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Elephants
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 (10-09-2020, 04:01 PM)Ashutosh Wrote: Suspected pygmy elephants or Kallani on steep hillocks in Western Ghats. Factoid: Kallana is a local variation of elephants allegedly found in hills of Karnataka & Kerala as per tribals dwelling in the rainforests of the Western Ghats.  *This image is copyright of its original author Although yet to be scientifically ascertained, they claim to see these smaller elephants more often in the higher altitudes where the terrain is rocky with subtropical highland vegetation. Apparently the don't grow beyong a height 5 feet & don't come down to avoid mich larger common elephants. Some reported photos are available, that shows very small & lean animals, with indeed adult-like physical proportions.  *This image is copyright of its original author
Big tuskers elephant are so majestic animals, their movements are so calm that we can have the impression they have kept something of the Earth memory from the ancient ages. Although this big tusker, Craig from the Amboseli Park in Kenya, has lived its whole life before peacefully dying when it was "only" 50 years old. Elephants are unique animals, living statues as if they aren't involved in the current daily conflicts between animals. The human specy seems to be dramatically stupid and hysterical close to these placid giants.
  
It turns out that the habitat niche of African Forest Elephant was more in savannas than forests.
Sourcing Elephant Ivory from a Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Shipwreck Summary: The oldest known shipwreck in southern Africa was found in Namibia in 2008. Forty tons of cargo, including gold and silver coins, helped identify the ship as the Bom Jesus, a Portuguese nau (trading vessel) lost in 1533 while headed to India. The cargo included >100 elephant tusks, which we examined using paleogenomic and stable isotope analyses. Nuclear DNA identified the ivory source as African forest (Loxodonta cyclotis) rather than savanna (Loxodonta africana) elephants. Mitochondrial sequences traced them to West and not Central Africa and from ≥17 herds with distinct haplotypes. Four of the haplotypes are known from modern populations; others were potentially lost to subsequent hunting of elephants for ivory. Stable isotope analyses (δ13C and δ15N) indicated that the elephants were not from deep rainforests but from savanna and mixed habitats. Such habitats surround the Guinean forest block of West Africa and accord with the locations of major historic Portuguese trading ports. West African forest elephants currently range into savanna habitats; our findings suggest that this was not consequent to regional decimation of savanna elephants for their ivory in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the time of the Bom Jesus, ivory was a central driver in the formation of maritime trading systems connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia. Our integration of paleogenomic, archeological, and historical methods to analyze the Bom Jesus ivory provides a framework for examining vast collections of archaeological ivories around the world, in shipwrecks and other contexts. 
Clash of the Titans
Credit to Louis Kok  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
There will be conflict – agricultural landscapes are prime, rather than marginal, habitats for Asian elephants
Abstract Misconceptions about species’ ecological preferences compromise conservation efforts. Whenever people and elephants share landscapes, human–elephant conflicts (HEC) occur in the form of crop raiding, elephant attacks on people and retaliatory actions from people on elephants. HEC is considered the main threat to the endangered Asian elephant Elephas maximus. Much of HEC mitigation in Asia is based on rescuing elephants from conflict areas and returning them to nature, for example, by means of ‘problem elephant’ translocation. Here, we used two independent and extensive datasets comprising elephant GPS telemetry and HEC incident reports to assess the relationship between elephant habitat preferences and the occurrence of HEC at a broad spatial scale in Peninsular Malaysia. Specifically, we assessed (a) the habitat suitability of agricultural landscapes where HEC incidents occur and (b) sexual differences in habitat preferences with implications for HEC mitigation and elephant conservation. We found strong differences in habitat use between females and males and that the locations of HEC incidents were areas of very high habitat suitability for elephants, especially for females. HEC reports suggest that in Peninsular Malaysia females are involved in more crop damage conflicts than males, whereas males are more prone to direct encounters with people. Our results show that human‐dominated landscapes are prime elephant habitat, and not merely marginal areas that elephants use in the absence of other options. The high ecological overlap between elephants and people means that conflict will continue to happen when both species share landscapes. HEC mitigation strategies, therefore, cannot be based on elephant removal (e.g. translocation) and need to be holistic approaches that integrate both ecological and human social dimensions to promote tolerated human–elephant coexistence.
How to film a majestic tusker with hidden cam on wheels...
" MANDATORY CREDIT - Will Burrard-Lucas These are the final images ever captured of a rare mammoth-like ‘Queen of elephants’ – whose tusks were so long they dragged on the ground. The photos of the majestic mammal, known as F_MU1, were captured by British photographer Will Burrard-Lucas in a national park in Tsavo, Kenya. Full-time snapper Will, 35, from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, took the shots shortly before the 8ft elephant – whose tusks were estimated to be up to 6ft 5ins in length – died peacefully of natural causes at more than 60 years old. Will said: "Tsavo is home to some of the last remaining ‘big tuskers’ – elephants with tusks weighing in excess of 100lbs on each side. "
He is the legendary Bogeshwara aka Mr.Kabini (most famous inhabitant of Kabini Tiger Reserve). His tusks are so big that they become an impediment to him when he fights other males!!! His tusks dig the ground as he walks:
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