African Bush Elephant's Habitat and Weather

Decline

• The African bush elephant was once widely distributed throughout Ethiopia. However, poaching has caused most of the elephants to retreat to high-altitude regions in Ethiopia. Ethiopia continues to have the largest unregulated ivory market in East Africa. In addition, human settlements have expanded into elephant territories. Many of the elephants survive in protected wilderness reserves. However, the populations of bush elephants have been declining, even in these areas, due to human activities, such as cattle grazing and honey collection. Elephants are also killed because they harm agriculture by consuming large quantities of vegetation.

Elephant Impact

• Since elephants are huge, they must consume a lot of food and water to survive, especially since they live in arid regions. African bush elephants eat 5 percent of their body weight in vegetation. Since they consume such large quantities of food, they significantly change entire ecosystems.

Adaptions

• Elephants are usually able to adapt to new environments, since their large brains allow them to develop new survival strategies. Elephants can thrive in arid regions, since their sense of smell allows them to locate underground water sources. They have poor vision and their eyes are mostly designed to resist dust, given their eyelids and eyelashes. While they might not see predators very clearly, African bush elephants are so large that they are not vulnerable.

Savannahs

• Elephants usually live in semi-arid brush areas, savannahs and riverine forests. They are usually found near water sources, given the greater availability of food. They venture out farther when the water supplies dwindle in search of more water.

  The savannahs African bush elephants mostly populate are Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nambia and South Africa. The savannah climate generally remains the same throughout the year, with mostly mild temperatures. The rainfall varies significantly and can force elephants to sometimes abandon their habitats.

Semi-arid Regions

• Semi-arid regions are deserts with more moisture than the hot and dry deserts. The summers are long and dry, while the winters have low concentrations of rain that can sometimes support African bush elephants. However, they sometimes must travel to less arid regions as the water dries up.