Elephants

The African Savannah Elephant can grow up to 24 feet in length and 13 feet in height, weighing around 11 tons. It’s the largest elephant species, the largest land mammal, and can live up to 70 years (longer than any mammal except humans).

Numbering three to five million in the last century, African elephant populations were severely reduced to current levels because of hunting and poaching. In the 1980s, an estimated 100,000 elephants were killed each year and up to 80% of herds were lost in some regions. Today the total population in Africa is estimated to be less than 500,000.

Strenuous conservation and anti-poaching efforts in many countries have somewhat slowed and indeed reversed this decline – though not without controversy. When we were on safari a few years ago in Botswana, we saw evidence of devastating arboreal destruction – largely put down to elephant over-population. This was evident along the Chobe River and in the wider Okavango delta area:

Now, here is an interesting fact about elephants. We all know that while some humans are ambidextrous, most of us are either left- or right-handed. Well elephants are the same, in that most of them strongly favour their left or right tusk for tasks like digging in the ground or breaking off branches. In some of our photos you may spot that one tusk is dirtier and/or more worn than the other …

First a quick video of a herd on the move in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. Watch this, or click on the second gallery link below below the video for more Elephant stills taken over the years:

Finally, the main gallery of still photos