Elephant

African elephants roam throughout the sub-Saharan. Forest elephants inhabit mostly the central and western regions of Africa and the savanna elephants are distributed through the eastern and southern areas. Asian elephants live in tropical forest habitats primarily (Habitat and Distribution).

Asian elephants and African elephants migrate annually. Their journey is a far distance that is dependent on the environmental conditions. For African elephants, their migration starts during the dry season, June to November. They hike towards habitat locations near rivers and other water sources that will not dry out (Habitat and Distribution).

The largest land animal in the world is the African elephant. Adult males can weigh anywhere from 4,000 pounds to 14,000 pounds. Female elephants weigh between 6,000 pounds and 8,000 pounds. The adults usually are around 10 feet tall (Physical Characteristics).

Elephants' vision is moderate, with eyes that are about 1.5 inches in diameter. Their eyes are located on the sides of their head, giving them better peripheral vision. They have long eyelashes to help keep sand and dirt out of their eyes. Elephants have what is known as a "third eyelid," which moves vertically across the eye. These eyelids shield the eyes as elephants feed, bathe, and from the dust.

Elephant trunks are an extension of their nose and upper lip. The trunk's function is for breathing, feeding, smelling, lifting and carrying things, drinking, communication, and protection and defense. Their trunk contains approximately 100,00 tendons and muscles. This gives them intense strength and extreme flexibility. Their trunks are about to expand, contract, and move in many directions.

When born, an elephant has temporary baby tusks. They are replaced at about six to thirteen months old with permanent ones that grow at a constant rate of 6.7 inches per year. An adult male African elephant's tusks grow to be about 7.7 feet long. Their trunk's functions are breathing, smelling, and sucking water into them squirting in their mouths(Physical Characteristics). Their trunks are also used to orient their surroundings. It acts as anchors when digging and uprooting vegetation, and can also be used as a defense tool (Senses). The tusks are made of ivory, a valuable, dense bone tissue, with a creamed color which surrounds the enamel (Physical Characteristics).

An elephant eats between 330 to 375 pounds of vegetation a day. They spend about sixteen to eighteen hours or approximately 80% of their day eating. Their diet consists of grasses, brushes, fruit, twigs, roots, tree bark, and other small plants. Tree bark helps elephants with their digestion and is their favorite source of food. Their risks are used to carve into the tree trunk to tear off pieces of bark (Diet and Eating Habits).

Adult Asian elephants can hold about 2.2 gallons of water in their trunk, Their water is then spirited into their mouth to drink or on their back to cool themselves down (Physical Characteristics).

Elephant ears are around one-sixth the size of the elephant's complete body and serve largely as a cooling device. The blood in their ears is cool, and it circulates into the back of their body to help reduce the elephant's temperature (Physical Characteristics). Elephants are good at detecting sounds from as low as 14 hz to 16 hz and as high as 20 hz to 12,000 hz. They also have a good sense of smell. They can detect water sources from up to 12 miles away (Senses).

The population of African and Asian elephants started to fall dramatically during the 19th and 20th centuries (Elephants). Droughts brought on by climate change, confrontations with farmers whose property elephants trample, habitat destruction, and poachers who unlawfully hunt and kill elephants for their prized ivory tusks were and still are all serious threats to the elephant population (Liu). These risks must be reduced or eliminated in order to save and restore the elephant population.

The Elephant population has decreased by 50% in the last three generations and is continuing to decline (Elephants). Between 2007 and 2014, researchers found that the population of savanna elephants in 18 African nations decreased by 30% . In less than ten years, the forest elephant population has decreased by 62%, according to reports in 2013 (Both African Elephant Species). In 1970, Africa was home to 4.5 million elephants. About 500,000-600,000 elephants were estimated to live in Africa in 2007; today only 30,000 are assumed to remain in the wild. The ivory trade and habitat destruction have a major impact on the population (Elephants). Kenya's elephant population has doubled in the previous thirty years, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. The population grew from 16,000 to 34,8000 elephants between 1989to 2019. In 2018, There were 113 new baby elephants born in Kenya's Amboseli National Park, a significant number increase compared to previous years (Liu). Elephant populations have lately increased slightly; nonetheless, human-wildlife poaching and habitat loss continues to pose a danger to the species (Elephants)

Why Are Elephants Endangered?

1. Poaching

Elephants are killed for their ivory tusks. The ivory is carved into jewelry and decorations. Every year, tens of thousands of elephants are sacrificed for their ivory. In the 1980s, around 100,000 elephants were killed each year for their tusks (Still Poached for Ivory). The Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) outlawed the international trade of ivory in 1989, making the ivory market illegal in most nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. Japan’s trade market, however, remains open, leading the world's most profitable legal ivory business, with China as the top consumer (Both African elephant species). Protection from poachers and a prohibition on international ivory trafficking helped to minimize elephant slaughter in Africa for a while; however, when African tribal leaders and warlords clashed, organized poaching surged once again. Park rangers, local communities, and regional and international authorities have recently joined forces to combat poaching (Elephants). Kenya's government implemented harsh punishments for poachers and wildlife trackers. These penalties include large fines and long jail time. This positively influenced Kenya's elephant population with a large increase mostly due to these more vital anti-poaching efforts implemented. In the past seven years poaching numbers have drastically dropped. In 2019, 34 elephants were killed, compared to 80 elephants killed in 2018 (Liu).

2. Habitat Loss

Elephants require a large expanse of area to roam; however, their natural habitats are quickly vanishing. Habitat loss, degradation, and human conflict contribute to elephant’s challenges as the human population spreads around the globe. Farmers have expanded their agriculture into the forest and rangelands, reducing elephant areas to roam and heightening the conflicts between people and elephants. Elephants have raided farmers' fields by accident, causing damage to their crops and, sometimes, resulting in the elephant's death by the farmer (Still Poached for Ivory). The elephant habitats have decrease by more than 50% since 1979, with 85% of their environment damage due to human causes (Sumatran Elephant). Asian elephants now only inhabit 15% of their original range (Elephants).

Why Elephants Are Important

Elephants are a keystone species, contributing to helping other species and the rich biodiversity of the forest and savanna ecosystem. Elephants are environmental engineers, making pathways in the dense forest lands, which allow other animals passages to maneuver through. Their footprints also help other species, as they fill up with water, providing homes for tadpoles and other organisms (Elephant).

During the dry season, elephants use their tusks to dig for water, aiding other species to survive. When elephants eat, they help the environment as they create gaps in the vegetation, enabling the growth of new plants. Elephants also aid in the dispersal of tree seeds in the environment, allowing the seeds to develop into new plants that are vital for the ecosystem. Elephants feed on tree shrubs and sprouts in the savannah, keeping the plains open and allowing the plains to continue feeding the rest of their ecosystem (Why Are Elephants Important?).

Along with helping the ecosystem, elephants contribute to tourist and community revenue throughout Africa and Asia. By protecting elephants, we positively impact the local communities that need steady tourism (Elephants).

Change

Many organizations trying to save the elephants work with the government of countries to enforce the illegal killing of elephants. With government help, organizations have been training park rangers, launching Smart, a software system that increases the efforts of anti-poaching and law enforcement in conservation areas, and working with judiciaries to increase arrests of those prosecuted for poaching. Today governments destroy ivory stockpiles, to ensure the ivory can not be re-entered into the illegal trade market.

Conkouati-Douli National Park's management team has been collaborating with the Congolese government, local communities, private donors, and the WCS, to keep the elephant's habitats protected and healthy. Many protected elephant habits have been expanding and they monitor the elephants in their areas as they help protect and help rebuild the elephant population.

Project for the Application of Law for Fauna (PALF) is an organization that works with other wildlife conservation to help stop wildlife trafficking across the Republic of Congo. They investigate high power leads, in attest to minimize opportunities for corruption. They also coordinate arrests and help assure proper sentencing is enforced. They have helped to make significant improvements for the elephant population.

Programs like WSC China have helped raise major awareness for the endangered species, fighting to change people’s behaviors in order to save the endangered species. Working with the government agencies, Chinese academics, and other policymakers for the illegal ivory trade has helped them create solutions to help inform and help countries implement and improve their ivory trade laws. In Beijing's airport travelers now must pledge to "Bring no ivory home" (Wildlife Elephants).

Donate:

https://www.savetheelephants.org/new-donate-page-US/

Artist Statement

Making this piece was a meditative experience for me because I adore sculpting with clay. I have previous experience with sculpting coils of clay for greater details of ridges on my shar pei dog that I created in art class. The ears were difficult to shape since they required blocks underneath during the drying process to dent or hold up specific locations. The trunk was the most challenging aspect of this construction. It took some time for it to be able to stand on its own. I also had problems hollowing out the tip, and I initially damaged the edges. It took a good amount of time to cut and shape each individual triangle to line the trunk. To hang the finished work, I pasted the art to wood with super strong adhesive. I decided not to paint the project as I believed the clay hue was a suitable representation of their true shade. I like how this artwork turned out and had a lot of fun working on it. Clay is my favorite material to work with and I enjoyed creating the large time consuming end product.

The Art: