Asian elephant

The Asian elephant is the largest land animal in Asia. It lives in forests and grasslands from India and Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Myanmar and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. A grown male weighs about 4 tonnes on average and stands about 2.75 metres tall at the shoulder, while females are a little smaller.

Compared with African elephants, Asian elephants have smaller, rounder ears, a back that is level or rounded, and the highest point of the body on the head, which often has two bumps on top. People and Asian elephants have shared a long history: carvings more than 4,000 years old already show tamed elephants, and the animals have been honoured in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Today, though, the species is endangered.

What it eats

Asian elephants are herbivores, which means they eat only plants. They munch on grasses, leaves, roots, bark and fruit, and scientists have recorded them feeding on more than 100 kinds of plants. An adult can eat up to about 150 kilograms of food a day and spends most of its waking hours eating. Elephants always stay near fresh water, because they need to drink a lot. They are most active at dawn and dusk. Sometimes they wander into farms to eat bananas, rice or sugarcane, which can cause trouble with farmers.

Family life

Mothers, their sisters and their calves travel together in small family groups. Young males leave the family when they are teenagers and then live alone or in loose groups of other males. Unlike African elephants, Asian elephant groups are fairly relaxed: they split up and join together again over time. A mother is pregnant for 18 to 22 months, the longest of any land animal, and usually has one calf. The baby weighs about 100 kilograms at birth and may drink its mother's milk for up to three years. In the wild they can live to about 60.

Is it endangered?

Yes. The Asian elephant has been listed as Endangered by the IUCN, the world's main group that tracks wildlife at risk, since 1986. About 50,000 are thought to live in the wild, and roughly three-quarters of them are in India. Elephants now live in only a small part of the land they once roamed. Forests are being cut down for farms, roads and towns, which breaks their homes into small pieces and leads to conflict with people. Poaching for ivory and the capture of young elephants are threats too.

On the globe

The model shows an Asian elephant near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Look for its smaller ears and the twin bumps on its forehead that set it apart from its African cousin.