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ELEPHANT: AFRICAN TRUE KING OF THE BEAST

Africa true king of the beast Reproduction of elephant Matriarch elephant 1

Our country Tanzania is a naturally gifted country in the world by We have beautiful people, beautiful natural resources like minerals, forests, water bodies and national parks with different beautiful animals which we are proud to have them. But some people want to destroy our beauty by killing our wild animals just for money! In our country Elephants are found highly in our parks of Selous existing southern Tanzania regions of Ruvuma, Pwani, Morogoro and Iringa also on the north side are found in parks Serengeti, Tarangire and Lake Manyara They are also found in Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The elephant is the largest land mammal that lives in African savannah, usually weighing between 5000 and 6000 kilograms (56 tones). A mature elephant is 3 to 3.5 meters high, this is according

to the book of Safari Companion by Richard D. Estes. This huge animal is characterized by a large and muscular trunk whereby the trunk is used to browse different plant species and sometimes used to uproot and or pull down trees branches and knock down trees with the tusk if theyre not able reach the trees leaves.Tusks are continuously growing front teeth usually but not always in pairs, that is produced well beyond the mouth of an elephant. Elephant use trunk to pool or for moving objects and digging and as weapon for fighting and their tusk to debark trees . This means that elephants without their tusk they cannot do all that this risks their survival.

Number of elephant in Tanzania Why elephant are being poached Why we should poach elephant Our responsibility as kids

Special points of interest: The weight of baby elephant. Why elephant pull down trees. Things made by elephant tusk. Elephant use its trunk and tusk to do what.

Reproduction of elephant
Elephants like to reproduce during the rainy season, though is not necessarily but they prefer in the rain season and not during the summer. The gestation period of the elephant is 22 months. At birth an elephant baby (calf) weighs more than 100kg and a 90cm in height (see photo, above). Calf stays on the herd till he reach age of 9 to 12 then he leave and go to his fallow bachelor group (bulls) but for the case female elephant she will continue to stay with the herb till the age of 50

Matriarch Elephant
We Human beings live in a family with a number of relatives. Elephants also tend to live in a group called a herd. What is the Herd? The herd is the group of elephants who work together sharing and doing everything as a family. The group is made up of related females with their younglings. The group is led by the oldest female member in the group who is the one who decides the route and shows to each member of the group all the water sources she knows which the rest will memorize in the future. This oldest female is called a Matriarch. Her age may range between 50 and 60 years. So she is an experienced member of the family.

Number of Elephant in Tanzania

According to Tanzania Wildlife Research Institution (TAWIRI) through nation census in elephant of 2009, Tanzania estimated to have 109,051 elephant. But the number of elephant is decreasing in alarming rate due to illegal killing or you may call it poaching which is by people who are believed to be poachers. Whereby they inter in our nation parks were elephant are found and start kill elephants and then disappear with tusks In the session of stakeholders prevention campaign against ivory trade which held recently in Dar es salaam, statements indicate that an estimated 63 elephants are killed per month which is equivalent to 2 elephants are killed every day.

Do the poachers really know the importance of elephants? No, they dont! If they knew, they would have not poached.

Why elephant are being poached?

Why elephants are being poached? Some people believe that some body parts like liver and tusks of an elephant are used for tradition medicine, believed to cure cancer. Also another reason is elephant tends to inter in human settlement and distort farms and houses so the action that come from the victim is to kill the elephants so as to solve the problem. Addition reason is that, this ivory are highly demanded in world market. Some Asian countries like China, the Philippines and Thailand use elephant ivory in decoration, example in wall picture, bracelet, bangles, carvings, chopsticks and in music instruments like piano keys.

Why we should not kill elephant?

Many people dont know the virtual role played by elephant. Elephants are considered as the keystone species in the African landscapes whereby they help in maintaining the ecosystem balance. For example; They pull down trees and break up through bushes which helps to create grassland for other animal to graze. They also create salt licks that are reach in nutrients for other animals. They dig water holes in dry river beds that other animal can use as water sources and their foot prints create deep holes that water can collect in. Elephant dung is important for the environment. This dung act as a fertilizer and help the soil and vegetation to be able to grow and develop properly as well as the nutrients found in the soil helps humans during agricultural activities. This stool is either as food for monkeys and birds to take seeds and nuts from the stool which are not digested well. Many people are attracted to see how elephants leave, eat, behave, communicate. Elephants are tourism attraction whereby people pay visit to national parks, zoos and wildlife sanctuaries to see the elephant and learn how they live. Through tourism the country generates revenue for conservation and national development such as health facilities, education, infrastructure, etc. As we have seen earlier elephant takes approximately 22 monthes to found a baby elephant (calf). It means that if we kill elephants it will take as several years until we found them again or species will vanish in the land of Tanzania and make future generations may not, be albe to see this animal. If you look deeper into this trade of elephant tusks, society which is engaged in poaching receives less profit compared to the profit of big sellers and those who invested in this business. Once elephants are finished it also kills the tourism industry. And if that happens will lead the government to lose its revenue from tourism activities example taxes for tourism companies, tourists will not exist, the taxes from the tourist hotels. These will cause government to fail in make progress development in society as in education, health, infrastructure hence the citizen will remain poor.

Our responsibility as kids

The role that we need to play as children and as good friends to this animal is to make sure we convey our messages to the government and our parents to preserve the elephants so that other animals can survive through their presence. Let us not lose this beautiful species for the future generations to see and enjoy their presence on earth. Let us advocate and spread the message for their protection. Ask mom and dad to say NO to elephant poaching.

We as children, we say no to elephant poaching.