The decline of the African elephant population: current status, threats, and conservation strategiesEmma Kandrac

Westfield State University

Biology Department

Abstract

Humans are the African elephant’s biggest predator. One of the biggest threats to elephants we

cause is illegal poaching for trinkets and treasures made from their tusks. Ivory is also prevalent in the

Asian market and is used for medical purposes such as healing aching bones or dealing with pain from

arthritis. Elephants are no longer safe to roam in herds outside protective parks for this reason, so their

habitat has been greatly taken over by humans. Habitat destruction is a big cause of elephant loss

because elephant herds require a large amount of the same resources humans use that happen to be

scarce in Africa. This opens up a rise in human-elephant conflict. If poaching and habitat destruction

continue as they are, African elephants are more than likely to go extinct in the next 50 years. With

national parks and preserves being set up in a few African countries that are home to the elephants,

there is hope we can shield these populations from poachers and give them enough resources and

ecological and social conditions to survive.

Introduction

The African elephant (Loxodonta Africana) is the largest mammal on Earth. In comparison to the

Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), the African elephant weighs between 4000 to 7500 kilograms while

the Asian elephant weighs between 3000 to 6000 kilograms. While African elephants have fuller, more

rounded heads with a single dome, the Asian elephant has twin domes with an indent in the middle

(Wittemyer 2012). African elephants can be identified by their large ears that are shaped like Africa’s

continent, which they use to radiate heat from the warm sun. Both male and female African elephants

have tusks they use to dig for food and water and strip bark from trees. Males use the tusks to battle

one another for mating purposes, but the ivory has also attracted violence of a far more dangerous sort.

The African elephant society is primarily based on a social matriarchal community (de Silva and

Wittemyer 2012). The matriarch is the oldest female who leads a clan of 9-11 elephants (2012). Only

closely related females and their offspring are part of this herd because males tend to leave once they

reach maturity at about age eight. The herd’s status depends on the guidance of the matriarch. She

determines when they eat, rest, bathe, or drink. Females in the herd practice motherhood by being

allomothers to the calves. These assistants are usually either too young to start bearing calves of their

own or are infertile. They play with and babysit the calves and retrieve them if they stray too far away

from their mothers. African elephants are typically active during the day but herds in areas with high

level of human activity tend to only roam at night (2012).

Current Status

Because ivory is so valuable to some humans, many elephants have been killed for their tusks. In

1979 there were an estimated 1.3 million African elephants. A decade later, widespread poaching had

reduced that figure by more than half. Because of this, a worldwide ban on ivory trade was approved by

the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (commonly known as CITES) in 1989. With

time, this ban seemed to regulate elephant populations. Starting in 1999 and then again in 2002 and

2008, specific countries in Africa were allowed an ‘experimental one-off sale’ of ivory to trade with

Japan and China, which began the start of the ivory black market. Although CITES’s ban on ivory trade is

still illegal worldwide, very few countries take measures to enforce it. Today, with the booming ivory

black market still prevalent, there is an estimated 600,000 elephants left on Earth.

With the current decreasing population, measures have been taken to restore the African

elephant community and broaden our knowledge on the species. The species remains threatened by

illegal hunting for ivory, habitat loss and human-elephant conflict.

Threats

Out of the African Elephants, two subspecies are recognized: the Savanna elephant (Loxodonta

africana africana) and the Forest elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis). Savanna elephants are larger

than forest elephants, and their tusks curve outwards. In addition to being smaller, forest elephants are

darker and their tusks are straighter and downward pointing (Junker, van Aarde, and Ferreira 2007).

There are also differences in the size and shape of the skull and skeleton between the two subspecies.

The forest elephant is found in the tropical rainforest zone of west and central Africa, where

blocks of dense forest remain. The savanna elephant occurs in eastern and southern Africa, with the

highest densities found in Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia and South Africa (2007).

Elephant populations across Africa vary differently. Southern Africa is the stronghold for the

species, with large and expanding populations. Studies show that at Addo Elephant National Park in

South Africa, the juvenile mortality rate is low, the age of first breeding is young, birth rate is high and

not influenced by density, and adult female mortality rate is low (Table 1) (Gough and Kerley 2006).

These are essential factors in increasing the population size of a k-selective species. Because elephants

tend to have a low reproductive rate (only having around 2 or 3 offspring per female), it takes a long

period of time to see real changes in population size. If the birth rate is high and the age of the first

breeding is young, that give more chances for a higher birth than death ratio.

Table 1: Extracted from Gough and Kerley 2006. End of year population sizes, annual births, deaths, calf

sex ratio, and growth and mortality rates for the Addo Elephant National Park elephant population from

1976–2003.

Significant elephant populations are confined to well-protected areas such as parks and

preserves set up to insure a stop to the poaching of elephant herds, which form only a fraction of total

elephant range. Elephants in these environments have been seen to succeed in population increase

(Table 2). Rainfall also has a big effect on reproduction rate seeing as water is scarce in Africa with a

distinct dry season (Foley and Faust 2010). During dry season, the main water source for elephants is

rivers or lakes which are reliant on the amount of rainfall acquired during wet season. We see that with

heavier rainfall comes an increase in conceptions (Figure 1). With the stress from poaching gone in the

parks, elephants can continue to mate and reproduce with the right environmental sustainability (2010).

Table 2: Extracted from Foley and Faust 2010. Final annual population sizes, births, deaths, calf, and

adult mortality rates and rainfall for the subpopulation in Tarangire National Park for 1994-2005.

Figure 1: Extracted from Foley and Faust 2010. Monthly total number of conceptions based on

estimated conception dates for 367 births, and mean monthly rainfall during said months in Tarangire

National Park.

Most countries do not have adequate capacity to protect and manage their herds. If

conservation action is not forthcoming, elephants may become locally extinct in some parts of Africa

within 50 years.

Another threat to the African elephant is habitat destruction. African elephants are herbivores,

and are predominantly grazers rather than browsers. An African elephant can consume 150-300 pounds

of food and drive up to 50 gallons of water in one day (Woolley 2009). In fact, because of their great

size, strength, and need for enormous quantities of food and water, a significant amount of land and

resources are required to keep a herd alive and healthy. During the wet season, African elephants

predominantly feed on grass, which is generally higher in digestibility and dietary quality than browse at

this time of year, but switch to browse during the dry season when grass becomes fibrous and less

nutritious (Woolley 2009). During dry season, swamps are a last resort for food and water because

swamp vegetation contains little nutrition (2009). Wet season diet is therefore expected to be of higher

quality than dry season (Figure 2). Due to expanding human settlements, plantation development and

the construction of roads, canals, and pipelines, elephants are losing their habitat. As a result, the level

of human-elephant conflict rises as elephants are losing their resources and forced to migrate through

human-territories.

Figure 2: Extracted from Woolley 2009. Effect of African elephant body size and sex on diet quality as

measured by fecal nitrogen (Nf) and fecal phosphorus (Pf) concentrations sampled during dry and wet

season in Pilanesberg National Park from September 2003 to March 2006. A trendline shows the general

relationship between body size and diet quality for males and females.

Conservation Strategies

With the ever-expanding human population, it will become harder and harder for elephants to

find resources and protect themselves from poachers in herds of their own. As the price for ivory

increases, so will the desire to poach. A pair of tusks can sell for up to $10,000 in the ivory black market.

Therefore, killing an elephant for its tusks could potentially feed an African family for years. If parks and

preserves are put up and enforced to protect a population of elephants, there is hope that not all

African elephants will go extinct. The will to create these parks has increased now with evidence of

elephant population decline from statistics and elephant sanctuaries have been set up in Southern and

Western Africa where elephant herds tend to roam to protect them. Land is expensive in Africa though,

because many of its continent contains third-world countries. The money and time put into creating,

maintaining, and employing these parks is at short supply. There are websites set up where people can

donate to these parks or even volunteer up to a few months. Although it is pricey to volunteer at one of

these sanctuaries (average cost is about $1000 a week which includes meals and accommodations), it is

a life changing experience and potentially the only way to see and bond with elephants in their natural

habitat.

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