Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 17, 2016

78,000 Origami Elephants Invade the Bronx Zoo

The Bronx Zoo has been taken over by a horde of adorable animals of an entirely new species — call it Elephas origami. The zoo, run by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), has officially amassed the largest display collection of origami elephants in the world, earning it a spot in...

Mar 2, 2017

Elephant All-Nighters? Giant Beasts Sleep Only 2 Hours

The enormous African elephant doesn't need that much sleep, a new study finds. After observing two female matriarchs for about a month, researchers learned that the giant pachyderms sleep an average of just 2 hours a day, and often go almost two days without sleep. A sample size of two...

Mar 29, 2017

11 Asian Elephants Rescued from Mud-Filled Bomb Crater

A rescue in Cambodia saved 11 Asian elephants from a muddy death after they fell into an old bomb crater. The herd — three adult females and eight juveniles — was discovered in the large crater in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary on March 24, covered in mud and unable to...

Apr 11, 2017

Cases of 'Elephantiasis' Traced to Unexpected Cause

A rare condition called elephantiasis, which tends to strike people in tropical parts of the world, was long thought to occur due to a parasitic infection. But a new study shows that the condition can have another cause: sharp crystals found in certain soils. In elephantiasis, a person's limbs become...

Apr 27, 2017

How Long Do Elephants Take to Poop? Same Time As You

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The ancient Chinese practiced copromancy, the diagnosis of health based on the shape, size and texture of feces. So did the Egyptians, the Greeks and nearly every ancient culture....

May 22, 2017

Hunter Crushed by Elephant in Zimbabwe

A professional big-game hunter died near Gwai, Zimbabwe, on the afternoon of May 19, after he was crushed by a female elephant that had been shot by a member of his hunting party. Theunis Botha, a resident of Tzaneen, South Africa, was leading a group of hunters when they surprised...

Aug 4, 2017

Saving Elephants: Ivory Crush in Central Park (Photos)

Endangered animals (Image credit: Megan Maher/Copyright WCS)The mass slaughtering of elephants for their ivory tusks could wipe these magnificent animals off the face of the Earth in the span of a decade. Ivory crushes, in which a variety of intricately carved objects are destroyed, send a clear message that governments...

Aug 30, 2017

Ancient 'Monster' Elephant Was 50 Percent Bigger Than Modern Cousins

CALGARY, Alberta — Half a million years ago, the Arabian Peninsula wasn't a sandy desert but rather a lush, wet landscape. There, a gigantic elephant — 50 percent larger than today's biggest elephants — tromped around an ancient lake before dying, a new fossil skeleton reveals. The behemoth, known as...

Nov 17, 2017

US Lifts Ban on Import of African Elephant Hunting Trophies: What It Means

Editor's Note:On Friday evening (Nov. 17), President Trump tweeted that he was putting on hold the ban reversal on the import of African elephant trophies. Read more about the reversal of the reversal. Earlier this week, the Trump administration lifted a ban on importing hunting trophies from African elephants into...

Nov 19, 2017

Ban on US Import of Elephant Trophies Remains, For Now

Earlier this week, the Trump administration lifted a ban on importing hunting trophies from African elephants into the United States, claiming that this policy change would benefit elephants — but then on Friday evening (Nov. 17), President Trump tweeted that he was putting that decision on hold, pending a review...

Mar 23, 2018

What's Up with This 'Smoke-Breathing' Elephant?

An elephant in India seems to have a smoking habit. Conservation scientists spotted the pachyderm hoisting chunks of ashen wood into its mouth and then blowing out puffs of smoke. I believe the elephant may have been trying to ingest wood charcoal, Varun Goswami, Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) India program...

Sep 5, 2018

87 Elephants Slaughtered in One of the Largest Poaching Incidents in Africa

See more Eighty-seven elephants lay dead, most of them with their skulls chopped off near a wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta. Poachers tried to hide the carcasses beneath drying bushes, NPR reported Monday (Sept. 3). [Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts on Land] Mike Chase, the director and founder of...

Sep 19, 2018

Photos: Seized Elephant Ivory Reveals How Massive Cartels Operate

Picture of loss (Image credit: Center for Conservation Biology/University of Washington)Researchers are analyzing the DNA from seized elephant tusks to better understand how ivory cartels operate. Conservation biologist Samuel Wasser, a professor of biology at the University of Washington, and his team developed a process to locate tusk pairs. Here,...

Sep 19, 2018

Scientists Just Found the Guys Who Are Killing Africa’s Elephants

These geneticists have uncovered Africa's three largest ivory cartels — located in Mombasa, Kenya; Entebbe, Uganda; and Lomé, Togo — by analyzing the DNA within elephant tusks found in illegal trafficking shipments. The findings reveal that cartels frequently put the right and left tusks from the same elephant in different...

Dec 13, 2018

Watch an Elephant Named Kelly Scoop Cereal Into Her Mouth in Easily the Best Study of 2018

See more Elephants use their trunks to smell, touch and sometimes paint lovely little self-portraits. But how helpful is a trunk when it comes to eating tasty breakfast cereal? Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology wanted to find out. Their goal wasn't to see whether elephants preferred Cheerios to...