Johannesburg Zoo celebrated Elephant Day and Lammie’s birthday

Johannesburg Zoo celebrated its oldest elephant’s birthday on August 10, and World Elephant Day on August 12.
World Elephant Day raises awareness about elephant welfare, habitat loss, poaching, and protection of elephants.

The Johannesburg Zoo houses three elephants: Lammie, the 44-year-old mother to Mokopane, a 23-year-old girl and Ramadiba, a 26-year-old male.

According to the The World Wide Fund, the following are the Top 8 facts about elephants:

1. They are the world’s largest animals – The African Savanna (bush) elephant is the world’s largest land animal, with adult males, or bull elephants, standing up to 3m high and weighing up to 6 000kg on average. Males only reach their full size at 35–40 years – that’s well over half their lifespan as wild elephants can live for up to 60–70 years.
2. The three elephant species can be told apart by their ears – There are three species of elephant: African Savanna (bush), African Forest and Asian. The ears of African elephants are much larger than their cousins’ and are described as being shaped like the African continent, whereas the ears of Asian elephants are shaped like the Indian subcontinent. There’s also a trunk difference: African elephants have two ‘fingers’ at the tip of their trunks, whereas Asian elephants have one.
3. Elephant trunks have skills – Elephants have around 150 000 muscle units in their trunk. Their trunks are perhaps the most sensitive organ found in any mammal. Elephants use their trunks to suck up water to drink and can contain up to 8l of water. They also use their trunks as a snorkel when swimming.
4. Elephant tusks work like teeth – Elephant tusks are enlarged incisor teeth which first appear when elephants are around two years old. Tusks are used to help with feeding – prising bark off trees, or digging up roots, or as a defence when fighting.
5. Elephants have thick skin – An elephant’s skin is 2.5cm thick in most places. The folds and wrinkles in their skin can retain up to 10 times more water than flat skin does, which helps to cool them down. They keep their skin clean and protect themselves from sunburn by taking regular dust and mud baths.
6. Elephants constantly eat – Elephants eat grasses, leaves, shrubs, fruits and roots depending on the season and their habitat. When it’s particularly dry, elephants will eat more woody parts of trees and shrubs like twigs, branches and barks. They need to eat up to 150kg of food per day.
7. Elephants never forget – The elephant’s temporal lobe (the area of the brain associated with memory) is larger and denser than that of people hence, the saying ‘elephants never forget’.
8. Approximately 90% of African elephants have been wiped out in the past century – Around 90% of African elephants have been wiped out in the past century, largely due to the ivory trade, leaving an estimated 415 000 wild elephants alive today. Asian elephants are also under threat, having declined by at least 50% in the last three generations.

There are only around 48 000–52 000 individuals left in the wild. As their habitat changes, fragments and is lost to human settlements and agriculture, populations of Asian elephants are finding it harder to follow their traditional migration routes to reach water, feeding and breeding grounds, and they’re coming into often dangerous contact with people.

*(https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/elephants)

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