Savannah × Forest Elephant

African elephants are distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa, where they inhabit Sahelian scrubland and arid regions, tropical rainforests, mopane and miombo woodlands. African forest elephant populations occur only in Central and West Africa.

African elephants are not strictly territorial but they display various types of patterns of space use which are influenced by social structure, seasonal and climate variation, and resource availability. Herds usually live in home ranges that vary from several hundred to several thousand square kilometers depending on the resource availability and habitat conditions; herds follow migratory routes and movement patters which connects protected areas and other suitable habitats that play an important role on maintaining population connectivity and access to critical resources such as vegetation and water. Additional factors such as social dominance and environmental factors like rainfall and vegetation productivity also influences spatial segregation among groups within the same region.

Aggression, fighting, and dominance. African elephants displays complex patterns of aggression accompanied with dominance, especially within adult males. Musth is a term which refers to physiological state where male African elephants exhibit massive surges of testosterone, heightened sexual activity, and increased aggression and is observed during male - male competition. During the period where male African elephant undergo musth, they display characteristic behavior which includes temporal gland secretion, urine dribbling, and certain postures which explains their condition to other individuals. …

The name Loxodonta comes from the Ancient Greek words λοξός (loxós, "slanting", "crosswise") and ὀδούς (odoús, "tooth"), referring to the lozenge-shaped enamel of the molar teeth, which differs significantly from the rounded shape of the Asian elephant's molar enamel.