African savannah elephant

African savannah elephant

We are delighted that Dr Eckart von Hirschhausen has become the sponsor of the elephant calf.

For many visitors, they are certainly among the most impressive exhibits of "our savannah": the African savannah elephants(Loxodonta africana africana). In the wild, the lead cow and her offspring gather impressive herds of around 25 animals around them, consisting of related females and their young. The males, on the other hand, live individually or join together in bull herds.

A bull elephant can weigh up to 6,300 kg. In contrast, the females are "lightweights" to a certain extent, weighing up to 3,500 kg. Even the offspring are born weighing around 100 kg after a gestation period of almost two years. Due to their extraordinary size, the "grey giants" have few enemies. Only the young calves can be threatened by predators. The pachyderms themselves eat a purely plant-based diet - and have to eat correspondingly large portions: The daily ration of an adult bull consists of up to 250 kg (!) of grass, twigs or bark.

Their loud trumpeting cannot be ignored. However, we humans are unable to hear an important part of the pachyderms' communication: With their throat area and trunk as a resonance chamber, elephants use "infrasound" over long distances - for example to keep their distance or to find each other again.

Originally found almost everywhere south of the Sahara, the distribution of savannah elephants is now mostly fragmented and limited to protected areas, especially in eastern and southern Africa. Mainly due to the high demand for ivory - the much sought-after "white gold" from the tusks of the pachyderms - elephants were still classified as "critically endangered" on the international Red List in 1996. In the meantime, populations have recovered somewhat in some places, partly due to the ivory trade ban introduced in 1989 by the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Nevertheless, elephants are still categorised as "endangered".