For my second event, I took a course on elephants through the San Diego Zoo on May 28, 2020. This course was led by Donna Parham. Donna Parham is an Interpretation Specialist at San Diego Zoo Global. She has been in this career for 30 years and over those years, she has had experience in exhibits, research, and being a tour guide. This course was supposed to last one hour but somehow I spent three hours on it. Through this course, I learned so much about elephants! Elephants are amazing animals and I honestly do not know how I didn't decide to learn about them earlier on in my life. I knew that elephants were considered threatened however I did not know that they were classified as endangered in certain regions. In many places in Asian and Africa elephants are protected by laws however people continue to kill them. In Africa, specifically in Central Africa poaching for ivory (the tusks of elephants and other animals such as hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, and mammoth) is one of the main reasons as to why more and more elephants are being killed every year. Typically, one would think of poaching as something from the past but in recent years it has become more common. Ivory trading has been banned since the late 1980s however, due to the persistent demand for ivory carving, jewelry, and art people continue to poach elephants through illegal markets around the world, including here in the U.S. Not only are poachers targeting elephants for their ivory but also for their variety of other products such as bushmeat (African wild animals used as food), hides, and their feet. According to: San Diego Zoo Global, “In some cultures subsistence hunting is a traditional source of protein, but a growing market for bushmeat and widespread poverty have combined to create a commercial bushmeat industry that threatens many species.” Just in Africa, in 1980 there were an estimated 1,200,000 elephants versus in 2012 where it was estimated to be just 420,000 elephants. Recently, in class we learned about the human body and human reproduction and it is crazy to see all the differences. For instance, it blows my mind that elephants are pregnant for about 21 months. Compared to humans that is a very long time, almost 3 times as long. Another cool fact that I learned about elephants was that only female elephants travel in groups. These groups are called herds and they consist of related females and their offsprings. Typically an African Bush herd has 4 to 14 individuals and a Forest herd has 2 to 4. The leader of the herds, The Matriarch is the oldest, most experienced, and is related to all the younger elephants. If an elephant is found alone he is typically a male. Male elephants leave their herds when they become teenages and sometimes form a Bachlor group. It was very interesting to learn about the different types of elephants that there are and their differences. In Asia, there is one type of elephant, the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). They can be found in isolated pockets of India and Southeast Asia. In Africa, there are two types of elephants. There is the Bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) which can be found in east, central, and southern Africa. The second type of elephant is the Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) which can be found in the Congo Basin and Western Africa. African elephants are primarily found in these regions however, they could survive anywhere with enough water and food for them. Typically African elephants are bigger and Asian elephants are hairier. Another way to differentiate them is through their ears, African elephants' ears are much larger than Asain elephants and they are shaped like the continent of Africa. For Asian elephants, their ears are shaped like the country India. Also, for African elephants both females and males can grow long tusks versus Asian elephants where only males have long tusks and females can sometimes have very small ones that almost look like teeth. I think it is important for people to learn about elephants because they are very important to their ecosystems and also simply because they are interesting animals. People need to be cautious and informed about these animals because they are endangered and we need to be careful of what we buy and what it’s made of to preserve this species. Elephants are keystone species meaning that they play a crucial role in conserving their biodiversity. In Africa, they eat small trees in the African Savannah which allows grasses to grow. And the growth of the grass is important because it supports herbivore species which supports carnivores.