African Elephants - Disney Animals

You can encounter a whole herd of African elephants on the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction or by experiencing Caring for Giants at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. Our elephant habitats are designed to enrich the animals’ lives and encourage them to display natural behaviors such as social interaction, foraging and play.

Spread out over 7 expansive acres (28,300 m2), the habitats include mud wallows, rocks to rub against, a variety of natural plants and trees for foraging and exploration and 3 pools—deep enough for several elephants to swim in at once!

African Elephants in the Wild
Elephants are native to Sub-Saharan Africa. They are able to live in a variety of habitats, from dense forests to wet marshes to open and closed savannas—even arid deserts. Elephants live in close-knit family groups of 2 to 40 related females and their calves. The herd is led by a matriarch, usually the oldest female, who has the experience—and memory—to lead them to watering holes and feeding grounds she may not have seen in decades!

Elephants are intelligent, social and complex animals—and meeting all of their care requirements is a jumbo task.

A Big Appetite
To feed our resident elephants, Disney’s Animal Kingdom park grows its own willow and banana plants, as well as a special elephant grass hungry pachyderms consume at a rate of 1,000 pounds (454 kg) a day.

Veterinary Care and Animal Training
Our animal care experts train these intelligent animals to participate in their own health care. Each elephant voluntarily starts its day with a bath. The elephants follow a sound cue to move from their exhibit spaces back to their night housing, allowing the animal care experts to maintain the exhibits while the elephants are safely secured.

Pachyderm Pedicures
The elephants’ feet are inspected daily for cracks or splits. When asked, the elephants lift their feet onto a stand, maintaining a safe barrier between the animals and care experts.

Treat Time
Floating melons or coconuts are placed in the pool and special veggie treats are hidden on the grounds of the elephant exhibit to encourage the elephants to work to retrieve them, keeping them busy, active and mentally stimulated.

The Walt Disney Company is passionately committed to the protection of elephants and their natural habitats.

Threats to African Elephants
African elephants face threats from habitat loss, conflicts with humans and poaching.

Ivory Market
Despite an international ban on ivory in 1989, elephants continue to be illegally hunted (poached) for their tusks, which are used to produce ivory artifacts and jewelry for the global black market. Poaching is an ongoing crisis with high demand for ivory causing declines in elephant populations across Africa.

Working Together
The Disney Conservation Fund (DCF) is helping save elephants by supporting nonprofit organizations that protect elephant habitats, train local conservationists and address poaching and human-elephant conflicts. Scientists and educators from Disney’s Animal Kingdom park collaborate with conservation organizations to creatively address the challenges facing elephants in the wild.

Living in Harmony with Elephants
In Kenya, scientists from Disney’s Animal Kingdom park collaborated with the Disney Conservation Fund to help the nonprofit organization Save the Elephants find a solution to human-elephant conflicts caused by elephants eating farmers’ crops. Their combined research confirmed that elephants are afraid of African honey bees, so Disney and Save the Elephants worked together to build beehive fences to protect local farms.

These low-cost, eco-friendly fences are effective in protecting both crops and elephants. As an added bonus, the beehives provide a new source of income for the communities.

Elephant Alarm Collars
Our collaboration with Save the Elephants also helped develop high-tech alarm collars that use GPS and motion-sensor technology to track elephants—first at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and now in Africa. This “wearable technology” supports anti-poaching efforts in Kenya, providing an early-warning system for ground forces defending the animals.