Asian Elephant

Description:

In general, Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants and have the highest body point on the head. Their back is convex or level. Their ears are small with dorsal borders folded laterally. They have up to 20 pairs of ribs and 34 caudal vertebrae. Their feet have more nail-like structures than the ones of African elephants — five on each forefoot, and four on each hind foot. Bull Asian elephants commonly weigh from 4,500 to 5,400 kg (9,900 to 12,000 lb) and are often around 3.1 m (10 ft) high at the shoulder. Females typically weigh around 2,000 to 4,000 kg (4,400 to 8,800 lb) and reach an average of 2.4 m (7.9 ft) at the shoulder. Head-and-body length is from 5.5 to 6.4 m (18 to 21 ft), with the tail measuring 1–1.5 m (3.3–4.9 ft) long

Habitat:

Asian elephants inhabit grasslands, tropical evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests and dry thorn forests, in addition to cultivated and secondary forests and scrublands. Over this range of habitat types elephants are seen from sea level to over 3,000 m (9,800 ft). In the Eastern Himalaya in northeast India, they regularly move up above 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in summer at a few sites. Three subspecies are recognized: the Sri Lankan Elephant lives in Sri Lanka; the Indian Elephant lives in mainland Asia: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malay Peninsular, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and China; the Sumatran Elephant lives in Sumatra and Borneo.