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Endangered Animals - Elephants

Endangered Animals - Elephants Elephants are the largest animals on land. There are two species of elephants, African elephants and Asian elephants. They both used to exist in great numbers across Africa and parts of Asia. Today, both of these gentle giants are endangered. Twenty-five years ago, there were approximately 1.3 million elephants in Africa, but now it is estimated that there are about 500,000. In Asia, the numbers are even less.

Sample these Internet sites and complete the elephants activities for each one to learn more about elephants, to find out the reasons why they are endangered, and to learn what can be done to protect them.

Wild Lives : Elephant
  1. About how long do elephants live in the wild?
  2. What is their habitat?
  3. Humans have a gestation period (the amount of time grow a baby) of 9 months. How long is the gestation period of an elephant?
  4. List some of the functions of an elephant's trunk.
  5. How is the trunk of an African elephant different from the trunk of an Asian elephant?
  6. Tusks are really just a facial feature that even humans have. What feature is that?
  7. How big were the largest tusks ever recorded? Why would you probably never find an elephant with tusks that big today?
  8. Both male and female African elephants have tusks. How is this different for Asian elephants?
  9. What ultimately causes an elephant's death when it is 60 or 70 years old?
  10. How are ears different in African and Asian elephants?
  11. It's been described that the shape of an African elephant's ears are similar to what?
  12. Besides for hearing, of course, how do elephants use their ears?
  13. Describe an elephant's feet.
  14. Elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating. How much do they eat in that time? What do they eat? About how much of what they eat do they actually digest? How much do they drink?
  15. What usually happens if an elephant cub is orphaned?
  16. Elephants once were common throughout Africa but now they only exist in parks and preserves. Why?

Echo of the Elephants : PBS Nature Series
  1. Are herds of elephants led by males or females?
  2. Describe the typical composition of an elephant clan. (Are the groups made up of unrelated males and females or made up of all males who battle for the attention of lone females, etc.)?
  3. This article is about a PBS Nature series on elephants. How long did the elephant researcher, Cynthia Moss, follow this particular herd of elephants to learn about them? When researching and filming elephants, what is Ms. Moss's policy about helping elephants that are hurt, suffering, or in danger?

Born Free : Elephants Under Threat
  1. List 6 ways that elephants have been exploited in the past.
  2. Do some of these reasons still exist?

Save the Elephants
  1. Zoologists can put special collars on elephants that are equipped with devices that send out electronic signals. The scientists fly in airplanes and use laptop computers to capture the signals to track where the elephants are. By recording elephants' movements, scientists can learn about elephants' needs and learn how to protect them better. The tracking collars also help the scientists know where the elephants are so that they can get to the elephants more quickly to protect them from poachers. According to this site, what does the founder of the organization called Save the Elephants think is the greatest threat to elephants?
  2. Kenya is in eastern Africa. What percentage of elephants were killed by ivory poachers in Kenya in the 1970s and 1980s?
  3. About how many elephants are left in Kenya today?

Animal Bytes : African Elephants
  1. What is the habitat of African elephants?
  2. Describe elephant vocal sounds and their purpose.
  3. An elephant's trunk is nothing more than an elongation of their nose and upper lip. Besides breathing and smelling, what do elephants use their trunks for?
  4. How do African elephants benefit their environment?

Animal Bytes : Asian Elephants
  1. About how long do Asian elephants live?
  2. In what parts of Asia do they live? Go to Outline Maps and print out a map of Asia. Fill in the areas of Asia where elephants still live.
  3. What is their habitat?
  4. What is the dominant elephant in a herd?
  5. Explain one way that elephants communicate with each other.
  6. List 3 ways in which elephants benefit their environment.
  7. List ways in which humans are impacting elephant habitat.

African Elephant
  1. From this Oakland Zoo site, watch the video clips of their elephants (including a baby elephant) and listen to a sound file of an elephant's trumpet.

Elephant Jokes
  1. How can you tell that an elephant has been in your fridge?
  2. Why are elephants wrinkled?
  3. What is beautiful, gray and wears glass slippers?

Bibliography

Bowden, Joan Chase. A World Without Elephants? New York, N.Y. : Dial Books for Young Readers, 1993.

Smith, Roland. African Elephants. Lerner : Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1995.

Image is copyrighted by ArtToday. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Author: LINDA MOSBACKER - Email linda.mosbacker@slc.k12.ut.us