The Germans started to run out of pack animals later in the first go around. Thus, they had to come up with other means to transport heavy equipment. This could come in the form of motorized transport or innovative use of labor. The problem with motorized transport is that it requires fuel, and only the Entente had fuel in quantities to keep a logistics machine such as this going. So the Germans started using horses from estates, zoos, circuses etc. that had been either rejected or not given freely to the Heer up to that point. This elephant is, if I am correct , from the Berlin Zoo which would have had several of them. I am not aware of what happened to the elephant in the end, however I would hazard a guess that it ended up dying because of the amount of labour it was subjected to, the lack of and poor quality of food that it was given, and general neglect as a pack animal.