African elephant vs Chocolate Tube Slime

Loxodonta africana compared with Stemonitis splendens

Key Differences

African elephant is Vulnerable while Chocolate Tube Slime is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	African elephant	Chocolate Tube Slime
Kingdom	Animalia (hewan)	Protozoa (protozoa)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Mycetozoa
Class	Mammalia (mamalia)	Myxomycetes (Myxomycetes)
Order	Proboscidea (Elephants)	Stemonitidales
Family	Elephantidae (Elephants)	Stemonitidaceae
Genus	Loxodonta (African Elephants)	Stemonitis
Species	Loxodonta africana	Stemonitis splendens

Conservation Status

African elephant

VU — Vulnerable

Population: ~415.0K

Trend: Decreasing ↓

Chocolate Tube Slime

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	African elephant	Chocolate Tube Slime
Diet	Herbivore	—
Average Lifespan	65 years	—
Average Length	6.0 m	—
Average Weight	6.0 t	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

African elephant

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, and flooded grasslands and savannas, among 5 distinct biome types within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Found in Kenya. Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Chocolate Tube Slime

Habitat

Native to Asia and Europe and North America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (5 countries), North America (United States), and South America (Brazil).

African elephant

The largest land animal on Earth, African elephants can reach 7,000 kg and inhabit sub-Saharan savannas, forests, and wetlands. Highly intelligent with complex social structures led by matriarchs, they communicate through infrasound, rumbles, and touch. As ecosystem engineers, they shape habitats by uprooting trees, digging waterholes, and dispersing seeds. Vulnerable, with populations declining due to ivory poaching and habitat loss.

Chocolate Tube Slime

The Chocolate Tube Slime Mold (Stemonitis splendens) is a species of myxomycete (plasmodial slime mold) in the family Stemonitidaceae, found worldwide in temperate and tropical regions wherever there is decaying wood, leaf litter, and moist conditions. Stemonitis species are characterised by their elegant, upright, tube-shaped sporangia arranged in dense clusters — the sporangia of S. splendens are typically 10–20 millimetres tall, chocolate-brown to rust-brown in colour, and supported on individual stalks (stipes) arising from a common base. The spore mass within each tube is supported by a fine internal network of threads called the capillitium. Despite resembling plants or fungi, slime molds are protists — during their vegetative phase they exist as a large, multinucleate, mobile plasmodium that engulfs bacteria and fungal spores as it moves through decaying organic material. The plasmodium aggregates and differentiates into fruiting bodies when conditions become unfavourable, releasing millions of wind-dispersed spores. Chocolate Tube Slime Mold is not evaluated by the IUCN; as a cosmopolitan protist, it does not meet criteria for conservation listings. It is a common and iconic subject for amateur naturalists and is frequently photographed on decomposing logs in temperate woodland. Its ecological role in decomposing wood and recycling nutrients is significant.