Elephants are large herbivorous mammals representing the order of proboscis. To date, only two species of elephants have survived - African and Indian, both of which have a conservation status.
The once large detachment of proboscis today is represented by a single family - elephants, in which two genera remained - African elephants (Loxodonta) and Indian elephants (Elephas), the rest of the family members were exterminated by humans or died out from natural causes.
The group of elephants also includes the giant elephants that lived about 10 thousand years ago - mammoths. The mammoths were covered with thick wool and were huge in size - up to 5.5 meters in height and weighing more than 10 tons.
African elephant
The genus of African elephants has two species - the bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), previously considered one biological species.
As it is easy to understand from the names, the bush elephant prefers the steppe and semi-steppe territories, called savannas in Africa, the forest elephant lives in the tropical forests of the equatorial belt of the continent.
According to various estimates, the total number of Savannah and Forest elephants ranges from 400 to 660 thousand individuals. Since 1970, when it became possible to estimate population size for the first time, the number of the African elephant has been cut in half.
The forest elephant as a species appeared relatively recently - in 1900, the German zoologist Paul Machi proposed to divide the African elephant into two species. Later DNA tests confirmed his suggestion.
The African elephant is listed in the International Red Book. The Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has given it the protection status VU, that is, in a vulnerable position.
Indian elephant
The genus of Indian elephants is represented by a single species - the Asian, or Indian, elephant (Elephas maximus), which includes four subspecies: Indian elephant, Sumatran elephant, Bornean elephant, Sri Lankan elephant. The last three subspecies have become isolated as a result of living on the islands of the same name.
Until the 19th century, the Indian elephant was widespread throughout the Indian subcontinent, after which the population began to decline rapidly. If in 1900 there were more than 200 thousand individuals, then by 2004 there were from 35 to 50 thousand of them.
Currently, the habitat of the Indian elephant is torn into small areas. In the wild, the elephant can be found in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, southwestern China, the Indonesian islands and a number of other Asian countries.
Like its African relative, the Indian elephant is under international protection, but it is in great danger. IUCN has assigned it the conservation status EN, that is, it is classified as an endangered species.
