African elephant

African elephants are the species of elephants in the genus Loxodonta ne of the two existing genera in Elephantidae. Although it is commonly believed that the genus was named by Georges Cuvier in 1825, Cuvier spelled it Loxodonte. An anonymous author romanized the spelling to Loxodonta and the ICZN recognizes this as the proper authority

Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 5 kg (11 lb) and measures about 30 cm (12 in) long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair shifts forward, and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age, the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.

Bush and forest elephants were formerly considered subspecies of the same species Loxodonta africana. As described in the entry for the forest elephant in the third edition of Mammal Species of the World there is now morphological and genetic evidence they should be considered as separate species.

The African forest elephant has a longer and narrower mandible, rounder ears, a different number of toenails, straighter and downward tusks, and considerably smaller size. With regard to the number of toenails: the African bush elephant normally has four toenails on the front foot and three on the hind feet, the African forest elephant normally has five toenails on the front foot and four on the hind foot (like the Asian elephant), but hybrids between the two species commonly occur.

African elephants are highly intelligent and they have a very large and highly convoluted neocortex, a trait also shared by humans, apes and certain dolphin species.

Poaching significantly reduced the population of Loxodonta in certain regions during the 20th century. In the ten years preceding an international ban in the trade in ivory in 1990 the African elephant population was more than halved from 1.3 million to around 600,000 An example of how the ivory trade causes poaching pressure is in the eastern region of Chad—elephant herds where as recently as 1970 there was an estimated population of 400,000; however, by 2006 the number had dwindled to about 10,000. The African elephant nominally has governmental protection, but poaching for theivory trade can devastate populations.