الفيلة الصحراوية لا تتواجد بالجزائر اعتقد وجودها فقط في ناميبيا و هي مهددة بالانقراض
Mali[edit]
Rock art dating back to
Neolithic times throughout the
Sahara show that elephants were at that time widespread across much of North Africa. Nowadays they are restricted to the
Gourma area, a remote region in Mali south of a loop made by the
River Niger near
Timbuktu. These elephants are the remnants of a number of groups which used to inhabit large areas of the
Sahel as recently as 1970, before mostly being eliminated by
poachers. The Malian population, which is believed to number about 400, makes a three hundred mile
migratory journey each year, moving up to 35 miles a day. The elephants follow an anticlockwise route that takes them past temporary and permanent water holes. They remain in the northern parts of their range until the rains arrive in June. They then head southwards, moving briefly into northern
Burkina Faso before moving northwards again. They are elusive and tend to seclude themselves among
Acacia trees during the day, emerging to drink and feed at night.
[4]
The
WILD Foundation and
Save the Elephants are conservation charities that have been working with the Malian Government to conserve these elephants. Some animals were fitted with
GPS collars to track their movements and identify corridors through which they need to traverse to complete their journey, so that their routes could be avoided when new human settlements were established.
[4] The
nomadic Touareg people who live in this region with their herds have been tolerant of the elephants. They are philosophical, stating that the elephants eat the topmost foliage of a tree, the camels browse the sides and the goats browse near the base. They know when the elephants will pass through their villages, visiting the ponds they also use for watering their herds. Nowadays, these people are living more settled lives and building huts, tending gardens, planting orchards and growing fodder grass at the water's edge of ponds. This means there is more competition between the elephants and the humans. A local initiative was set up in 1997, "Les Amis des Elephants", which aims to inform villagers of when the elephants are expected to arrive in their area. It also encourages them to act as guides and generate income from eco-tourism.
[5]
During a prolonged drought in 1983, the Malian Government trucked in water for the elephants.
[4] The rains failed again in 2008 and the following year the adult elephants were digging down to access water deep below the surface but the youngsters could not reach the water with their
trunks and were dying. The charities did what they could but the weakened state of the animals made it difficult to help them.
الفيلة تعيش في مالي أيضاً و هي جارة الجزائر