African Elephant
...n the mouth. 3. African Elephant is a herbivore, it favours grasses, but it also eats leavers, twigs, branches, bark and fruit. The elephant must consume between 330 and 350 pounds of food each day, and they drink 22 to 30 gallons of water each day! To maintain this rate of consumption the elephants must constantly travel to new areas in search of food and water. 4. The African Elephant has no natural predators. Its endangerment is caused by poachers, people who hunt the elephant, although it is illegal. These poachers are after the beautiful ivory tusks, and after removing them they often leave the wounded elephant to die. Ivory is traded illegally for high prices on the black market. Other threats to the elephant include, human encroachment and the conversion to farmlands. 5. There are many established organizations such as the “African Elephant Conservation Fund” that bring awareness of the necessity of the elephant and are in place to try to protect the elephant. The law has made killing an African Elephant illegal, and there are criminal and civil penalties for illegal ivory import and export in the United States. There are many national parks or reserves in Africa where elephant habitat is protected, however these areas are sometimes not large enough for the heard of elephants to occupy for a long period of time. The “ivory ban” in 1989 resulted in a decline of elephant poaching, but it still remains a widespread problem in West and Central Africa. The World Wildlife Federation has identified five issues that should be addressed in African Elephant preservation, these are: slowing the loss of natural habitat; strengthening activities against poachers and the illegal ivory trade; reducing conflict between human and elephant populations; determining the status of...