Loxodonta africanaAfrican bush elephant

Ge­o­graphic Range

The range of African ele­phants (Lox­odonta africana) is patchily dis­trib­uted across cen­tral and south­ern Africa in the Ethiopian Re­gion. Rem­nant pop­u­la­tions exist as far north­west as Guinea-Bis­sau and as far north­east as Ethiopia. Dis­junct pop­u­la­tions exist south­ward into north­ern South Africa, and in­clude con­tigu­ous pop­u­la­tions in Gabon, Tan­za­nia, Botswana, and Zam­bia. Once pre­sent in Bu­rundi, Gam­bia, and Mau­ri­ta­nia, they've now been ex­tir­pated from those coun­tries. These ele­phants were ex­tir­pated from Swazi­land, as well, but have been re-in­tro­duced here in re­cent years. (Blanc, 2008; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Thomas, et al., 2008)

Habi­tat

African ele­phants are found in many habi­tats of Africa such as sa­van­nas, rain forests, wood­lands, scrub forests, oc­ca­sion­ally deserts, and beaches. How­ever, due to poach­ing threats pro­tected sanc­tu­ar­ies are their main habi­tats. Within these sanc­tu­ar­ies, these ele­phants will in­habit areas that have sources of water and abun­dant veg­e­ta­tion for for­ag­ing. Across these habi­tats, the el­e­va­tion level ranges from sea level (0 me­ters) to 4000 me­ters. (Duffy, et al., 2011; Har­ris, et al., 2008; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Mash­in­to­nio, et al., 2014)

  • Range elevation
    0 to 4000 m
    0.00 to 13123.36 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Cur­rently, African ele­phants are the largest ter­res­trial or­gan­ism. Fe­male ele­phants can range from 2,000 to 3,500kg in mass and stand 2.2 to 2.6m at shoul­der height. Male ele­phants are larger, rang­ing from 4,500 to 6,100kg in mass and stand­ing 3.2 to 4m at shoul­der height. Dis­tin­guish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics be­tween the sexes in­clude head shape, width of fore­head, sad­dle-back vs straight back, and tusk size. Males are broader with a curvy build. Both sexes have two thick, ivory tusks which are curved and can reach up to 350 cm in length. African ele­phants have mus­cu­lar trunks that are able to grab ob­jects and can be used for breath­ing pur­poses. They can grab ob­jects due to the unique shape at the end of the trunk. Their siz­able ears are tri­an­gu­lar and can help keep them cool in the hot, sum­mer months.

African ele­phants have creased, gray skin cov­ered with papil­lae. The thick (up to 30 mm), im­mo­bile skin cov­ers the ma­jor­ity of the body, while bumpy skin cov­ers areas that re­quire a lot of move­ment. Smooth skin can be found on del­i­cate areas of the body. Hair that varies in color, length, and thick­ness can be found along the body. Hair that grows along the back and tail is flat­tened dark hair that can grow to 0.80 m in length. Hair around the eyes is long in order to pre­vent for­eign ob­jects from en­ter­ing the eyes. Calves have dif­fer­ent hair col­or­ing and tex­ture. Their hair is softer with a lighter tone such as a red or brown.

The den­tal for­mula for African ele­phants is i 1/0, c 0/0, p 3/3, m 3/3. At birth, calves do not have tusks but in­stead have tem­po­rary pre­max­il­lary in­cisors. These in­cisors are re­placed at about a year of age with in­cisors that will ul­ti­mately form the tusks. Adult African ele­phants have lophodont den­ti­tion, with 6 mo­lars that grow and move for­ward, like on a con­veyor belt. They are worn down, lost, and re­placed through­out their lives. Once the sixth set of mo­lars is worn down, there are no ad­di­tional teeth to re­place them and the ele­phant is not able to process for­age. (Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Nowak, 1999)

  • Range mass
    2000 to 6100 kg
    4405.29 to 13436.12 lb
  • Range length
    2.2 to 4 m
    7.22 to 13.12 ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

The es­trus state is how bulls know if cows are ready to mate. This is done by a scent in fe­male urine and gen­i­tal area. Dur­ing the courtship process, bulls ap­proach fe­males and at­tempts to use their trunk to stroke her. Bulls will put up a fight in order to mate, by chas­ing the fe­males if they re­treat. When fe­males stop re­treat­ing, they will join the bulls in stroking each other with their trunks. The courtship con­tin­ues by fe­males sur­ren­der­ing their hindquar­ters to the males. Bulls then mount the fe­males to begin mat­ing. The males will thrust re­peat­edly into the fe­males for up to 2 mins. While fe­males are in an es­trus state, they may mate with sev­eral dif­fer­ent bulls, and are con­sid­ered polyg­y­nan­drous. They are co­op­er­a­tive breed­ers, in which fe­males have help rais­ing young by other mem­bers of the fam­ily or "clan." (Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Poole, et al., 2007)

African ele­phants are vi­vip­a­rous an­i­mals, mean­ing that they birth their young live. They breed year-round with no sea­sonal dif­fer­ences. The num­ber of off­spring is usu­ally lim­ited to one for each birthing pe­riod but in rare cases, twins may be born. They breed once every 3-9 years, and will give birth to an av­er­age of four calves in their life­time. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is about 22 months but is strongly in­flu­enced by en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod may be shorter if the en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors are fa­vor­able for new­borns sur­vival. New­born African ele­phants will weigh be­tween 90-120 kg, with 100 kg being the av­er­age birth weight. Off­spring are com­pletely de­pen­dent on their mother's milk until they are weaned at four months, but con­tinue to oc­ca­sion­ally drink their mother's milk for up to three years. Young African ele­phants will gain their full in­de­pen­dence around eight years of age. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity oc­curs at dif­fer­ent ages for males and fe­males. Males will reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity around 20 years of age, while fe­males will reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity around 11 years of age. (Hilde­brandt, et al., 2006; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Poole, et al., 2007)

  • Breeding interval
    African elephants breed once every 3-9 years
  • Breeding season
    African elephants breed throughout the year
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 2
  • Average number of offspring
    1
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    22 months
  • Average gestation period
    670 days
    AnAge
  • Average weaning age
    4 months
  • Average time to independence
    8 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    11 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    4018 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    20 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    3650 days
    AnAge

In African ele­phant herds, pri­mar­ily the mother and other fe­males as­sist in tak­ing care of the young. When fe­male ele­phants give birth, they will move away from the herd in order to allow space for the off­spring. When they re­turn, all mem­bers of the herd will in­spect the new ele­phant thor­oughly. Until young ele­phants are around 4 years of age, they will closely fol­low their mother. Dur­ing this time, moth­ers will feed their young through breast milk and help them move around ob­sta­cles. Until young off­spring are in­de­pen­dent, around 8 years of age, they will de­pend on the rest of the herd to teach them how to use their trunks, for­age for food, and move around tough ob­sta­cles. Ma­ter­nal po­si­tion only af­fects the young if the mother is the leader of the herd, in which case, the young will be the next leader of the herd. (Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Miller and An­drews, 2013)

  • Parental Investment
  • female parental care
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • post-independence association with parents
  • extended period of juvenile learning
  • maternal position in the dominance hierarchy affects status of young

Lifes­pan/Longevity

African ele­phants re­port­edly have been known to live up to a max­i­mum of 65 years in cap­tiv­ity. How­ever, un­pub­lished re­ports have stated that African ele­phants may live up to 80 years in cap­tiv­ity. In the wild, African ele­phants live for an av­er­age of 60-70 years. (Carey and Judge, 2000; Nowak, 1999; Weigl, 2005; Wiese and Willis, 2004)

Be­hav­ior

African ele­phants gen­er­ally are slow mov­ing crea­tures. Their reg­u­lar pace is 6 km/hour but, they can reach speeds of up to 24 km/hour when run­ning. How much they travel each day de­pends on the amount of re­sources in close prox­im­ity that they re­quire; the av­er­age walk­ing dis­tance for African ele­phants is around 10 km a day. Be­fore African ele­phant pop­u­la­tions were con­stricted to large reser­va­tions for pro­tec­tion, they mi­grated hun­dreds of kilo­me­ters sea­son­ally, from high to low al­ti­tudes and vice versa.

African ele­phants are ac­tive an­i­mals for the ma­jor­ity of time in a 24-hour pe­riod, due to the amount of food they must con­sume each day. They are dor­mant in the early morn­ing hours with an ad­di­tional sleep mid­day for a total of 4 hours of sleep every day. Dur­ing this time they scav­enge for food and groom them­selves. Groom­ing con­sist of African ele­phants using their trunks to cover them­selves with mud or water, and the process helps them main­tain hy­dra­tion.

Fe­male African ele­phants are so­cial an­i­mals that live in herds of 6 to 70 mem­bers. These herds have a ma­tri­ar­chal order, and con­sist of fe­males (cows) and their young. The alpha ele­phant in these herds tends to be the biggest and most dom­i­nant. Male African ele­phants (bulls) tend to only live within a herd if they are not old enough to go out on their own or for mat­ing pur­poses. Bulls will live a life in soli­tary or with a few other bulls. (Greco, et al., 2016; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Lee and Moss, 2012; Miller, et al., 2016; Thou­less, 1996)

Home Range

If enough es­sen­tial re­sources are pre­sent African ele­phants will move as lit­tle as 1.5 Km a day. When re­sources are scarce, African ele­phants may travel as much as 40 km a day. Thou­less (1996) re­ported that African ele­phants' home range can vary from 102 to 5527 km within a pe­riod of 25 months. (Miller, et al., 2016)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

African ele­phants com­mu­ni­cate acousti­cally with oth­ers of their species. Many of their calls are low fre­quency calls of ca. 20Hz. They can make a va­ri­ety of calls in­clud­ing rum­ble, trum­pet, snort, roar, bark, and grunt. Soltis (2010) re­ports 3 other calls made by these ele­phants. They in­clude "rev, croak, and chuff." A trum­pet, roar, or growl could show signs of ag­gres­sion. A "soft chirp" shows sub­mis­sion or in­tim­i­da­tion. In­fant ele­phants will gur­gle dur­ing play and squeal when fright­ened. The African ele­phants can hear one of these calls from over 2km away. They will make these calls to warn or gather oth­ers in their herd or to sig­nal they are ready to mate. African ele­phants watch and lis­ten to their sur­round­ing en­vi­ron­ment for signs of some­thing amiss. They com­mu­ni­cate vi­su­ally by using their trunks or ears to sig­nal other herd mem­bers. Tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion is be­tween a mother and her child or two ele­phants try­ing to mate. Forms of chem­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion along with scent mark­ing among African ele­phants is done by males who are mat­ing with the fe­males in a clan. Around the clan the males will mark trees or bushes with their tusks or by se­cret­ing a sub­stance onto the bush. (Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; O’Con­nell-Rod­well, et al., 2006; Soltis, 2010)

Food Habits

African ele­phants have a her­biv­o­rous diet con­sist­ing of tree fo­liage, fruits, herbs, grasses, and wood in­clud­ing roots, twigs, and bark. Their source of fiber comes from chew­ing on bark but not di­gest­ing the bark it­self. In order to ob­tain bark or roots, African ele­phants will over­turn a tree to for eas­ier ac­cess. Using their trunks as a tem­po­rary con­tainer or hold­ing, African ele­phants use their trunks to gather water and shoot it into their mouths. African ele­phants will feed con­tin­u­ously through­out the day, eat­ing op­por­tunis­ti­cally. They must con­sume around 50 gal­lons of water every­day in order to stay hy­drated.

African ele­phants are both browsers and graz­ers. De­pend­ing on the sea­son and lo­ca­tion, herds may de­pend more on one or the other feed­ing tech­nique. Typ­i­cally dur­ing the wet sea­sons, African ele­phants are more par­tic­u­lar about they con­sume. Dur­ing this sea­son, they are more likely to for­age on grasses. How­ever, dur­ing the dry sea­sons when food is less abun­dant, they will be more flex­i­ble with what they con­sume. Dur­ing both sea­sons, African ele­phants tend to pick food sources that are high in nu­tri­tional con­tent. (Archie, et al., 2006; Chafota and Owen-Smith, 2012; Co­dron, et al., 2006; Co­dron, et al., 2013; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978)

  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • roots and tubers
  • wood, bark, or stems
  • fruit

Pre­da­tion

Due to their size, African ele­phants are not easy prey for many preda­tors. While lions (Pan­thera leo), wild dogs (Ly­caon pic­tus), hye­nas (Cro­cuta cro­cuta), and Nile croc­o­diles (Croc­o­dilus niloti­cus) are preda­tors of African ele­phants, the ma­jor­ity of these preda­tors prey on the young ele­phants that lag be­hind the rest of their group. These preda­tors will at­tempt to hunt ele­phants at night, due to the safety level de­creas­ing be­cause the herd can­not see well at night. How­ever, these preda­tors are not the prob­lem for the African ele­phant pop­u­la­tion. Hu­mans (Homo sapi­ens) hunt these crea­tures for their ivory tusks and leath­ery skin. (Jou­bert, 2006; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978)

Ecosys­tem Roles

African ele­phants are thought to be a key­stone species, be­cause in small num­bers, they have last­ing im­pacts. They often are la­belled as bio­engi­neers. For ex­am­ple, their de­struc­tion or al­ter­ing of trees pos­i­tively in­flu­ences her­peto­fau­nal di­ver­sity, as they cre­ate more three-di­men­sional habi­tat di­ver­sity for these herps.

There are many par­a­sitic species that use African ele­phants as their host. There is a wide va­ri­ety to the kind of par­a­sites that in­fect African ele­phants such as flukes (Proto­fas­ci­ola ro­busta), ticks, blood suck­ing flies (An­thomyi­dae), round­worms (Strongy­loides pa­pil­lo­sus, Haemonchus con­tor­tus, Tri­chostrongy­lus col­u­bri­formis, Mur­shidia, Oe­sophagos­to­mum columbianum), lice, bot­flies (Pharyn­gob­o­lus africanus, Platy­cob­boldia lox­odon­tis, Rod­hain­o­myia roverei, Rut­te­nia lox­odon­tis, Neo­cutere­bra squamosa>>), war­ble flies (Hy­po­derma), pro­to­zoan par­a­sites (Babesia, Eime­ria bovis), and hook­worms (An­cy­lostoma duo­de­nale). African ele­phants do have a mu­tu­al­is­tic re­la­tion­ship with birds, as the birds will feed on the skin par­a­sites of the ele­phants, pro­vid­ing them a meal while rid­ding the ele­phants of some par­a­sites.

White egrets Bubul­cus ibis may have a mu­tu­al­is­tic rla­tion­ship with African ele­phants. These species often are seen to­gether, with the egret below or atop the ele­phant. The pre­sump­tion is that the birds are feed­ing on par­a­sites. (Baines, et al., 2015; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; McLean, et al., 2012; Nasseri, et al., 2011; Zumpt and Wet­zel, 1970)

Mu­tu­al­ist Species
Com­men­sal/Par­a­sitic Species
  • war­ble flies (Hy­po­derma)
  • blood suck­ing flies (An­thomyi­dae)
  • round­worms (Mur­shidia)
  • round­worms (Oe­sophagos­to­mum columbianum)
  • round­worms (Strongy­loides pa­pil­lo­sus)
  • round­worms (Haemonchus con­tor­tus)
  • round­worms (Tri­chostrongy­lus col­u­bri­formis)
  • flukes (Proto­fas­ci­ola ro­busta)
  • bot­flies (Pharyn­gob­o­lus africanus)
  • bot­flies (Platy­cob­boldia lox­odon­tis)
  • bot­flies (Rod­hain­o­myia roverei)
  • bot­flies (Rut­te­nia lox­odon­tis)
  • bot­flies (Neo­cutere­bra squamosa)
  • pro­to­zoan par­a­sites (Eime­ria bovis)
  • pro­to­zoan par­a­sites (Babesia)
  • lice (Siphonaptera)
  • ticks (Acari)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

African ele­phants are used for a va­ri­ety of rea­sons that ben­e­fit hu­mans, often in­volv­ing the killing of these ele­phants. African ele­phants can sim­ply be used as large sport hunt­ing for tro­phies or they can be hunted for their tusks, ears, feet, and meat. Be­cause their tusks are made of ivory, they have been used for nu­mer­ous rea­sons such as bil­liard balls, dice, piano keys, and most com­monly, dec­o­ra­tive carv­ings. Ivory can be sold for a high price, al­low­ing some­one to live off the price of a few pounds. Their large ears are con­verted into leather to make purses. Their feet can be pre­served and made into fur­ni­ture. How­ever, given the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of African ele­phants, these uses of ele­phant parts are dif­fi­cult to jus­tify. (Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Wit­te­myer, 2011; Gao and Clark, 2014; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Wit­te­myer, 2011)

  • Positive Impacts
  • food
  • body parts are source of valuable material

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

African ele­phants do not have many neg­a­tive eco­nomic im­pacts on hu­mans. African ele­phants de­stroy veg­e­ta­tion by using it as a food source or by knock­ing it down due to their mas­sive size. If ele­phants are raid­ing crops for food and peo­ple come to stop them, the ele­phants might chase down the peo­ple and kill them. (Gadd, 2005; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978; Thomas, et al., 2008)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Ac­cord­ing to the IUCN Red List, African ele­phants are listed as a "Vul­ner­a­ble" species. CITES ap­pen­dices list African ele­phants in both Ap­pen­dix I and Ap­pen­dix II. African ele­phants in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zim­babwe are listed in Ap­pen­dix II, while African ele­phants in other coun­tries are listed in Ap­pen­dix I. Ap­pen­dix I means the species is in dan­ger of ex­tinc­tion. This Ap­pen­dix pro­tects the species by mak­ing in­ter­na­tional trade il­le­gal when deal­ing with African ele­phants. Ap­pen­dix II states that the species is not en­dan­gered, but could be­come so if poach­ing is not reg­u­lated. The US Fed­eral List have listed African ele­phants as a "Threat­ened" species.

The rea­son some ele­phant pop­u­la­tions are in de­cline in cer­tain coun­tries is be­cause hunt­ing is legal in these coun­tries. How­ever, il­le­gal poach­ing that is not pros­e­cuted has the same neg­a­tive im­pact. Ele­phants are sold and bought legally or il­le­gally for their hides, fur, tusks, and meat. De­spite an in­ter­na­tional ban on the sale of ivory since 1989, trade in il­le­gal ivory dou­bled from 2007-2014. Or­ga­nized crime com­bined with cor­rupt gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials makes it in­creas­ingly dif­fi­cult to pun­ish of­fend­ers.

An­other rea­son for the de­cline of African ele­phants is that they are los­ing their habi­tats due to human de­vel­op­ment and ex­pan­sion.

In order to com­bat fur­ther de­cline of African ele­phants, some pop­u­la­tions have been moved to pro­tected areas to pre­vent poach­ing. How­ever, about 70% of the cur­rent range is un­pro­tected lands. So, threats are on-go­ing. Some man­age­ment ef­forts have been suc­cess­ful at in­creas­ing local pop­u­la­tions, so much so that con­tra­cep­tion or trap-and-re­lo­cate pro­grams had to be im­ple­mented to sus­tain the habi­tat. An­other hard­ship is that herds are treated dif­fer­ently across po­lit­i­cal bound­aries - the le­gal­ity of hunt­ing, the lo­cals' at­ti­tudes to­wards ele­phants, and the per­miss­abil­ity of or non-ac­tion to com­bat il­le­gal poach­ing all af­fect the pop­u­la­tions. Larger-scale con­ser­va­tion plans that cross coun­try bound­aries may ad­dress some of these is­sues. (Ben­nett, 2015; Blanc, 2008; Laursen and Bekoff, 1978)

Con­trib­u­tors

Meghan Howard (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Alex At­wood (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Marisa Dameron (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Ethiopian

living in sub-Saharan Africa (south of 30 degrees north) and Madagascar.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

colonial

used loosely to describe any group of organisms living together or in close proximity to each other - for example nesting shorebirds that live in large colonies. More specifically refers to a group of organisms in which members act as specialized subunits (a continuous, modular society) - as in clonal organisms.

cooperative breeder

helpers provide assistance in raising young that are not their own

desert or dunes

in deserts low (less than 30 cm per year) and unpredictable rainfall results in landscapes dominated by plants and animals adapted to aridity. Vegetation is typically sparse, though spectacular blooms may occur following rain. Deserts can be cold or warm and daily temperates typically fluctuate. In dune areas vegetation is also sparse and conditions are dry. This is because sand does not hold water well so little is available to plants. In dunes near seas and oceans this is compounded by the influence of salt in the air and soil. Salt limits the ability of plants to take up water through their roots.

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

keystone species

a species whose presence or absence strongly affects populations of other species in that area such that the extirpation of the keystone species in an area will result in the ultimate extirpation of many more species in that area (Example: sea otter).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

nomadic

generally wanders from place to place, usually within a well-defined range.

polygynandrous

the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

sexual ornamentation

one of the sexes (usually males) has special physical structures used in courting the other sex or fighting the same sex. For example: antlers, elongated tails, special spurs.

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

threatened

The term is used in the 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to refer collectively to species categorized as Endangered (E), Vulnerable (V), Rare (R), Indeterminate (I), or Insufficiently Known (K) and in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to refer collectively to species categorized as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), or Vulnerable (VU).

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

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