If each breeding pair of elephants produces 6 offspring during a 90-year life span, in 750 years, a single pair of elephants will have given rise to a population of 19 million elephants. yet elephants have not overrun the planet. why? elephants have a niche that expands with the population elephants produce more offspring than will survive to maturity most elephants are kept in captivity (circus & zoo) and not allowed to reproduce individual elephants in a population exhibit no variation, reducing their reproductive success elephants have become geographically separated into separate species that cannot interbreed