One of the first animals I became obsessed with as a child was the African elephant. The display in the Museum of Natural History in New York City would mesmerize me. The African Elephant is the largest land animal and weighing in at 11 pounds, has the largest brain of any land or sea mammal. Their intelligence is demonstrated by behaviors associated with grief, altruism, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory, sense of humor, mimicry, art and tool use. Females are known to cooperate by taking turns babysitting other moms' infants. Furthermore, language is also a possibility, but not enough is known especially since some of the elephant vocalizations are not audible to humans.
Herds consisting of females and their calves are lead by a matriarch. Males after puberty leave the herd and roam with gangs of other young males. Adult males tend to roam alone.
Even though the trade of ivory was internationally banned in 1990, poaching continues. It was estimated that 23,000 African elephants were killed in 2013 by poachers and over 1,000 park rangers were killed while protecting the elephants.
Check out this experiment with an Asian elephant to test for "Theory of Mind", otherwise known as self-awareness: http://youtu.be/g5LfYHJWUtE
Conservation Status: Vulnerable
Habitat: Eastern, Southern, Central and West Africa in the dense forests, woodlands, scrub or deserts.
Threats: Poaching, habitat loss, and conflicts with humans.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_elephant
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/african-elephant
http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/elephant
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12392/0
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