1. 1 By: Amy Cunningham African Elephant

2. 2 The African elephant male stands up to ten feet high to its shoulder, and weighs up to six tons. The female is slightly smaller, and weighs up to four tons. The average life span of an African elephant in the wild is 60 years. Ears Tusks Brain Teeth Skin Feet HairDescription Trunk

3. 3 - The African elephant has ears that average at least three time the size of the Asian elephant Did you know? - Ears are used as signaling organs in the African elephant - Ears are used to regulate body temperature - Ears are used as a protective feature in the African elephant to ward off potential threats. - Each elephant's ear is unique and is used as a a type of fingerprint for identification Ears

4. 4 - The brain weight of the bull African elephant is 4.2-5.4 kg - The brain weight of the cow African elephant is 3.6-4.3 kg - Brain development in elephants is similar to that of humans Brain Did you know? - The brain of the elephant is larger than any other land mammal and it is located in the back of the skull well away from the forehead. - Elephants are born with 35% of the mass of the adult brain - The elephant is among the more intelligent animals

5. 5 Did you know? - The tusks are actually upper incisors, not canines. They are the only incisors the elephant has... - Tusks are used for digging, ripping of bark, foraging, resting a heavy trunk, and as weapons Tusks - Tusks are fundamentally no different than ordinary teeth - Both sexes of the African elephant have tusks, but only the male sex of Asian elephants have tusks that protrude beyond the lips. - One of the elephant's tusks is often used more than the other

6. 6 Did you know? Trunk - Elephants use their trunks to rub an itchy eye or scratch its ear. Trunks are also used to threaten, and to throw objects - An elephant drinks by filling its trunk with water and then pouring the water into its mouth - Elephants can use their trunks as a snorkel when swimming in water - The trunk is an exploratory organ in which much of what the elephant experiences comes from the trunk. - In human terms the trunk represents the nose and upper lip with the two nostrils running through its full length

7. 7 Did you know? Teeth - The total number of teeth an elephant has is 24 (six in each half jaw) - No more than two of the six teeth are in wear at the same time in each side of a jaw (the only exception is in young elephants which may use three) - Teeth grow from the back of the jaw and follow a linear pathway of movement forwards as the preceding tooth is progressively worn down in the front. - Each tooth drops out as it reaches the front of the elephant's jaw.

8. 8 Did you know? Feet - The elephant´s foot is formed in such a way that it is essentially walking on tiptoe, with a tough and fatty part of connective tissue for the sole - This spongy "shock absorber" helps an elephant to move silently - The sole of the foot is ridged and pitted; this contributes to the sure- footedness of the elephant for a large variety of terrain. - An elephants five toes are buried inside the flesh of the foot. - Not all toes have toenails. - The circumference of the forefoot is approximately equal to half the the shoulder height!

9. 9 Did you know? Hair - Elephants are considered to be hairless - The fetus is covered with lanugo (a felt of long downy hair) but most of it is shed before birth - The hair on the tail may reach a length of up to 100 cm - The elephant has small sensory hairs on its trunk

10. 10 Did you know? - The skin of the elephant is not very thick, except around the back and sides - The skin is marked with ridged creases resembling warty outgrowths, which is abundant on the trunk and forehead - The natural skin color is greyish black, but the apparent color is determined by the soil of the land (this is caused by the elephant throwing mud over its back Skin - There seems to be an absence of sweat glands in the elephant

11. 11 Habitat The African Elephants habitat is the hot, dry climate of Africa. They are found mainly in grasslands. If you were looking for this animal, you would most certainly find it in open meadows near water. African elephants live in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, although their range is now broken into patches.

12. 12 Why they areendangered Why they are endangered? Past/Present/Future : African elephants once lived throughout Africa; they now inhabit no more than one-third of the continent and are gone from the Sahara. Over the past 150 years, ivory hunters have ruthlessly hunted them for their tusks. Between 1979 and 1989, Africa's elephant population plummeted from 1,300,000 animals to 750,000, due mostly to ivory hunting. Hunting of the African elephant is now banned in several countries, but poaching for ivory still exists. Sadly, they became endangered because they were hunted and killed for their ivory tusks. African elephants are now found mostly in reserves.

13. 13 What is being done? In 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) made them an Endangered Species and they could no longer be killed. There are many national parks or reserves in Africa where elephant habitat is protected. Many people believe, however, that the parks are not large enough and are too isolated from each other to allow elephant populations to recover.

14. 14 Laws to protect the elephant African Elephant Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 4201-4245). The purpose of the Act is to provide additional protection for the African elephant. The Act establishes an assistance program to elephant producing countries of Africa and provides for the establishment of an African Elephant Conservation Fund. In addition, the Act places a moratorium on the importation of raw or worked ivory from African elephant producing countries that do not meet certain criteria found in the Act.

15. 15 Interesting Facts - Elephants cry, play, have incredible memories, and laugh! - Elephants have greeting ceremonies when a friend that has been away for some time returns to the group. - Elephants don't drink with their trunks, but use them as "tools" to drink with. This is accomplished by filling the trunk with water and then using it as a hose to pour it into the elephant's mouth. - Both the male and female African Elephants have tusks compared to the Asian Elephant…the males only get tusks.

16. 16 Interesting Websites/Links http://www.endangeredspecie.com/ http://eelink.net/EndSpp/endangeredspecies-mainpage.html http://elephant.elehost.com/index.html http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/elephants/ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/creature_feature/0103/