Asian elephants
Easily distinguished by their grey skin, long trunk, and large ears, Asian elephants are the largest land mammals on the Asian continent and are known for their intelligence and emotional complexity. Female Asian elephants are extremely sociable and live in groups of six to seven related females led by the oldest female. Male elephants, on the other hand, tend to be solitary creatures and typically roam alone.
Importantly, Asian elephants play a crucial role in the ecosystems in which they live by dispersing seeds, creating clearings and trails, and promoting vegetation growth. Their grazing behaviour also helps to control the growth of certain plant species and can help to prevent wildfires. As such, their survival is essential for maintaining the biodiversity and ecological health of these regions.
Elephants are also important cultural and spiritual symbols in many Asian cultures, and their survival is essential for the preservation of these traditions. Protecting and conserving Asian elephants is consequently not only important for the elephants themselves but also for the preservation of the ecosystems, cultures, and traditions that depend on them.
The largest living land animal in Asia, Asian elephants are a fascinating species known for their intelligence and gentle nature. Below are some of the most interesting facts about Asian elephants, including where they live and what they eat.
What is the Asian elephant’s scientific name?
The scientific name for the Asian elephant is Elephas maximus, which translates from Latin as “greatest elephant”.
What is the Asian elephant’s conservation status?
The conservation status of Asian elephants is endangered, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Populations have declined by at least 50% in the last three generations to just 15% of its historic range.
Sadly, while an estimated 100,000 Asian elephants existed at the beginning of the 20th century, there are fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants left today.
What is Asian elephant habitat?
Asian elephants are considered forest animals and live in a range of habitats, including evergreen, deciduous, and dry forest, as well as grasslands, bamboo forests, and swamps. They typically prefer low-lying areas with intermittent open grassy glades where they can move around easily, escape from the sun, and feed on a variety of plants.
During the dry season, Asian elephants migrate to areas with permanent water sources, such as rivers, streams, or natural springs, to find enough vegetation and water to meet their enormous daily requirements. They also favour areas with mud wallows and mineral deposits, which they need for their physical wellbeing.
Although they are not territorial, Asian elephants do have home ranges, the sizes of which vary depending on both the amount of food available and the presence of other elephants in the area.
Where do Asian elephants live?
Asian elephants are found primarily in the tropical and subtropical forests of Asia, including India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.
Though they once roamed freely across Asia, they’re populations are now fragmented and isolated. More than half of all wild Asian elephants are found in India, while numbers have dwindled across Vietnam, Cambodia, and China.
What do Asian elephants eat?
Asian elephants are herbivores and require large quantities of food to maintain their massive bodies, which can weigh up to several tons. Adult elephants can consume up to 130 kilograms (300 pounds) of food in a single day.
Their diet is primarily made up of grasses and other fibrous plant materials, which they digest using a complex system that includes a multi-chambered stomach and specialised microbes. Asian elephants also require access to water sources, as they need to drink large amounts every day to stay hydrated.
In some areas, Asian elephants also feed on crops, including sugarcane, bananas, and other fruits and vegetables. This can result in clashes with farmers, which is a major cause of human-elephant conflict in many regions.
Threats
Asian elephants live in some of the most densely populated parts of the world, which has brought challenges to their survival. They are faced with numerous threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and human-elephant conflicts. These have caused Asian elephant populations to decline by at least 50% in the last three generations, leaving them at risk of extinction.
Habitat loss and fragmentation
As human populations continue to grow and expand into natural areas, elephants are losing their habitats at an alarming rate. As a result, their populations are becoming increasingly isolated and fragmented, causing a loss of connectivity between different elephant populations.
Elephants need large areas of habitat to roam and feed, and when their habitats are fragmented, they are forced to live in smaller and more isolated groups. This can make it more difficult for them to find food, water, and mates, leading to a decline in overall population health.
Decrease in genetic viability
Another consequence of habitat fragmentation and isolated Asian elephant populations is inbreeding, as elephants are unable to find mates from other groups. This causes a decline in genetic diversity, resulting in genetic disorders, reduced fertility, and other health problems.
Lack of genetic diversity can also reduce the adaptive potential of a population, making it more vulnerable to environmental changes and disease outbreaks. This is particularly concerning in the face of climate change, which is likely to have significant impacts on natural habitats.
Human-elephant conflict
As humans expand their settlements, elephants are pushed into smaller and more isolated areas, meaning they are more likely to come into contact with human settlements and agricultural areas. This can lead to crop raiding (elephants really like sugarcane), property damage, and even human deaths, which can increase tensions between humans and elephants, and lead to retaliatory killings.
Illegal killing and poaching
Though they are less of a target than their African cousins, hunting and poaching remain a threat to Asian elephants. Poachers target elephants for their ivory tusks, which are highly valued on the black market, and for their skin and other body parts. Hunting for sport and meat also remains a problem in some areas.
As a result of poaching and hunting, elephant populations are declining, and the remaining elephants are often more skittish and aggressive towards humans.
To minimise these threats, conservation organisations are working to connect isolated populations through the creation of wildlife corridors and the establishment of protected areas. They are also increasing anti-poaching efforts, strengthening law enforcement, and educating local communities about the importance of protecting these animals. These efforts can help to ensure the long-term survival of Asian elephants and the ecosystems that depend on them.
FAQs
Why are Asian elephants endangered?
Asian elephants are endangered due to habitat loss caused by human activities such as agriculture, infrastructure development, and urbanisation, as well as poaching and hunting.
How long do Asian elephants live?
Asian elephants have a lifespan of around 60 to 70 years in the wild.
In captivity, their predicted lifespan can increase by another 10 to 20 years. Vatsala, an Asian elephant living in the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, is credited to be the oldest Asian elephant at between 95 to 105 years old. The previous record was held by Chengallor Dakhshayani who died in 2019 at the age of 89.
Do Asian elephants have tusks?
Some male Asian elephants have large, prominent tusks. However, most female and some male Asian elephants have small tusks, called tushes, which protrude less than 2.5 to 5 centimetres (an inch or two) from the lip line.
How much does an Asian elephant weigh?
On average, female adult Asian elephants weigh between 2,500 and 4,000 kilograms (5,500 and 8,800 pounds), while male elephants can weigh up to 6,000 kilograms (13,200 pounds).
They can be as long as 6.5 metres (21 feet) and as tall as 3.5 metres (11.5 feet).
What is the difference between African and Asian elephants?
There are five key features that distinguish Asian elephants from their African relatives:
- They are smaller: While the biggest Asian males reach no more than 3.5 metres (11.5 feet), African elephants can grow up to 4 metres (13 feet) tall.
- They have distinctly different head shapes: Asian elephants have a twin-domed head, while African elephants have fuller, more rounded heads.
- They have smaller ears: Asian elephants’ ears are a semi-circle shape and are smaller than the large, wing-shaped ears of African elephants.
- They have smaller tusks: Only some male Asian elephants have tusks, while both female and male African elephants have tusked. Asian elephants also have much smaller tusks than their African cousins.
- Their trunks are different: Asian elephants only have one finger-like extensions at the tip of their trunks, while African elephants have two.
Our work
IFAW launched the Asian Elephant Protection (AEP) project in 2000, covering Xishuangbanna, Pu’er, and Lincang, the three last remaining Asian elephant habitats in Yunnan province. For more than 20 years, the project has been promoting human-elephant coexistence by implementing following strategies:
Human-elephant conflict mitigation
For the past two decades, IFAW has provided human-elephant conflict (HEC) prevention trainings to at least 500 township government officials and more than 100,000 local citizens from more than 50 communities in areas affected by elephant activities.
In collaboration with the government in Xishuangbanna, IFAW launched the first HEC prevention ranger network in 2020. IFAW designs a curriculum and trains rangers on how to carry out HEC prevention trainings. Rangers then hold trainings at villages in need throughout the year, providing more in-depth and timely support. Since launch, IFAW has supported 16 rangers to provide over 310 trainings to more than 80% of the villages that have elephant movement in Jinghong.
IFAW has also provided trainings to more than 500 staff and tour guides from scenic spots on how to promote Asian elephant conservation to people visiting Yunnan. Through interactions with the IFAW project, many local communities in Yunnan have regained pride in protecting the Asian elephants in China.
Community development
IFAW has been supporting eco-alternative livelihoods for people while building community resilience and tolerance to HEC, so that humans and elephants can coexist.
From 2000 to 2005, IFAW provided microcredit loans to local communities to help them shift to alternative crops that are economically valuable and unfavorable to elephants. The program covered 210 households from seven villages and achieved a 35% average increase in income with a 100% repayment rate.
In 2020, IFAW started a pilot beekeeping project in a village called Daotangqing, which connects elephant habitats with a nature reserve in Xishuangbanna. The 10 households that participated in phase 1 of the project each commit one to two days every year to support elephant habitat restoration near their village.
In September 2021, IFAW, Swire Coca-Cola (China) Co Ltd, and Xishuangbanna Tropic Rainforest Conservation Foundation (XTRCF), joined forces to extend the existing initiative, named the Carbon Sequestration Community project. The project aims to establish an eco-friendly community development model which integrates Asian elephant conservation and carbon sequestration.
Besides expanding the community beekeeping project to more villages in Yunnan region, IFAW also helped the community residents to move from growing rubber plantations to more eco-friendly crops with higher carbon sequestration value.
Also, photovoltaic panel equipment with an installed capacity of 16 kilowatts was installed in Daotangqing. Contributing to carbon emission reduction in China, surplus electricity generated by the panel will be connected to the grid, offering extra electricity free for the community’s development.
As of August 2022, 415 beehives had been provided to local villagers and 1808.2 kilogram of honey had been collected, generating an extra income of nearly 100,000 yuan ($14,480 ) in total.
The project also empowers local women to not only provide income to their family but also contribute to community development. Out of the 25 participating households, 11 women are active participants.
In March 2023, with the honey produced in the project, IFAW launched Zero Carbon Elephant-friendly Honey together with Chinese retail giant Freshippo. All the profit from the co-branded honey will be given back by Freshippo to the community for further community development.
The zero-carbon certification of the honey product was carried out by professional certification institution Ceprei Certification Body. It calculated the carbon dioxide emissions of the producing and transportation processes, which was fully offset by the carbon elimination facilities and activities in the Carbon Sequestration Community project.
IFAW will further refine and scale up the eco-friendly community development model to cover more areas affected by human-elephant conflict.
Achievements
Between 2009 and 2014, AEP launched China’s first early warning system in Pu’er City to warn of potential threats where Asian elephants’ movements could intersect human activity. The system covered 40 communities in four mountain townships that are home to Asian elephants and other wildlife.
In 2016, AEP supported the Asian Elephant Early Warning Monitoring Center in Menghai County of Xishuangbanna to improve its monitoring capabilities and equipped 20 forest and community rangers with monitoring devices. With real-time alerts covering over 50,000 local residents that share habitat with Asian elephants, the system successfully avoided about 57 human-elephant conflict incidents.
In 2012, IFAW collaborated with Xishuangbanna education authorities and local schools to develop the first animal-themed school textbook, Knowing Elephants, and a series of courses on Asian elephant protection, reaching more than 30,000 students from at least 60 local schools.
How can you help?
IFAW is saving China’s last population of Asian elephants by mitigating human-elephant conflict and helping local communities innovate and adopt economic and social changes that will remain sustainable into the future.
Take action now by making a tax-deductible donation to IFAW. Your donation will help IFAW rescue and protect animals around the world.