Fun Facts
African Elephant
AFRICAN SAVANNA ELEPHANT
LATIN NAME: Loxodonta africana
STATUS: Endangered (EN)
MATURE POPULATION: 360,000
HEIGHT: 10-13 feet
WEIGHT: 4-7 tons
LIFESPAN: 60-70 years
HABITAT: Savanna, Desert, Grassland
AFRICAN FOREST ELEPHANT
LATIN NAME: Loxodonta cyclotis
STATUS: Critically endangered (CR)
MATURE POPULATION: 24,000
HEIGHT: 8-10 feet
WEIGHT: 2-5 tons
LIFESPAN: 60-70 years
HABITAT: Forest
There are two sub-species of African Elephant including the African Savanna Elephant and the African Forest Elephant.
HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT?
African Forest Elephants are half the size of their Savanna relatives.
African Forest Elephants have more oval-shaped ears and straighter, slightly-downwards pointing tusks, compared to Savanna Elephants who’s tusks curve outwards.
There are differences in the size and shape of the skeletons and skulls of each sub-species.
POPULATION
As many as 10 million African Elephants roamed over the continent of Africa in 1930. However, due to countless decades of poaching and human conflicts, the population of African Elephants declined to just 415,000 in 2016, with a decline of 111,000 Elephants in just one decade (10 years). African Forest Elephants suffered a greater population loss than their Savanna relatives.