The Elephant, Its Ancestry and Its Prehistoric Legacy

The Elephant we could see today in the zoo and in their natural habitat belong to a family known as Elephantidae. This family is further divided into two genus. The first genus is Loxodonta which consist of two African elephant species. The second genus is Elephas which only have one living species under it, the Asian Elephant.

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In prehistoric time, there were various kind of elephant. Some extinct members of elephant family are significantly different from elephants we see today, albeit they still share the same body plan. The most obvious difference usually lies in the shape of their tusks, the number of their tusks, the shape of the back and the length of their trunks.

African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta Africana)

Conservation Status : Near Threatened

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African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest among species of elephant still available today. Adult animal could grow up to 6-7.3 meters in length and 3-3.5 meters in height. The males are usually bigger than the females. The record holder African elephant is could stand up to 4.2 meters and weigh more than 12 tons.

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African Bush Elephants are herbivorous and usually need more than 200 kilograms of plant matter daily. Elephants living in different area may have different kind of diet. Some elephant tribe living near Lake Kariba was reported to base their diet on underwater plant. Usually the food are defecated without fully digested. As such, the feces contain enough nutrition to act as the media for the seeds of the plant eaten by the elephant to germinate. Elephant have a great role in their ecosystem to spread plant seeds and provide fertilizer for those seeds.

African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta Cyclotis)

Status: Near Threathened

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Until DNA testing proved otherwise African Forest Elephant was considered as a subspecies of African Bush Elephant. However African Elephant Specialist Group from IUCN and other authorities still consider that the evidence for splitting the species was not enough.