African Elephant
African elephants, also known as the savanna elephants, are the largest land mammal in the world. They weigh up to 10,000 pounds and grow to 12 feet tall. They have a long trunk that is very flexible and has nostrils on the end. It is used to pick up food and water and carry it to it's mouth. On the sides of its mouth there are two long teeth that extend out from inside its mouth. These are called tusks, and are made of ivory. They have thick, gray skin on their bodies that protects them from deadly predator bites. African elephants live on the savannas of Africa.
There are two species of elephants in Africa; the savanna elephant and the forest elephant, (Loxodonta cyclotis). The savanna elephant's habitat is usually savannas or grasslands. They are herbivores, and feed on grasses, fruits, tree leaves, bark, shrubs, and vines. African elephants live for about seventy years, and die when their molars wear down; they can't eat so they starve. There are usually 10-15 related elephants in a group. Related family members stay in close range of each other. The leader is always a female. They communicate with sounds lower than human hearing. An elephant's gestation period is 20 to 22 months.
When born, a calf weighs around 200 pounds, and is about three feet tall. A mother is usually helped by another cow during birthing. The calves nurse until they are in their third year and are very dependent on their mothers for 8 to 10 years. When they are mature, male elephants leave the herd to join bachelor herds. Females stay with the herd they were born into. Elephants are very social animals, and learn about what to eat, where to find water and how to behave from their mothers and older bulls. Recently some orphaned bull elephants were killing rare rhinos in South Africa's Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Reserve. In a conservation effort several decades ago, orphaned elephants were moved from Kruger National Park to Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Reserve where there were no elephants. They grew up without the influence of their mothers or older bulls. It is thought that without role models they didn't know how to behave and were taking out their aggressions inappropriately on the rhinos.
Older bulls were brought in to teach them how to behave themselves. The African elephant's size makes them hard for predators to eat, such as leopards, lions, or jaguars. At night, the adults form a circle around the calves to protect them from danger. But in the day, an unlucky calf might wander away from the herd and be some predator's lunch. But adults have thick skin, making it hard to bite. These animals have a special job in savannas. They keep the savannas clear by eating shrubs and trees which helps the grass grow. This allows the many grazers on the savanna to survive. Today there are about 150,000 elephants in the world. They are endangered because poachers and hunters kill them for their ivory tusks to sell. In October 1989, the African elephant was moved from Appendix II, which requires permits to hunt or trade, to Appendix I, which is the highest level of protection and doesn't allow international trade.
Black Mamba
The Black Mamba is the most deadly snake in the world. They grow 14 feet in length, and can travel at speeds of up to 12 mph. They have a head shaped like a coffin. The Black Mamba is not actually black. They have a brownish-gray body with a light belly and brownish scales along its back. It gets its name from the color of the lining of its mouth, which is purple-black, and which it displays when threatened. The Black Mamba lives in South Africa.
They like open, low habitats such as savannas, rocky places and open woodlands. They are active during the day. They often sleep in hollow trees, burrows, rock crevices, or empty termite mounds, and will come back to the same place every night. The Black Mambas feed on small mammals and birds, like voles, rats, squirrels, mice, rats, or bush babies. Once a Mamba was found with a parrot in its stomach, another with a full grown Forest Cobra! It will strike a large animal and then release it. It then stalks their victim until it becomes paralyzed. With smaller animals it will strike and hold on until the animal becomes paralyzed. Its flexible jaws and scales makes it possible to eat the animal whole. Several weeks after a pair of mamba mate, the female will find a good place to lay 6-17 eggs.
The burrow must be damp but not wet, and warm, but not too hot. After she lays her eggs the female leaves. The young snakes are about 16-24 inches long when they hatch three months later. They reach maturity when they are 3-4 feet in length. The Black Mambas are found in pairs or small groups. They are very nervous, and head away fast when a human approaches. When the mamba feels threatened it will raise its front and head about 3-4 feet off the ground, open its mouth, spread a flat hood, and shake its head. When they attack they will make several quick strikes, and escape as fast as they can. They can strike from 4-6 feet away.
Before antivenins were developed, a black mamba bite was 100% fatal. They are invulnerable, because no animal can actually kill them. Their venom can kill just about anything, so they don't have much to worry about. The mamba is mainly threatened by habitat destruction.
Caracal
Felis caracal can be found in the Veld Grassland in South Africa, and in central Africa and India from 30° North to 35° South latitude and from 20° East to 25° West longitude. This environment is generally dry and hot. The cat's habitat can also be savannah, scrub and acacia woodlands, or mountains and hilly areas.
Its head/body is 24-36 inches long, and its tail is 9-12 inches long. Its shoulder height is 15-20 inches. Its weight is 28-42 lbs. It has a shape like a cat but it's bigger and has bigger ears. The cat has a short coat whose color varies from tawny-brown to reddish-grey, sometimes even getting as dark as wine-red. Its head is shaped like an upside-down triangle. The ears are black on the outside and pale on the inside, with two-inch tufts of black hair coming out of them. The fur around the eyes is paler than the rest of the coat. The caracal has powerful jaws on a short muzzle. Its claws can retract into its large paws. It is faster than any other cat its size.
The caracal male is sexually mature at 12-15 months of age, and the female at 14-16 months. They mate year-round. Their gestation period is 69-78 days, and they usually have 1 to 6 young. The kittens weigh about 10.5 oz. As soon as they are born, the kittens have bold facial markings. At first, they only eat, sleep and make some noise. Their mother carries the kittens in her mouth by the back of the neck. They play with each other, and they learn to hunt that way. They are independent after about a year, when their mother will have another litter. The male does not help to raise the children; caracals live alone, not in pairs or groups, except when the mother raises the cubs.
The caracal is solitary, and can live as long as 17 years in captivity. They are active at night, mostly hunting smaller mammals, such as rabbits and porcupines, or even larger mammals like sheep, young antelope or deer. They have a special skill at catching birds. Their strong legs enable them to jump high enough to actually bat birds out of the air with their large paws.
The caracal's only predator is man. Humans hunt the caracal for its fur and meat in many places, sometimes to prevent this cat from killing livestock, mostly in Namibia and South Africa. There is no national legislation to protect the caracal. However, in some places these animals are protected legally. Hunting the caracal is forbidden in 10 countries in Africa. Hunting and trade are regulated in 6 countries in Africa. However, in areas where the caracal is not in danger, there are no laws protecting them.
Grant's Zebra
The zebra is the horse of the savanna. Grant's zebra is the most abundant of the 3 species of zebra. The zebra looks like a horse, only smaller. It doesn't sound like a horse, and "barks" instead of neighs.
Its height is about 50 in. from shoulder to hoof, and weighs in at 500 to 600 pounds. It has rather short legs and a large head. The zebra has black and white stripes, a black nose, and black hooves. It also has a short, erect mane. The stripes on its side are vertical but bend to become horizontal on its rump. Every zebra's stripe pattern is different. The zebra lives in close-knit groups called families or harems, led by a single male. There can be up to 17 members in each family.
Everybody in the family relies on each other to look out for danger and help those who are in trouble. They stay close to each other even when they migrate in herds of 10,000 or more. They slow their pace for weak or young members and never leave them. They can live to be 28 years old. When the zebra is attacked by a predator, it has several ways to defend itself. If they see a predator, the herd will bunch together and all the predator will see is a maze of stripes and it won't be able to tell one zebra from another and will not be able to tell it's front from it's rear end. Or a herd may run away. The zebra can reach speeds of up to 40 m.p.h. The male guards the rear. If all else fails, it will use it's strong hooves and sharp teeth against a predator.
The zebra's main predators are hyenas and lions. It is easy to see a zebra in the middle of the grasslands because of its black and white stripes, but the stripes actually confuse a predator. There are about 300,000 zebras left on the savanna. They are fun to watch and study. They may not be endangered yet, but two rarer species are. Some subspecies are actually already extinct. Like the other endangered animals, we must help the zebra and try to make it so it does not reach extinction.
Koala Bear
This fuzzy marsupial is very muscular, quite lean, and is about 33 inches long. It has a fuzzy coat of fur, big floppy ears, and almost no tail! It's got a stubby little nose, small yellow, beady eyes, and strong bones to support its heavy body while climbing trees.
Now you may wonder; how much do those strong bones have to support? Well, the females weigh between 13.2 and 24.2 lbs., while the male weigh between 17.6 and 30.8 lbs. The koala has rough paws that act as traction so they don't slip and fall off the trees while hurrying away from predators that lurk beneath the trees. Each paw has 5 digits. The back paw consists of two "fingers" that are joined together to form a "grooming paw". These help it get rid of off twigs or tics that may have gotten tangled in its thick fur. There are 3 other "fingers". Two of them are very sharp and those are used for climbing. The last "finger" which takes the place of a human thumb is stubbed; there are no claw on it. Meanwhile, the front paw has 2 tiny "fingers" that are substituted for 1 large thumb. It also has 3 normal "fingers" that are very sharp. Just like their back paws, these are used for climbing. The koala has thick fur that is used to help keep it cool and at the same time warm. Their fur also acts like a rain slicker, repelling moisture. The color of their fur changes from gray to brown depending on the season. They have patches of white on their neck, chest, and inside the ears, legs, and arms. The koala usually mates during September-March. The female koalas start to mate with the male koalas when they're around 3 or 4 years old! They sometimes only produce one offspring per year. It takes about 35 days after the female koala conceives to birth a Joey (a baby koala bear).
When the Joey's born, it looks like a pink, hairless, jellybean, with beady little eyes just like its parents. Get this; Joey's can't see or hear when they're born. That's probably because they don't even have ears when they're born! The babies are usually only 2 centimeters long and weigh only 1 gram. During the first few months, the Joey stays in its mother's pouch and sucks on something in its mother's nipple called "pap". "Pap" is very mushy, just like baby food. The Joey eats "pap" until it's 1 years old. Then the mother starts to feed it eucalyptus leaves. Using its brown and gray fur, the koala can camouflage itself so they can hide from predators. Don't you think that the koalas might get hurt sitting on the sharp twigs, well they don't! Their bottoms are padded with so much fur, that they can sit on pointy branches and not get hurt! The koalas thick, fuzzy fur keeps them warm, but not too warm. Their sharp claws dig into the trees so that they don't fall off. Even with their tiny noses, koalas have an excellent sense of smell. They can detect the poisonous leaves, just by sniffing them! The koala doesn't have that diverse of a diet. The only thing they eat are eucalyptus leaves. The eucalyptus leaf is quite poisonous to other animals, but the koala's digestive system is immune to it. The only thing is, if they eat more than 3 lbs. of leaves a day, they'll get indigestion.
The koala is killed by foxes, dogs, dingoes, and most of all, humans and forest fires. The koala bear used to be endangered, but there are now laws in Australia that forbid you to hunt koalas, especially just for their fur, which is what most people kill them for. Hundreds of koalas die because they have life threatening diseases. Their biggest threat now are slow moving forest fires. There are many organizations around the world just for saving the koalas.
Lion
The lion is the powerhouse of the savanna, weighing in at 265-420 pounds and up to 10 feet long. The lion is a powerful predator. Imagine a powerful looking beast that looks like your average house cat. But its bigger, faster, and stronger. Lions have dirty beige colored fur and rounded heads. Males have something females don't... manes. Manes are a ruff of long hair around the neck which is brown in the front and black in the back. Lions live in the savanna of Africa south of the Sahara and a small area in Asia.
Savannas are open spaces with tall beige, or green colored grass, where water is scarce in the summer season. Lions eat gazelles, buffalo, zebras and many other small to medium sized mammals. Lions are the only cats that live in groups called prides. Each pride is like a community of 4 to 40 individuals. They all help hunt in order to keep every member healthy, and every cub fed. The pride is made up of one dominant male and maybe a few other males, and related females and their cubs.
The males protect the pride and the females hunt and take care of the cubs. When the dominant male is killed or driven off by a new male, the previous male's cubs are killed. This makes sure that there is room for the new male's cubs in the pride. Cubs are born a little over a month after mating. They depend on their mother's milk for 3 or 4 months. They nurse not only from their own mother, but any other nursing female. They are off on their own in 2 years. Lion's coats are perfect camouflage for sneaking up on their prey. They will sneak up to their prey as close as they can as a group. Some in the group will charge at their victim, while the others cut off their escape. But often they don't not get close enough so they have to run them down. Lions can run up to forty miles per hour for short distances. They have sharp hooked claws which they can retract or extend at will. The pads on their feet protect their paws from the rough terrain that they might walk over. They have sharp teeth that are perfect for chomping, and biting and chewing up meat. The lion can be crucial to other animal's survival. When a lion makes a kill and is done eating, there are usually leftovers, or scraps, which scavengers like vultures and the occasional hyena, come and eat, and thus are helped to survive too.
Lions indeed are very wonderful creatures. They are interesting to see and find out about. But they are endangered from over-hunting and loss of habitat. Efforts have been made to save there creatures but they need all the help they can get. If you see a way that you can help one of these beautiful creatures, please do, so that generations after ours can enjoy them too. If we don't...they will be gone, leaving a huge chunk out of nature's balance as we know it.
Nile Crocodile
The Nile Crocodile can grow to be five meters long. They have long snouts that can grab fish and turtles. They are dark olive in color, and young ones have bands around their body. But as they get older, the bands fade. They are the most intelligent reptiles on the earth. Nile Crocodiles live in freshwater swamps, rivers, lakes, and other watery places. They dig dens to hide in from hot weather or danger. They are only found in Africa and Madagascar. The crocodiles eat almost anything in the water, such as fish, turtles, or birds. They even eat buffaloes, antelope, big cats, and sometimes people, when given the chance. The female Nile Crocodile mates around November through December. They dig a hole about 1 1/2 feet deep to lay their eggs in, a few feet from the water. They lay 40-60 eggs. The female protects the nest from danger at all times. It takes about 80-90 days for the eggs to hatch. The mother keeps the hatch lings safe by holding them in her mouth. Nile Crocodiles are sneaky, and get their food easily. When they sneak up on drinking animals, only their eyes and nose show. The rest of their body is hidden underwater. They are also camouflage in the water, so they are almost impossible to see. The Nile Crocodile is not endangered. They are almost invincible, and are not prey to any other animal, except humans.