African Elephant (loxondta)

1. Abiotic factors of survival:                      ---> temperature,soil,weather, and water.

2. Biotic factors of survival:                        ---> plants,vegetation,other animals and insects.

3. Humans can also be considered as a biotic factor because they are interfering in their natural habitat.

4. The adult African bush elephant generally has no natural predators due to its great size, but the calves (especially the newborns) are vulnerable to being prey for carnivores such as lions, leopards etc. They are especially vulnerable to lion and crocodile attacks, and (rarely) to leopard and hyena attacks. Some prides of lions prey on both infants and juveniles, especially in the drought months.

5. The largest population of African elephants, live in sub-Saharan Africa, the rain forests of Central and West Africa and the Sahel desert in Mali.

6. Weather: when considering a habitat for the African elephant, we have to take in to consideration a  number of  traits make the African elephant vulnerable to a changing climate, including sensitivity to high temperatures and susceptibility to a variety of diseases. Additionally, an increasingly limited dispersal ability due to habitat fragmentation, coupled with a long generation time and moderate amounts of genetic variation, may limit the ability of the species to adapt to a changing climate.

7. Diet requirements: -The african elephant feeds on up to 300 pounds of various fruits,shrubs, bushes,small plants, bark,twigs and grass. The fruits they feed on are mostly bananas due to their high levels of potassium.

8. Accessibility: Food is easily accessed for the African elephant, for they have long muscular trunks. They use their long muscular trunks to dig roots, uproot plants, plucking leaves and breaking branches off trees.

9. The African elephant requires an all herbivorous diet, and football fields of vegetation, to help body movement/function.

10. Safety requirements: - Visual, audio and olfactory barriers within the space.         - air and water changes every hour.      - fences have to be put up so that the elephants are enclosed and safe from other predators, and to ensure humans are safe (vice versa). Fences are a necessity in the African elephants ecosystem due to their tendency to trample in stampedes. Although Elephants have a mostly gentle, calm nature.

11. Human interaction could affect the elephants ecosystem.When humans are thrown into the mix of elephants things like poaching can occur. (poaching is the illegal capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights).

12. Elephants are to be kept in a temperature under 40 degrees when outdoors, and all elephants must have access to shade when they are exposed to direct sunlight . This helps prevent heatstroke, keeping elephants comfortable and healthy.

13. Poaching has a considerable negative effect on the environment of African Elephants because when one animal population declines at an unnatural rate, others can rise or fall as well. This may lead to the extinction of the poached elephants and other animal and plant life in the area.

14. Human interaction could negatively impact the ecosystem due to things like waste dumping,over fishing, construction and using industrial gases within the elephants natural habitat.

15. Human interaction could also affect the animals habitat/ecosystem positively due to the fact humans can benefit elephants by planting trees/ plants, clean polluted water (rivers), and access sustainable resources.

16. These locations of Africa  are perfect habitats for the African elephant, due to the naturally occurring resources. These resources include large amounts of water in the dams and rivers, and large amounts of vegetation. The weather is usually  ideal for the elephants.