African elephant

African elephants are members of the genus Loxodonta comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (L. africana) and the smaller African forest elephant (L. cyclotis). Both are social herbivores with grey skin. However, they differ in the size and colour of their tusks as well as the shape and size of their ears and skulls.

Both species are at a pertinent risk of extinction according to the IUCN Red List; as of 2021, the bush elephant is considered endangered while the forest elephant is considered critically endangered. They are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, along with poaching for the illegal ivory trade in several range countries.

Loxodonta is one of two extant genera in the family Elephantidae. The name refers to the lozenge-shaped enamel of their molar teeth. Fossil remains of Loxodonta species have been found in Africa, spanning from the Late Miocene (from around 7–6 million years ago) onwards.

The name Loxodonta comes from the Ancient Greek words λοξός (loxós, "slanting", "crosswise") and ὀδούς (odoús, "tooth"), referring to the lozenge-shaped enamel of the molar teeth, which differs significantly from the rounded shape of the Asian elephant's molar enamel.

The first scientific description of the African elephant was written in 1797 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who proposed the scientific name Elephas africanus. Loxodonte was proposed as a generic name for the African elephant by Frédéric Cuvier in 1825. An anonymous author used the Latinized spelling Loxodonta in 1827. This author was recognized as authority by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature in 1999.

Elephas (Loxodonta) cyclotis was proposed by Paul Matschie in 1900, who described three African elephant zoological specimens from Cameroon whose skulls differed in shape from those of elephant skulls collected elsewhere in Africa. In 1936, Glover Morrill Allen considered this elephant to be a distinct species and called it the 'forest elephant'; later authors considered it to be a subspecies. Morphological and genetic analyses have since provided evidence for species-level differences between the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant.

In 1907, Richard Lydekker proposed six African elephant subspecies based on the different sizes and shapes of their ears. They are all considered synonymous with the African bush elephant.

A third species, the West African elephant, has also been proposed but needs confirmation. It is thought that this lineage has been isolated from the others for 2.4 million years.