Do you know the largest land mammal on the Asian continent? Yes, it is the Asian elephant. The Asian elephant are the inhabitants of dry to wet forests as well as grasslands in 13 range countries ranging from South and Southeast Asia.
Asian elephants are known to be sociable animals as they mostly form a group consisting of six to seven related females. The group is led by the oldest female, called the matriarch. The herd is much smaller than the African elephants inhabiting savannah. See the other differences between African elephant and Asian elephant.
Elephants are also known to be smart animals. Get to know more about having their brains a lot bigger than us how smart are the elephants. In Asia, humans have a very close associations with elephants for over many centuries. Asian elephants are also the important cultural icons, just like in Hindu mythology.
In Hinduism, there is a god called the elephant-headed Lord Ganesha, who is also known as the Remover of Obstacles. There are 3 family members belonging to the Asian elephants. They are Bornean elephant, Sri Lankan elephant and Sumatran elephant. Let’s get to know further about each member’s characteristics of the Asian elephant family.
- Bornean Elephant
The first member of the Asian elephant family is Bornean elephant. Bornean elephant is the smallest species of the Asian elephant. If you compare this species, they are distinctly smaller than their mainland cousins.
Their tails are long and sometimes touch the ground. They also have large ears and straighter tusks. Borneo island is the home of this animal, so it becomes one of the native animals of the island of Borneo.
They also have another name, which is “Borneo pygmy elephants” due to their small size. They are about 8.2 to 9.8 feet tall. The Bornean elephant are famous to be tame and passive and some scientists think that they descended from a domestic collection.
Regarding to their habitat, this species of elephants inhabit the northern and northeastern parts of Borneo. Unfortunately, due to habitat loss, their population is considered as endangered.
The primary threat of these elephants is the loss of the forests. The large block of forests are fragmented by the conversion of natural forests to commercial plantations, especially palm oil plantations.
- Sri Lankan Elephant
The next member of the Asian elephant family is the Sri Lankan elephant. The Sri Lankan elephants are known as the largest and the darkest members of the Asian elephants. They have patches of depigmentation, which are the areas with no skin color, on their face, ears, trunks and bellies.
Similar to Bornean elephants, the Sri Lankan elephants also live in herds. The herds of the Sri Lankan elephants consist of 12 to 20 individuals or even more.
The herd is also led by the oldest female, or the matriarch. Sri Lankan elephants are the largest species with a shoulder height of between 2 to 3.5 meters, weigh between 2,000 to 5,500 kilograms and have 19 pairs of ribs.
Sri Lankan elephants mostly inhabit the dry zone where they are widely spread in north, south, east, north-western, north-central and south-eastern Sri Lanka.
The small population exists in the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary. Sadly saying, the population of this species is threatened. The main threats are poaching, protection of crops and houses, deforestation, drought and starvation. Many elephants damage agricultural land for finding food.
Regarding to their diet, they mostly consume plant matters, as they consume up to 150 kg of plant matter per day. They feed on wide variety of food plants.
- Sumatran Elephant
The Sumatran elephant is another Asian elephant species native to Indonesia, besides the Bornean elephants. This Sumatran elephant is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The status of this elephant is critically endangered in its Red List.
Its population had declined by at least 80%. The primary causes of this condition are habitat loss, degradation and poaching. Besides Sumatran elephant, you will also need to know about Sumatran orangutans. Facts about Sumatran orangutans will surely tells you everything about it!
Back to the characteristics of Sumatran elephants. Sumatran elephants have a shoulder height between 2 to 3.2 m, weigh between 2,000 to 4,000 kg and have 20 pairs of ribs. They have lighter skin color.
The Sumatran elephants were once spread on the island and Riau province. They were believed to have the largest elephant population in Sumatra with over 1,600 individuals in the 1980s. However, as time goes by, the number of the Sumatran elephants keeps declining.
Do you know that between 2012 and 2015, there were 36 elephants found dead in Aceh Province due to poisoning, electrocution and traps? People should take action to maintain their populations. Elephants become one type of animals in the list of endangered animals of Southeast Asia.