Endangered species : Elephant

Elephants species are divided into two types:
i. African elephant
ii. Asian elephant

African elephant



Scientific name : Loxodonta Africana

Habitat
- Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Flooded Grasslands and Savannas
- Miombo woodlands
- Acacia savannahs

Height
- male : up to 3.6 m
- female : up to 3 m

Weight :
- male : up to 5.4 tons
- female : up to 4.6 tons

Recent numbers : appoximately 690,000

Why African elephant is endangered?

About 25 years ago , there were about 1.3 million elephants in Africa , but now the number had dwindled down to about 690,000 . Poaching has been a mega major thread that contributed to these shocking figure. Mainly , what poachers wanted in African elephants are its ivory which has a very high demand . Hunters make a very good fortune out of ivory trades. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)have imposed a global ban on international trade in ivory and ivory products in an attempt to reduce the killing of african elephants , but there are still illegal hunting activities going on until now.



Asian elephant



Scientific name : Elephas Maximus

Habitat
- Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests

Height :
- up to 3.6 m

Weight :
- up to 5 tons

Recent numbers : approximately 32,750


Why Asian elephant is endangered ?

Asian elephants, mainly in Borneo faces threat from the conversion of their forest habitat to agricultural use. When these elephants migrated from its original habitat , they will confront with human and leads to deaths on both sides . Besides that , Asian elephants are hunted to get its tusks , meat and also hides .

How to differentiate between Africa and Asian elephants?

The most noted difference is Africa elephants have bigger ears compared to Asian elephants . Besides that, Africa elephants have two fingers at its trunk ends compared to only a finger on Asian elephants . Click this link to know more about the differences between both elephants .

sources :
i. http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/
ii. http://www.upali.ch/differences_en.html
iii. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant