Story of the month: Slow birth rate found in African forest elephants

Elephant: a heavy plant-eating mammal with a prehensile trunk, long curved ivory tusks, and large ears, native to Africa and southern Asia. It is the largest living land animal. It's also breeding at a later age than thought. Researchers say that it could take decades for this species to recover. Elephants are pregnant for up to 22 months. Why does it take so long? Due to their large size, their full weight at birth is around 100 to 150 k. Elephants (both African and Asian) were added to the international list of endangered species. There were about 600,000 remaining, less than one percent of their original number. African forest elephants inhabit the dense tropical jungles of central Africa. They are smaller than savannah elephants and rarer, but they have faced intense poaching.