Asian Elephant

The Asian elephant is smaller than its African cousin. It has smaller ears and grows between 7 and 12 feet in height and weighs between 4,000 and 6,000 kgs! The other distinguishing features include the more arched back, four nails on the hind foot, a semi pre-hensile finger at the tip of the trunk and 19 pairs of ribs. Some species of the male and all the female Asian elephants do not have prominent tusks or tushes. These extensions are present, but barely visible. Another distinguishing feature is that the Asian elephant has two hemispherical bulges on the forehead.

The Asian elephant has been domesticated or tamed for centuries and is a regular participant in a number of ceremonies. The average height of the adult male Asian elephant is about nine feet, while that of the female is about eight feet. The largest Asian elephant on record is the skeletal remains of the twelve foot at the Museum at Calcutta. It is believed to have roamed the surrounding Rajamahal hills between 1856 and 1860! The herd of wild Asian elephants follow defined seasonal migration routes, between the wet and dry zones. The alpha male or the eldest elephant has to remember the traditional migration routes.

The Asian elephant is known to live for nearly 60 years, on an average, in the wild and up to 80 years in captivity. They communicate with one another via infrasound. The Asian elephant consumes anywhere between 150 and 200 kilograms of food per day! They are also known to scrape the soil in their search for essential minerals. The Asian elephant has a different social paradigm for the males and females. The female elephants live within a matriarchal society, where the oldest in the group is the leader. The females reach sexual maturity between 9 and 15 years of age and the gestation period can last upto 22 months. The calf weighs about 100 kg at birth and is suckled for nearly 3 years.

The Asian bull elephants become very aggressive during the mating season and are known to fight over females. The males reach sexual maturity by 15 years and thereafter, annually they enter what is called ‘musth’ – a period when the testosterone level is very high. The Asian elephant is basically timid and solitary by nature, but there is the odd rogue that has gone on record for attacking passers-by. Even females with calves are dangerous and very aggressive. During musth, the bulls are very dangerous, even to their own species. In Asia, the elephants are domesticated at special elephant training camps. They are taught to handle and transport logs and other heavy objects through the jungle terrain. The Asian elephant is also used within the tourism industry as mobile hunting platforms in the jungle areas.

The Asian elephant is studied under four sub-species; the Indian elephant, Sumatran elephant, Sri Lankan elephant and the Borneo elephant. The Indian sub species lives in the foothills of the Himalayas and to the north-west and southern India. It is also sighted in Thailand, China, Burma, Malaysia and Cambodia. Most males have tusks and these elephants have larger skulls and the skin on the forehead and upper trunk is discolored. The elephant sub species from Sumatra grows to a height of not more than 2.6 metres, at the shoulder and hence is also referred to as the ‘pocket elephant’. The sub species found in north Borneo has larger ears and a longer tail. They also have straighter tusks than other sub species. The Chinese elephant population or the pink-tusked elephant was traced as far back as the 14th century BC and then seemed to have disappeared. One of the largest sub species of the Asian elephant is the Syrian cousin that became extinct around 100 BC. The ancestors of the existing Indian elephants were the best war elephants and superior to their North African cousins used by the Carthage armies.