The African Elephant, Loxodonta Africana, is the largest land animal on Earth. In the 1930s, there were between five to ten million African Elephants, but they are in rapid decline due to human impacts including poaching, habitat fragmentation, and human-elephant conflicts.
The African Elephant roams through sub-Saharan Africa and the rainforests of Central and West Africa. African elephants may live for seventy years and are the most fertile between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. The gestation period of the elephant, which is almost two years, is longer than that of any other animal, and they only birth one calf (National Geographic).
The populations are becoming so small that they are in danger of an extinction vortex. Small populations are at greater risk for events such as inbreeding depression and genetic drift that lead reduction of fitness and genetic variability, which causes their populations to become even smaller. The elephants are at great risk of becoming apart of this vicious cycle.
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| http://worldwildlife.org/species/african-elephant |
The populations are becoming so small that they are in danger of an extinction vortex. Small populations are at greater risk for events such as inbreeding depression and genetic drift that lead reduction of fitness and genetic variability, which causes their populations to become even smaller. The elephants are at great risk of becoming apart of this vicious cycle.
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| http://www.greatbigcanvas.com/category/wildlife/african-plains/elephant/ |
