Asian Elephant/ Indian Elephant/ Elephas maximus:

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Credit to: Catherine N. Ball (http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/elephant.html

The Asian Elephant also called Elephas maximus is slightly smaller than the African species. Till now, no other animal has had such a close relationship with people as the Asian elephant, and still remained wild. Although never domesticated in the same way as the horse, it has been tamed and used as a beast of burden for thousands of years.

Credit to: Smithsonian Institution(http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/elephant.html)

Carved seals from the Indus Valley civilization, 5,000 years ago, show elephants with a cloth flung over their back, indicating that they were trained. Wild elephants were also found over large areas of ancient China. Some were kept in zoos or used for riding and transport. Emperors and rulers throughout tropical Asia kept thousands of elephants, which they used for ceremonies, hunting, and war.

For Asian peoples, however, the elephant has had much greater significance than merely as a beast of burden or war. It has been an inseparable part of their life, culture and religon Although both species are capable of domestication, it is only the Indian elephant which is commonly trained, often for forestry work.

Height:The average height of the Asian elephant is estimated to be about 3m (300 cm).

Weight: The male elephants also known as bulls weigh approximately 5,400kg. The females or cows weight roughly 2,720kg.

Distribution: The Asian elephant are found in forest habitats with access to permanent sources of water and grass. The Asian elephant spread across Asia in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

Appearance: Compared to the African elephant, the Asian elephant is relatively smaller in size with smaller ears.

Only male Asian Elephants carry tusks and females often have small tushes which seldom show.

A recent study has showed that a significant number of adult males do not have tusks, and the percentage of males carrying ivory varies by region. For example, only about 7% of the male elephants in Sri Lanka carry ivory compared to the 90% in south India. (possibly reflecting the intensity of past ivory hunting)

Credit to: Marc Bretzfelder; National Zoo (http://www.si.edu/natzoo)

Behavior: The Asian elephant like the African elephant is a social animal with strong family ties. So close are relationships that the herd will not leave a dead companion. The elphants may stay by the carcase many hours after the death.

Like any other elephant, the Asian elephant live in a matriachal society, meaning that the females are dominant to the males. More than two thirds of the day can be spent feeding on grasses, but large amounts of bark, roots, leaves and small stems are also eaten

Elephants live in herds based on breeding groups of between 3 and 40 females and young. Herds form part of larger related groupings called clans. Mature males live alone or in small groups and have no permanent ties with the females.

Credit to: Marc Bretzfelder; National Zoo (http://www.si.edu/natzoo)

Diet: The Asian elephant feeds on a wide variety of grasses and other vegetable matter including cultivated crops such as bananas and sugar cane.

Lifespan: Asian Elephants live for about 70 years.

Reproduction: There is no specific mating season for Asian elephants and gestation usually lasts 22 months. At birth, elephants can be one meter tall and weigh ninety kilograms.

Predators:

Why is it Endangered: The loss of habitat and poaching have been the main culprit for the decreasing populations of Asian elephants in this century. Although ivory poaching does not threaten the Asian Elephant as much as it does the African Elephant. Males which are killed for their ivory are unable to contribute to the gene pool and reproduction.

Because elephants require much larger areas of natural range than many other terrestrial mammals they are often the first species to suffer the consequences of habitat fragmentation and destruction.

Elephants are also considered a pest in areas of agriculture, especially populations surrounded by cultivated land. Crop raiding by the Asian elephants is frequent and there are often human deaths.

Conservation: There are between 38,000 and 51,000 wild Asian elephants (compared with more than 600,000 African elephants) More than 100,000 Asian Elephants may have existed at the start of the present century15, but an estimated 38,000 to 49,000 now remain in the wild.

Elephants are the largest land animals currently on Earth. An elephant's trunk contains over 40,000 muscles and tendons!