African bush elephant

The African bush elephant was a subspecies - (Loxodonta africana africana) - to the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) but may be upgraded to a species on its own. The bush elephant is sometimes refered to as the savanna elephant, and belong to the family of elephants

Caracteristics

• The neck is high, and then sloping down again
• The skin is very wrenkled all over
• Ears are large, looks like african continent
• Head is flat, with nu bumps
• Forehead is flat and sloaping down
• The underlip is short, broad and rounded
• Both sexes wear tusks
• Tusks are thick and curved forward
• 21 pairs of ribs
• The frontfeet has four nails, the hindfeet three
      (not the african forest elephant)
• The trunktip has two prehensile protrusions

Compare with the asian elephant!

Jumbo and Tonga in Vienna Zoo. (Photo © Jutta Kirchner, Vienna Zoo)

The african elephant is still under threat in some parts of africa, while its starting to become overpopulated in southern africa.

Anatomy

Largest living terrestrial animal on earth.

• Height up to 4 meter
• Weight to 7,500 kg (bulls) 3,500 kg (female)
• Trunk weights up to 140 kg
• Skin is up to 2.5 cm thick
• Brain weights upto 6 kg
• Tusk weight up to 50 kg

The African bush elephant has three nails on the hindfeet and four nails on the frontfeet, which is less nails than than the african forest elephant (five front nails and four nails on the hind feet). It has also greater ears (with the shape of africa) , which seldom may meet above the shoulders. The tusks of the African bush elephant is curved and points more forward, and larger and thicker than those of the african forest elephant.

Protection

In June 1997, the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (COP 10) in Harare, Zimbabwe, proposals from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe for the transfer of their elephant populations from Appendix I to Appendix II, all other elephant populations in Africa and Asia remain on CITES Appendix I.