Asian Elephant

Elephants are an important cultural icon in Asia. They once roamed from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in western Asia to as far east as China's Yangtze River. Exceedingly adaptable in diet and behaviour, Asian Elephants can survive anywhere from grasslands to rain forests, but they must migrate across large areas to find water and suitable food at different times of the year. Such vast ranges have become extremely rare in densely populated, rapidly developing Asia.

Asian Elephants have an amazing trunk, which is a fusion of the nose and the upper lip. It contains over 40,000 muscles but no bones or cartilage and is an incredibly versatile appendage used for breathing, eating, drinking, dust bathing, showering themselves with water and even a snorkel when swimming. An elephant's trunk can pick up something as small as a peanut and as big as a tree trunk. It also assists in communication, smelling, lifting, defence and offence. 

Elephants are not only a cultural icon throughout Asia, they also help to maintain the integrity of forest and grassland habitats. They may spend up to 19 hours a day feeding and they can produce about 100kgs of dung per day while wandering around an area that can cover up to 125 square miles. This helps to disperse germinating seeds. 

About 75 years ago, Sumatra was covered by about 85% natural forest. As the human population and the demand for various resources increased, forests in Sumatra have shrunk rapidly, to only about 27% in 2008. The conversions of forest to agricultural land particularly took place in flat lowland areas that are most suitable for agriculture including oil palm plantations. Unfortunately these lowland forests are also where elephants are mostly concentrated. Sadly, this reduction and fragmentation of habitat has lead to increased human/elephant conflict and poaching remains an ongoing problem, with large elephants killed for their tusks. 

Taronga has provided direct support for field conservation initiatives including Wildlife Protection Units and expertise on environmental education, wildlife health, facility design and management of elephant populations in Sumatra, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Taronga is committed to combating the global illegal wildlife trade issue. We support TRAFFIC, a global wildlife monitoring network that works to investigate and stop illegal wildlife trade of species like the Sun Bear. Taronga has also created Wildlife Witness an app that helps tourists to report illegal wildlife trade and helped fund a TRAFFIC analyst to use this data to expose the criminal networks within South East Asia.  

Lend your eyes to the wild - download the free Wildlife Witness app and report illegal wildlife trade. You never know when you may witness wildlife crime – especially when travelling to South East Asia a hotspot for wildlife trade. Share the Wildlife Witness app with your friends and family.  

Diet

Asian Elephants consume a large variety of plants, grasses, trees and fruits including bamboo, legumes, bark and palms. By using their trunks they can obtain food anywhere from ground level to high up in the trees. If they can't reach it and they still want it, they just bulldoze the tree until it falls over. They can spend up to 16 hours a day feeding, consume 75-150kg of food per day and drink 80-160L of water a day.

Habitat

Asian Elephants largely use lowland forests and grasslands below an altitude of 300m in India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Indonesia, Bhutan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and southern China. Across all these regions their natural habitat has been greatly reduced resulting in massive declines of wild populations.

Breeding

Female elephants live in family units, which typically consist of closely-related adult cows and their immature offspring. Daughters remain with mothers once they are independent, but sons leave or are forced out during puberty to join a bull group or to be solitary. Young males band together in bachelor groups spending many years sparring to determine their dominance in the bull hierarchy. Once mature, male elephants will usually only socialise with herds when the females are reproductively cycling. Adult male elephants (bulls) go through periods of heightened sexual activity, increased aggressive and sexual behaviour, secretions from glands on the side of the head and urine dribbling. This is known as musth and is usually associated with increased secretion of testosterone that may last for periods of a few weeks to months.

Female elephants mature sexually between the ages of 8 – 10 and cycle every 14 - 17 weeks. Once pregnant, they give birth to a single calf (twins are very rare) after a gestation period of almost 22 months.

Behaviour

Elephants are extremely intelligent and social animals. They are active both day and night, often resting during the hottest part of the day. Elephants have a complex repertoire of communication that includes touching, body posturing and vocalising. Many of these sounds are ‘infrasounds’ and the pitch is below the range of human hearing. Infrasound can travel 3 to 5 km through the air and even further through ground vibrations. The elephants can pick up the vibrations through their feet.