🐘Elephant
L'Éléphant de savane d'Afrique ou simplement Éléphant de savane (Loxodonta africana) est une espèce de mammifères de la famille des Éléphantidés. Il s'agit du plus grand (en volume, car la girafe est plus grande, en hauteur) des animaux terrestres vivant actuellement, qui mesure en moyenne 4 mètres au garrot et pèse environ 6 tonnes pour le mâle et 4 tonnes pour la femelle. Cette espèce se rencontre en prairie, marécage et bord de fleuve, jusqu'en Afrique du Sud. Il fait partie des éléphants contemporains survivants. Les différents éléphants africains ont longtemps été considérés comme des représentants de sous-espèces du taxon Loxodonta africana. De récentes études génétiques ont permis de démontrer que les deux principales sous-espèces africaines Loxodonta africana africana et Loxodonta africana cyclotis étaient en fait deux espèces distinctes : en Afrique, il convient donc de distinguer désormais l'éléphant de savane (Loxodonta africana) et l’éléphant de forêt (Loxodonta cyclotis). En 2021, l'espèce est considérée comme en danger d'extinction.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2022.
- Body mass
- 4,565 kg
- Body length
- 7.5 m
- Shoulder height
- 2.8 m
- Top speed
- 25 km/h
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- 80 years
Everything we know about the Elephant
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass4,565 kgCOMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 4,800 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length7.5 mCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Shoulder height2.8 maverage2.4–3.2 m · range across sexesOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.
By sex
- Male3.2 mNowak, Walker's Mammals of the World (1999)Bulls; cows average ~2.6 m.
- Female2.4 mLaursen & Bekoff 1978, Mammalian Species 92, p.1Height at the shoulder.
Top speed25 km/hDetails ↓Hide ↑
Elephants never leave the ground; this is a fast walk, not a run. MEASURED by photosensor timing and video over 188 trials, but in ASIAN elephants. The compilations disagree -- 34.0 (Bejan & Marden 2006) and 35.0 km/h (Garland 1983) -- and Hutchinson has publicly attributed those to speedometer-based anecdote. A measurement of the wrong species beats an estimate of the right one, but this needs a reviewer's decision.
Source: Hutchinson et al. 2003, Nature 422:493 (measured 6.8 m/s in Elephas maximus) · see citation
Brain mass5,277 gCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Maximum lifespan80 yearsCOMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 65 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Generation length25 yearsCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Age at maturity14 yearsCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Gestation1.8 yearsCOMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 1.8 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Litter size1COMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 1AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Trophic levelHerbivoreCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Activity cycleCrepuscular / mixedCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Home range588 km²COMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Population density0.56 per km²COMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Wild population415,000Details ↓Hide ↑
Savanna and forest elephants combined; see note on IUCN licensing.
Source: IUCN African Elephant Status Report 2016 (continental estimate) · see citation
Volume l4,565 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Elephant yet: bite force.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›classMammalia
- ›orderProboscidea
- ›familyElephantidae
- ›genusLoxodonta
- ›speciesLoxodonta africana
- classMammals · Mammalia
- orderElephants · Proboscidea
- familyElephantidae
- genusLoxodonta
All 12 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassSarcopterygii
- superclassTetrapoda
- classMammals · Mammalia
- subclassTheria
- orderElephants · Proboscidea
- familyElephantidae
- genusLoxodonta
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