African Mammal - Savanna elephant | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Scene:

Sponsor:

Background artist:

Also present:

African elephants are the largest living land mammals. At birth an elephant calf weighs 265 lbs, after a gestation period of 22 months (the longest of any land animal). Elephants may live up to 70 years. The average adult elephant weighs 15,400 lbs. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1972 and weighed 26,400 lbs.

In 1979 there were 1.3 million African elephants. In 2005 there were about 600,000 left in the wild. The decline is due mainly to poaching and habitat reduction.

There are two forms of African elephants—the savanna elephant and the slightly smaller forest elephant. The forest elephant had been regarded as a subspecies of the savanna elephant but recent DNA studies show that it belongs to the separate species Loxodonta cyclotis. Some authorities also recognize a pygmy elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis pumilio), a subspecies of the forest elephant.that is found in the forests of Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of the Congo.