the skull and the skeleton between the two subspecies.
Developing
The forest elephants, a different subspecies from the African elephants, are uniquely adapted to the forest habitat of the Congo basin, but are in strong decline due to poaching for international ivory trade. It is estimated that probably between a quarter and a third of the total population of African elephants is composed of forest elephants.
The presence of African elephants helps maintain adequate habitats for many other species. In central Africa forests, up to 30 percent of tree species may require elephant to help with dispersion and germination. They play a fundamental role in the configuration of their habitat due to the enormous impact they have on factors ranging from fresh water to forest cover.
With a number of three to five million in the last century, the populations of African elephants were severely reduced to their current levels due to hunting. In the 1980s, it was estimated that 100 were killed every year.000 elephants and in some regions up to 80% of herdas were lost. In recent years, the growing demand for ivory, especially Asia, has caused an increase in poaching. Elephant populations, especially in the south and east of Africa, which once showed promising recovery signs could be at risk due to the recent increase in poaching for illegal ivory trade.
Illegal ivory demand is the main driver of poaching elephant hunting. Despite the worldwide prohibition of CITES on Ivory International Sales since 1990, tens of thousands of elephants are killed to meet the growing demand for ivory products in the Far East. Asia is behind a trend constantly increasing in illegal ivory and there are still prosperous marphile markets in Africa.
Limited resources combined with remote and inaccessible elephant habitats make governments control and protect elephant herds control and protect. The impacts of war and the overexploitation of natural resources often lead to an increase in poaching, since elephants are also considered a source of wild meat. In 2011 the largest volume of illegal ivory seized since world records in 1989 began in 1989.
African elephants have less space to roam. The elephant distribution area was reduced by three million square miles in 1979 to just over one million square miles in 2007.
Commercial logging, biofuel plantations and extractive industries such as logging and mining not only destroy habitat, but also open access to remote elephant forests for poachers. Poverty, armed conflicts and the displacement of people due to civil conflicts also add to the loss and fragmentation of habitat. All these push elephants to smaller islands in protected areas and hinder the freedom to wander the elephants.
conclusion
As habitats contract and human populations expand, people and elephants come into contact more and more with each other. Where farms border the habitat of elephants or cross elephant migration runners, damage to crops and villages can become common. This often leads to conflicts that elephants invariably lose. But the loss of lives can occur on both sides, since people can be trampled while trying to protect their livelihoods, and hunting guards often shoot the ‘problematic’ elephants.
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