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There were two kinds of African Elephants; one from North Africa were domesticated and became extinct due to overexploitation. North African elephants were very
by z3phyr 6y ago
There were two kinds of African Elephants; one from North Africa were domesticated and became extinct due to overexploitation. North African elephants were very small and lightly built compared to Asian varieties.
The White African Elephants of the Savanah, to which we all are familiar were never domesticated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_elephant
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> were domesticated and became extinct due to overexploitation That would be a highly unusual trajectory. Were they really domesticated? Indian elephants were never domesticated either, because it's more cost-effective to capture them from the wild than to invest the decades it takes to rear a calf in captivity. And this sort of arrangement is vastly more conducive to extinction through overexploitation than domesticating the animal would be.
- DavidAdams 6y agoMy guess is that these elephants weren't actually domesticated, but rather tamed. That is, as with Asian elephants, they were captured in the wild rather than raised in captivity.
- marci 6y agoThere were three african species, now there are two: - the (bigger) african bush elephant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_bush_elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_bush_elephant) - the (smaller) african forest elephant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_forest_elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_forest_elephant)
- InfiniteRand 6y agoWas over-exploitation really the key factor in North African elephants going extinct? I always thought it was due to increasing desertification + the expansion of human settlement in North Africa, but that's just idle speculation