Surviving Elephants

Elephants are unique animals because they have the ability to learn and change their behavior, meaning they do not necessarily have to genetically change to adapt to a new environment like many other species. Scientists have recently studied both desert-dwelling and non-dessert dwelling elephants and have found that the DNA of the two was not significantly different. A historical record suggests that the Namibian elephants were able to survive drastic changes in climate and hunting pressure due to their high learning capacity and long distance migrations. These elephants hardly have any genetic differences and scientists believe it is due to their long distance migrations, large home ranges, increases in population, or the gene flow provided by the male breeding elephants breeding with different females. The scientists are advocating for the conservation of these elephants because their fight for survival is key for the future generations of elephants in the arid habitat.