Asian Elephant

Grass, leaves, branches, fruit, seeds, grains and nuts, flowers, roots, bark.

Asian Elephants used to inhabit West Asia along the Iranian coast into the Indian subcontinent, eastwards into Southeast Asia including Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, and into China at least as far as the Yangtze-Kiang. Asian Elephants are now extinct in West Asia, Java, and most of China. They are restricted to isolated fragments in parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Laos People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia and Indonesia, but are now thought to be extinct in Pakistan.
Former range: over 9 million km². Current approximate range: 486,800 km²

Inhabits a wide range of grasslands and forest types, including scrub forest, rainforest and semi-cultivated forests, preferring areas that combine grass with low woody plants and trees.

The only predators of Elephas maximus are Bengal tigers, which attack calves.

The Asian elephant is significantly smaller than the African elephant. Asians have rounded backs and relatively smooth skin. Only males grow long incisor teeth called tusks. The ears of the Asian elephant are much smaller than the African elephant’s ears and resemble the subcontinent of India in shape. Asian elephants have one small finger-like projection at the end of the trunk. The elephant’s trunk is made up of six major muscle groups, composed of over 100,000 individual muscle units making it very flexible and strong. The elephant’s foot is formed in such a way that it is essentially walking on tiptoe, with a tough and fatty part of connective tissue for the sole. This spongy "shock absorber" helps an elephant to move silently.

Males reach sexual maturity at 10–15 years; females usually first give birth in years 15 or 16; gestation is 22 months; 1 baby, twins are rare.

Elephants have a well-developed system of communication that makes use of all of their senses - hearing, smell, vision and touch - including an exceptional ability to detect vibrations. Elephants can communicate using very low-frequency sounds, with pitches below the range of human hearing. These low-frequency sounds, termed "infrasound," can travel several miles and provide elephants with a "private" communication channel that plays an important role in their complex social life.

Elephants are social and live in groups of related females led by a matriarch. They have been observed touching each other with their trunks and mourning the deaths of other elephants. Elephants use their trunks to spray themselves with water and dirt to keep cool, clean, and rid themselves of insects. Another way elephants cool down is by flapping their large ears. Tusks are used to dig for water, remove bark from trees, move fallen trees, mark trees, and fight. Elephants show a preference for one tusk just as humans are right or left-handed. The senses of touch and hearing are acute, but eyesight is somewhat poor. Young elephants follow their mothers or older sisters by holding onto their tails. When in danger, elephants run with their tails held up; this may signal danger to the other members of the herd.