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Elephant DNA Studied
randomErr writes "Africa may harbor three species of elephant instead of just two, suggests a study based on DNA extracted from dung. If that is confirmed, it means that roughly 12,000 elephants living in western Africa are a distinct and endangered species, due to their small scattered populations as reported here at Newsday."
Large land mammals are basically a relic. Natural selection has weeded most species out.
That would depend on whether you think human intervention is "natural".
Even without the encroachment of man into their world, I think the elephant is a species that will probably eventually die out.
Why? What else would kill them? What else would drive them from their ranges? They seem to have been a rather successful species (or group of species) until humans started to exceed their carrying capacity.
With the africa continent slowly turning into desert, I am not sure what can be done to preserve the natural wild african elephant.
There is some evidence that desertification in Africa is, at least in part, caused by human activity such as overgrazing and attempting to grow row crops on unsuitable land. But even if it's entirely due to non-human factors, it's unlikely to be deadly to all large land mammals. Habitats may grow or shrink, but barring things like asteroids slamming into the planet it's not likely that they'll vanish completely, particularly on a large land mass like Africa. Small island environments are another matter.
"Large land mammals are basically a relic"
Don't tell the Americans!