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,font color=#ff0000 size=5>Elephant Information

Asian elephants have been captured and trained since time immemorial to serve people. African elephants were used by Hannibal to carry his supplies across the Alps during his famous march to conquer Rome in the 3rd century. As recently as the 16th century, elephants were harnessed and ridden onto the battlefield and during World War II they were used to drag heavy military equipment up steep, muddy slopes.
About 13,000 to 16,000 Asian elephants have been captured and trained to pull logs out of forests, carry passengers and freight and assist in capturing wild elephants are among the many jobs requiring intelligence and strength that elephants perform.
Training for logging tasks may take three to five years. After that, the elephants are individually fine-tuned for another ten years before they are sent out to haul logs from the forests. The graduates of logging schools may work for 30 years or more, retiring at about 50 years of age. The elephant's trainer (called an oozie or mahout) earns his livelihood by charging money for use of his skilled elephant.
Endangered
African and Asian elephants are endangered species. A variety of forces have contributed to their decline. Elephants have been slaughtered in past centuries solely for their tusks, which are made of highly prized ivory. In the 1900s the wild elephant population stood at 5 to 10 million; by 1979 hunting and habitat destruction had reduced it to 1.3 million. In the ten years between 1979 and 1989 an estimated 600,000 African elephants-almost half the population-were slaughtered for ivory.
The United States and other nations banned all ivory imports, However, ivory poaching remains a major threat. Poachers kill older elephants for their larger tusks. Herds depend on the matriarch, and her loss may interfere with the herd's ability to migrate for food and when mother elephants are killed, the nursing young often do not survive.
Battles over shared land and its resources also cause elephant deaths in both Africa and Asia. The number of African and Asian elephants has dropped to a dangerous low.
Scientific Data:
African and Asian elephants are members of the elephant family, Elephantidae, in the order Proboscidea. The African elephant is classified as Loxodonta africana and the Asian elephant as Elephas maximus..