What it is
The African savanna elephant is one of two living African elephant species, separated from the forest elephant on the IUCN Red List in 2021 and listed Endangered. It shapes woodland and grassland by browsing and by opening water.
Range
Eastern and southern Africa hold the largest remaining populations. It is gone or reduced to fragments in much of West Africa and in many former savannas.
What happened
People have hunted elephants for ivory for centuries; industrial poaching in the late twentieth century, plus farms and fences, cut the range. The 2021 IUCN assessment estimated a decline of more than 60 percent over three generations. Southern African parks still hold large herds. That is survival, not the Holocene distribution.
When / status
Still here, and Endangered. Numbers and range are a fraction of the Holocene picture.
Human role
Ivory markets and expanding settlement are the main recent pressures; both continue.
Sources
IUCN Red List (Loxodonta africana, Endangered, 2021); IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group.