Elephants' Roles in The African Ecosystem
African elephants are the largest living land animals on the earth.
African elephants are really two species: African savanna elephant, also known as bush elephant, and African forest elephant.
Savanna elephants are larger than forest elephants. Their tusks are bigger and more curved than forest elephants.
Savanna elephants live in the grassy bush-lands of eastern and southern Africa, Forest elephants habitat the rainforests of west and central Africa.
African Elephants play a crucial role in the African ecosystem.
They are the forest gardeners. Every day, they need to eat lots of fresh fruits and plants because of their huge body.
Seeds go through elephants’ month into their digestive tract. In there, the gastric acids wear off the outer layer of the seeds. Then, elephants poop out most of these seeds into a dung pile. The seeds start seeding inside the poop, quickly growing roots into the ground. This process is called stimulating germination.
African elephants are migratory animals. They move a few times a year throughout Africa. They help transport the seeds and plant them at far away places so the seeds have a high survival probability (seeds are away from diseases). This ability supports African forest diversity.
In Savanna, elephants focus their feeding on fertile zones that facilitate nutrient transfer from a slow and deep tree-mediated nutrient cycle into a fast and shallow cycle. Elephants’ feeding habits maintains savanna ecosystem stability.
Small animals love elephants. Elephants break up thorny bushes creating new paths for small animals. They dig waterholes in dry riverbeds during dry season to share the water source with other small animals. Elephants’ huge bodies “scare” off predators like tigers, lions, or crocodiles. Some birds can even ride on elephants.
Another fun fact of elephants is their poop is very useful. Their poop not only provides a great environment for seed growth, it can also be used to build houses, make paper, beer and coffee for adults, or simply use for “snowball” flights in Africa anytime of the year.
African Elephants are amazing creatures and important to the African ecosystem. We need to protect them from extinction.