African Elephant

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Re: Elephant and Wild Dog interaction Latest Sightings - Kruger

Post by Richprins »

^Q^ ^Q^ ^Q^

Interesting how he "jumps" over the obstacle trench! :-0


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Re: Elephant and Wild Dog interaction Latest Sightings - Kruger

Post by Dzombo »

Where exactly is this?


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Re: Elephant and Wild Dog interaction Latest Sightings - Kruger

Post by Richprins »

It is halfway along the S-65, Dzombs. ;-)


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Re: Elephant and Wild Dog interaction Latest Sightings - Kruger

Post by stefan9 »

Very nice


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Re: African Elephant

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African, Asian and forest elephants – what’s the difference?

Posted on 24 January, 2019 by Africa Geographic Editorial in Animal Encounters, Research, Wildlife and the Decoding Science post series

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The three species of elephants from left to right: African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), and the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)

Did you know that there are three species of elephants in the world? Most only know of two: the African savannah elephant, also known as the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). However, in 2010 a detailed genetic study confirmed that there is a third distinct species: the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) – only found in the rainforests of Central and West Africa.

Further research has shown that African forest elephants are more closely related to a now-extinct ancestor than they are to the savannah elephants.

Image
A revised tree showing phylogenetic relationships among living and extinct members of the elephant family, colour-coded by their presumed geographical range. Image credit: Meyer et al. (2017)

All three may look the same from afar, but on closer inspection there are quite a number of differences between the species.

Join us as we take a look at the main differences between the African, Asian and forest elephant:

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African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) drinking at a waterhole

Size

The savannah elephant is the largest of the three species – also the largest living terrestrial animal in the world – with bulls growing up to over 3 metres in height and weighing up to 8,000 kg. On average, Asian elephant bulls can reach about 2.75 metres, weighing up to 5,500 kg, while forest elephant bulls (the smallest of the three) rarely exceed 2.5 metres and weigh around 2,700 kg.

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An African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana)

Ears

Savannah elephants’ ears look like the shape of the African continent and when compared to the other two species are much bigger and reach up and over the neck, which does not occur in Asian elephants.

Forest elephants’ ears are more oval-shaped, while the Asian are shaped like India and are more rounded on top and flat along the bottom when compared to the savannah elephant.

Image
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a forest in Asia

Head shape

Savannah elephants have fuller, more rounded heads. They have a single dome head, whereas Asian elephants have a twin-domed head, which means there’s a divot line running up the middle of the head.

The head of the forest elephant is similar to that of the savannah, albeit slightly smaller.

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Forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, Central African Republic © Peter Prokosch

Tusks

Forest elephants have tusks that are straight and point downward, unlike the savanna elephants who have curved tusks. All savannah and forest elephants, male and female, can have tusks – whereas only some male Asian elephants have tusks. About 50% of female Asian elephants and a small percentage of males have small tusk-like teeth known as tushes (which have no pulp inside).

However it must be noted that not all male Asian elephants nor all savannah and forest elephants necessarily develop tusks.

Nails

There is even a difference between the amount of nails on each of the three species feet:

• African savanna elephant: 4 nails on front feet, 3 on back feet

• African forest elephant: 5 nails on front feet, 4 on back feet

• Asian elephant: 5 nails on front feet, 4 on back feet (rarely 5)

Image
Asian elephants drinking water – notice the ear size is quite smaller than the African savannah species

Location

Savannah elephants are found in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Angola.

Forest elephants are found in Central and West Africa, including Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Central African Republic and Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Ghana.

Asian elephants are found in tropical and subtropical moist and dry broadleaf forests in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

IUCN status

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not currently recognise forest and savannah elephants as distinct species. Both fall under the title of African elephant.

• African savannah elephant: ‘Vulnerable’

• Forest elephant: Classified as ‘Vulnerable’, but should be classified as ‘Endangered’ according to African Conservation Foundation

• Asian elephant: ‘Endangered’


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Re: African Elephant

Post by Flutterby »

Interesting. \O


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Re: African Elephant

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The Sad Story of Lammie the Solitary Elephant at Johannesburg Zoo: Factsheet

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BY CONSERVATION ACTION TRUST - JANUARY 2019

Lammie’s mother, Dolly, was captured from the wild in Botswana aged about 3 and arrived at the zoo in 1966. She was euthanised in 2000, aged about 37, when during what should have been a routine immobilization, Lammie fell onto her and dislocated her knee. By then she had given birth to 4 calves, one 1 of which was stillborn.

Lammie’s father, Jumbo, was captured from the wild in Botswana aged about 6 and arrived at the zoo in 1966. He died due to infection and enteritis in 1999, aged about 39. He sired 5 calves, including one with his daughter, Lammie.

Lammie was born in captivity in 1979. Her father sired her calf which was born in 1991 but lived for only a few days. Lammie mated with Kinkel in 2008 and 2016 but produced no calves. In 2001 she fell into the moat and was reported to have “both right legs stiff” and broke her tusk, but survived.

Umfaan (brother) was born in captivity in 1984 and was sold in 1990 aged six. It is not known if he is still alive.

Stillborn calf was born to Dolly and Jumbo in 1986.

Johnti (brother) born in captivity in 1988. Sold to Peaugres Zoo in France in 1990 aged 18 months. Died in 2004 aged 16.

Kinkel fell into the moat in 2007 but was apparently uninjured. He died at Jhb zoo in 2018 aged 35 after a long-term history of chronic colic and eating sand.

- Lammie spends most of her day against the wall of her enclosure, the only shady place, where she stands doing almost nothing, a sign of boredom and probably depression.
- Lammie’s only enrichment comes from a few tractor tyres; the zoo has so far failed to deliver the additional promised enrichment items and activities.
- Lammie’s mud wallow is mostly dry and dusty.
- Humane Society International-Africa, the EMS Foundation, and the Elephant Reintegration Trust have joined forces to try to persuade the zoo to move her to a rewilding sanctuary. They offered to pay for and facilitate the translocation with a detailed reintegration proposal by experts, but the zoo has refused.
- Ban Animal Trading has also been trying to engage and meet with zoo officials to try and persuade the zoo to release Lammie.
- After conducting measured time budgets during October and January, it was recorded that few people spend more than three minutes at her enclosure. There is no information about the plight of elephants, which are being poached in Africa at the rate of one every 15 minutes or about elephant behaviour.
- The zoo says it is about to acquire another elephant (contradicting previous statements that no decision had been taken) and expand the enclosure.
- The NSPCA has opposed a second elephant and has threatened legal action to block it. ‘’Research indicates that a minimum of four related elephant are required to fulfil social requirements. A second elephant would be removed from bonded group and thus compromise the welfare of two elephants It also resigned from the zoo’s Animal Ethics Committee.
- At last count approximately 270 000 people have signed petitions to free Lammie.
- On Saturday, 9 February Ban Animal Trading will hold a Free Lammie protest, starting at 11h00 on the corner of Jan Smuts Avenue and Upper Park Drive in Johannesburg.

Should elephants be in zoos?

There are about 1 500 formal and many more informal zoos in the world holding between three and four million undomesticated, non-human creatures displayed for our curiosity and amusement. Some animals do well in good zoos, but elephants are not among them.

- Infant mortality for elephants in zoos is almost three times the rate in the wild – for every calf born in a zoo, on average another two die.
- 76 elephants have died in US Zoos since 2ooo,half of them before age 40
- 40% of elephants in zoos display atypical stereotyped behaviour such as swaying, rocking and placing vegetation/food on their heads.

We need to ask: What is the conservation value to the species of the indviduals confined in zoos, and are the conditions under which they’re held conducive to their physical and psychological wellbeing?

- Zoos are a tangible link to a colonial past and reminders of the conquest of distant lands.

- Thousands of healthy zoo animals are ‘zoothanized’ each year because of over-breeding.

- A yardstick could be a ‘first do no harm’ principle, ensuring that compassion and individual welfare are at the heart of zoo construction and animal keeping.

- A ‘do no harm’ principle, however, puts elephants beyond the capability of zoos, something that zoo management is increasingly acknowledging.

- Since 2000, a total of 37 zoos in Europe have closed their elephant exhibits, including London’s Regent’s Park, because they could not provide “appropriate facilities for such large, far-roaming, intelligent animals”.

- Given new insights into how animals may suffer from anxiety and depression when they’re removed from nature, should they be held in captivity?

For further information or interviews please contact:

Audrey Delsink : Humane Society International Africa 083 390 0337 adelsink@hsi.org

Smaragda Louw :Ban Animal Trading 083 458 8447

Michelle Pickover :EMS Foundation 082 253 2124

michelle@emsfoundation.org

Karen Trendler :NSPCA 072 969 4499 wild6@nspca.co.za

Links to H S I and Petition site campaigns:

https://t.co/C6Stfx0tD3

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/200/232/997/


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Re: African Elephant

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NSPCA quits Joburg Zoo ethics committee in protest over Lammie the elephant

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BY LOUZEL LOMBARD STEYN - 23 JANUARY 2019 - THE SOUTH AFRICAN


The furore over the zoo’s solitary elephant has increased as the NSPCA (National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) resigned from the Johannesburg Zoo Animal Ethics Committee after being excluded from decisions regarding Lammie.

“We were not included in either decisions or discussions on this critical, controversial issue that has both welfare and ethical implications. We are being used as window dressing,” says Karen Trendler, NSPCA Trade & Trafficking manager.


“The Lammie issue was never brought to the ethics committee and yet, publicly, the zoo is stating that it was and that we’re on their ethics committee every time they’re questioned.


“The NSPCA has also addressed a letter of demand to the Zoo Management and Joburg mayor, Herman Mashaba, saying if they move forward with obtaining another elephant, “the NSPCA would launch an application in the High Court to interdict such action.”

The zoo’s correspondence regarding a second elephant has been contradictory. At first, the Zoo denied plans to obtain a second elephant and publicly accused the NSPCA of lying about these plans when they spoke out against such a move.

Joburg City Parks & Zoo public relations manager Jenny Moodley stated that the zoo would not entertain discussions over the “unfounded” claims by the NSPCA, and that “no decision had been made over whether another elephant would be brought in or not”.

However, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), of which Joburg Zoo is a member, contradicts Moodley’s claims. According to WAZA CEO Doug Cress, the zoo is, in fact, actively “looking to find a second elephant to join Lammie”.

Trendler says the arrival of a second elephant is imminent and should be treated as an emergency. “We’ve sent out the legal communication as we just can’t risk for another elephant to just arrive at the zoo.

“If this were to happen, it would almost be too late. A captive herd would have been broken up and one of its members sent away. There is also no guarantee that Lammie and the new elephant would even get along” Trendler says.

The zoo’s insensitive decision to keep Lammie on in her barren enclosure has baffled elephant management experts as there are two sanctuaries willing to take in Lammie and introduce her to a herd of previously-captive elephants on a free-roaming reserve.

The Elephant Reintegration Trust (ERT), EMS Foundation and Humane Society International (HSI), have offered their joint assistance to the zoo to move Lammie to a new home – an operation which would be fully funded. The groups have requested numerous meetings with Mayor Mashaba and City Parks to no avail. A number of emails citing scientific data and a 6-page report detailing the behaviour and enclosure use of Lammie have gone unanswered since October last year.

The only correspondence from the zoo was a generic press release informing concerned parties that Lammie would be staying on at the Zoo.

“Even if not everybody agreed,” Trendler says, “we feel that proposals regarding Lammie’s future had to be discussed with the NSPCA as a member of the zoo’s ethics committee,” as well as the other relevant parties willing to help. “It was just never brought to the table.”

ERT chair Brett Mitchell says, “The zoo is completely misinforming to the public by stating that Lammie is doing well. Our report, which has been shared with the zoo, shows that Lammie’s overall welfare is way below standard, which is a form of cruelty. It is a requirement of WAZA to provide Environmental Enrichment, and this is clearly not the case with Lammie.”

Mitchell also says finds the zoo’s argument that Lammie serves as a representative of South African wildlife to the poor and disadvantaged communities unconvincing.

“Watching one lone elephant does nothing to provide the public with any education value but rather shows an entirely incorrect picture of what an elephants’ life should be about. The zoo is actually teaching the public that it is acceptable to treat animals in this manner.

“It is unfortunate that the zoo continues to argue the education and conservation role of Lammie as there is an opportunity for the Zoo to do the right thing and show the world that the zoo and the City of Joburg is progressive the with animal welfare,” he says.


Read the original article here: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/nspca-q ... -elephant/


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Re: African Elephant

Post by Flutterby »

So sad to see them like that. They are such social animals!! :no: :no:


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Re: African Elephant

Post by Lisbeth »

It's cruel to say the least. When you know how they live in the free it is incredible that someone can keep an elephant like that :evil:

This is how they live :-)
IMG_2322.JPG


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