Desert Elephants

Desert elephants are a rarity. The only two populations that exist are in Mali and Namibia. When I say desert elephants, I don’t mean a whole new species of elephant so much as a unique and conserved population. These elephants are part of the species Loxodonta Africana which is the same species as the rest of south and central Africa. However, due to human encroachment on territory, certain populations of elephants have been forced to migrate to areas where they formerly lived but are no longer a part of their normal territory because it has been desertified.

While the desert elephants may not be their own species, they have some curious differences from the main populations elsewhere in Africa. For instance, they are less bulky (probably from more sparse food intake), and their feet are wider and more splayed (likely due to travel on sand). While normally family herds of elephants travel in packs of 20-30 elephants of only related females and their calves, the desert elephants travel in much smaller packs of 5-10 females that are sometimes unrelated.

Another particularly interesting trait of these elephants is that they migrate long distances in order to find enough food to sustain them. While in the wet season the elephants prefer to eat green shoots, in the dry season they will migrant long distances to eat tougher, dryer plants (incorporating many plants into their diet with little discrimination). Interestingly enough, they tend to dig up myrrh plants and eat them entirely perhaps for the sweet taste or even medicinal purposes.

http://www.desertelephantconservation.org/AboutDesertElephants.html

~Scarlett