African Elephant

Description:

Taken while on safari in Ruaha National Park in Iringa Region with a Canon Elan IIe in June of 1998.

Habitat:

African elephants live in the wild on much of the African continent south of the Sahara. Ruaha N.P. in Tanzania is famous for its more than 10,000 elephants who roam freely in what is now Africa's largest National Park.

Notes:

Elephants actually occupy roughly half of Tanzania's total land mass, and frequently come into contact with rural Tanzanians, posing the greatest threat to farmers, their families and their crops, which the elephants can quickly destroy, causing farmers to lose precious time, money, and patience. Members of the Wildlife Conservation Society, along with the cooperation of several NGOs, are tirelessly working to implement practical and humane ways to reduce the human-elephant conflict. Humane deterrents, like planting sunflowers, a plant that elephants won't eat, and using spotlights to keep the elephants at bay, are two of the clever ideas being introduced and used to lessen the conflict between farmers and land's largest mammal!