Zooniverse - Citizen Science for the Classroom

Zooniverse is a website that allows everyday people to participate in citizen science projects. One of these citizen science projects is Snapshot Serengeti. This project provides participants the opportunity to see camera trap photos from Serengeti National Park. When used in the classroom this project provides educators the opportunity to show endangered animals in their natural habitats while helping real scientists classify the animals in the pictures.

https://www.zooniverse.org/

Keeping Up to Date on Elephant News

National Geographic runs a great news blog that updates pretty regularly with news about elephant conservation.

A Voice for Elephants

Animal Behavior Lesson Plan

The Saint Louis Zoo, Washington University in St. Louis and National Center for Research Resources have created a series of lessons about animal behavior, ethograms and research for teachers working with students in grades to 5 to 8. Introducing students to these concepts at an early age promotes their curiosity into the field of animal science and raises their understanding in conservation issues.  

http://schoolpartnership.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/AnimalBehavior.pdf

Elephant Body Language

Elephant Voices has compiled a great resource for understanding the body language of elephants.

http://www.elephantvoices.org/elephantvoices-gestures-database.html

Elephant Behavior

Sea World has posted a really good summary of a variety of elephant behaviors. The link has been posted below.

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/elephants/behavior.htm

Battle for the Elephants

This is a powerful film that explores the slaughter of elephants for the sake of ivory. Its a little on the long side but hopefully everyone will get a chance to watch it. After all we can not hope to stop the extinction of these if we don't understand what drives it.    

"Battle for the Elephants explores the brutal slaughter of African elephants for their tusks, fueled largely by China’s demand for ivory. 

The film tells the ultimate wildlife story — how the Earth’s most charismatic and majestic land animal today faces market forces driving the value of its tusks to levels once reserved for precious metals. Journalists Bryan Christy and Aidan Hartley take viewers undercover as they investigate the criminal network behind ivory’s supply and demand. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, one of the world’s main ports for smuggled ivory, Hartley attempts to buy large quantities of tusks from poachers. In China, Christy explores the thriving industry of luxury goods made from ivory and the ancient cultural tradition of ivory carving." (PBS)

African Elephants & Asian Elephants

Photograph by Beverly Joubert/National Geographic

Elephants are the largest land animal on Earth. The African elephant is slightly larger than it's Asian cousin, measuring between 8.2 to 13 feet at the shoulder. In addition to their larger height African elephants can weigh more than their Asian cousins: anywhere between 2.5 and 7 tons (that's 5,000 to 14,000 lbs!) 

The African elephant is divided into two subspecies: the more widespread savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana african) and the forest elephant of West and Central Africa (Loxodonta africana cyclotis).They range throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the rain forests of central and West Africa. Both African and Asian elephants both use their larger ears to radiate heat out from their bodies, but when their ears aren't enough in the hot sun elephants use their trunks to shower themselves with water and spray a dust covering on their body. The trunk of an elephant contains about 100,000 different muscles and used for smelling, breathing, vocalization and grabbing. At the end of their trunks elephants have finger-like features; African elephants have two whereas Asian elephants have only one. Both male and female African elephants have tusks they use to dig for food and water, strip bark from trees and males will use their tusks to battle when competing for territory or mates.

Elephants are herbivores eating roots, grasses, fruit, and bark. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds of food in a single day! Elephants spend much of their time foraging over large distances of land to sustain themselves. Female elephants (cows) live in tight knit matriarchal herds with their young, the matriarch of the herd is the oldest member whereas adult males (bulls) tend live on their own or in small groups. 

The gestation of elephants is longer pregnancy than any other mammal—almost 22 months (nearly 2 whole years!). Cows usually give birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh some 200 pounds and stand about 3 feet tall.



Photograph by Martin Harvey/WWF-Canon

The Asian elephant is slightly smaller than its African cousin; measuring 6.8 to 10 feet tall and weigh between 2.25 and 5.5 tons. The Asian elephant is broken into three subspecies: Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m. sumatranus from the island of Sumatra.

Asian elephants can be identified by their smaller, rounded ears. (An African elephant's ears resemble the continent of Africa.) Asian elephants have a fingerlike feature on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items.

Asian elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years. The powerful beasts have been employed to move heavy objects, such as felled trees, to carry humans on their backs, and even to wage war.