Asian Elephant

Elaphas maximus

Status in the Wild: Endangered

Range: Southeast Asia from western India east through the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra.

Habitat: Bush country, grasslands and jungles.

Description: Elephants are the largest living land mammals. Asian elephants can reach a height of 10feet and weigh up to 12,000pounds. They can live 60 to 70 years.

Elephants have many unique features and are superbly adapted to their environment. They use their large ears for thermoregulation to cool themselves in the hot equatorial sun. As the elephant flaps its ears, blood vessels in the ear are cooled. The cooled blood circulates throughout the elephant and helps regulate overall body temperature.

The elongated snout suggests an acute sense of smell, but it also serves many other purposes. The trunk is strong, having thousands of muscles and can be used to knock down small trees, lift heavy objects, carry food and water to the mouth and excavate deep wells in seasonally dry river beds.

Elephants are valued for their ivory tusks. These are modified upper incisors and grow throughout a lifetime. Male elephants have tusks protruding past the lips. Females rarely have tusks, however, you may see one with very small tusks measuring four to five inches in length.

Elephants have a matriarchal social structure with an old female cow leading a herd of 15 to 30 individuals. Solitary bulls join the herd to mate. The herds travel from one are to another in constant search of food. They are vegetarians and feed on roots, leaves, fruits, grasses and bark.

Recent studies show that elephants communicate by using ultra-low frequency vocalizations. These sounds are so low that they can not be heard by the human ear.