World's smallest living elephants listed as Endangered on Red List
A newly confirmed elephant subspecies is already at risk of extinction.
A newly confirmed elephant subspecies is already at risk of extinction.
Plants & Animals
Jun 27, 2024
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What's in a name? People use unique names to address each other, but we're one of only a handful of animal species known to do that, including bottlenose dolphins. Finding more animals with names and investigating how they ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 12, 2024
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Colorado State University scientists have called elephants by their names, and the elephants called back. Wild African elephants address each other with name-like calls, a rare ability among nonhuman animals, according to ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 10, 2024
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Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses are becoming increasingly flexible and are adapting to mammals in new ways that could have global consequences for humans, wildlife and livestock, according to a new study of ...
Ecology
Jun 5, 2024
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The new measure, termed "evolutionary heritage," highlights the importance of unique species traits—which include physiological adaptations, like beak variations in different birds—when assessing the richness and complexity ...
Evolution
May 29, 2024
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Health authorities are working to gather information on the spread of the H5N1 virus, or bird flu, in U.S. dairy cows—the first confirmation of the virus in cattle.
Ecology
May 27, 2024
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A dangerous strain of avian influenza (bird flu) is now wreaking havoc on every continent except Australia and the rest of Oceania. While we remain free from this strain for now, it's only a matter of time before it arrives.
Ecology
May 22, 2024
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Global biodiversity is declining, and human activities are mainly to blame.
Ecology
May 15, 2024
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A team of animal behaviorists from the University of Vienna, the University of Portsmouth, Elephant CREW, Jafuta Reserve and the University of St Andrews has found that elephants use gestures and vocal cues when they greet ...
A new study sheds light on how climate change and human development threaten mammal species living in isolated biodiversity hotspots known as "sky islands."
Plants & Animals
Apr 29, 2024
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Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). Other species have become extinct since the last ice age, the Mammoths, dwarf forms of which may have survived as late as 2,000 BC, being the best-known of these. They were once classified along with other thick skinned animals in a now invalid order, Pachydermata.
Elephants are the largest land animals. The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms (260 lb). They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. This male weighed about 12,000 kilograms (26,000 lb), with a shoulder height of 4.2 metres (14 ft), a metre (yard) taller than the average male African elephant. The smallest elephants, about the size of a calf or a large pig, were a prehistoric species that lived on the island of Crete during the Pleistocene epoch.
The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world. They are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence, where they are thought to be on par with cetaceans and hominids. Aristotle once said the elephant was "the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind". The word "elephant" has its origins in the Greek ἐλέφας, meaning "ivory" or "elephant".
Healthy adult elephants have no natural predators, although lions may take calves or weak individuals. They are, however, increasingly threatened by human intrusion and poaching. Once numbering in the millions, the African elephant population has dwindled to between 470,000 and 690,000 individuals according to a March 2007 estimate. While the elephant is a protected species worldwide, with restrictions in place on capture, domestic use, and trade in products such as ivory, CITES reopening of "one time" ivory stock sales, has resulted in increased poaching. Certain African nations report a decrease of their elephant populations by as much as two-thirds, and populations in certain protected areas are in danger of being eliminated Since recent poaching has increased by as much as 45%, the current population is unknown (2008).
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA