Saving The African Savanna

By: Wesley Fink, Lucy Mogan, Tanner Spence, and Lucy Ostrowski
The African Bush Elephant
Our Problem: Poaching Of Elephants
● 35,000 Killed Each Year From Poaching
● Are Poached For Ivory
● In 2018, More Elephants Were Poached Than Born
● Only 400,000 Remain
62%
The Drop In The Elephant Population In The Last 10
Years
Interdependent Relationships in
Ecosystems
What Major Factors Affect Carrying Capacity?

● Carrying Capacity: The amount of organisms an

environment can support
● Factors:
○ Resources
○ Predation
○ Competition
○ Disease
Resources:

● Some Key Resources of The Savanna Include:

○ Acacia Trees
○ Red Oat Grass
○ Star Grass
Predation:

● Major Predators In The Savanna Include:

○ Lions
○ Hyenas
○ Wild dogs
○ Cheetahs
Competition:

● Wildebeests, topis, grasshoppers, harvester ants, and termites

compete for Red Oat Grass
● Cheetahs, lions, caracals, ruppell’s vulture all compete for gazelles
● Pangolins and aardvarks compete for harvester ants
● Hyenas, lions, and cheetahs compete for wildebeests
Disease:

● Mostly Mosquito Borne Illnesses such as:

○ Malaria
○ Ross River Fever
○ Dengue Fever
○ Japanese Encephalitis
Cycles of Matter and Energy in
Ecosystems
Movement of Energy

● Energy comes from the sun

● Acacia trees create glucose and energy
Humans
● Elephants get 10% of that energy
African Bush ● Then humans kill the elephants
Elephants

Acacia Tree Bark

Photosynthesis

● A process that occurs in plants

that allows them to produce
glucose
● This happens in the chloroplast
of a plant cell
● The tree produces glucose that
the elephant uses for energy
Cellular Respiration

● 3 stages: Glycolysis, Krebs cycle,

and Electric transport chain
● This allows the elephants to use
the energy obtained from their
food
Carbon Cycle

● The elephants exhale CO2

and the trees in their
ecosystem take it in
● The plants in the ecosystem
emit oxygen and the
elephants use that in cellular
respiration
Biosphere

● The African Bush Elephant is

a part of the savanna
ecosystem
● The savanna is one of the
eight ecosystems a part of
the biosphere
Atmosphere

● The african savanna has

changed due to the amount of
CO2 in the atmosphere.
● Recently the savannas have
become denser with trees to
balance out the carbon cycle.
Hydrosphere

● Water is constantly recycled so

the water that is polluted by us
gets back to the savanna.
● This affects the organisms that
live in this ecosystem
Ecosystem Dynamics functioning
and Resilience
Need for growth

●
Need for growth

●
Solutions To The Problem
Ways to help the elephants:

●
Organizations
Spread Awareness

●
Work Cited
“Advancing Wildlife Conservation Across Africa.” Tusk, www.tusk.org/.

“Africa Is Home to the World's Most Iconic Wildlife.” Africa's Poaching Crisis – AWF,
campaign.awf.org/poaching-infographic/.

“African Bush Elephant.” The Nature Conservancy,

www.nature.org/en-us/explore/animals-we-protect/african-bush-elephant/.

“African Elephant.” National Geographic, 21 Sept. 2018,

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/african-elephant/.

“Biomes.” Ducksters Educational Site,

www.ducksters.com/science/ecosystems/savanna_biome.php.

Denis. “Why Care?” World Elephant Day, worldelephantday.org/about/elephants.

Endangered Species Conservation.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/.

“Homepage.” International Elephant Foundation, elephantconservation.org/.

“Hope for Elephants as Ivory Prices Fall: Conservation Group.” Phys.org,

m.phys.org/news/2017-03-elephants-ivory-prices-fall-group.html.

“Nurturing Conservation Leaders in Northern Kenya.” Save the Elephants,

www.savetheelephants.org/.

World Land Trust. “Rainforest and Wildlife Conservation in Action with World Land Trust.” World
Land Trust, Organization, 6 Feb. 2017, www.worldlandtrust.org/.

“Africa's Iconic Giants Are Losing Ground.” African Wildlife Foundation, 13 Dec. 2018,
www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/elephant.