Asian Elephant

Asian Elephant
Asian elephant
Conservation status
Endangered
Biological classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Superclass: Tetrapoda Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theria Superorder: Afrotheria Order: Proboscidea Superfamily: Elephantoidea Family: Elephantidae Genus: Elephas Species: E. maximus
Binomial name
Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758
Asian Elephant range

The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) is an elephant species living in Asia. They are more easily tamed than larger African elephants. People have used them as working animals for hundreds of years. It is the national animal of India.

Description

Asian elephants are different from African elephants. They are smaller, have smaller ears, a more rounded back, and a fourth toenail on each of their back feet. They have thick, dry skin with a small amount of stiff hair, and are grey to brown in colour. Female Asian elephants have small tusks.

Distribution

Asian elephants have live across many parts of India and Sri Lanka. They also as far south and east as Sumatra, Indonesia. These three areas appear to contain subspecies that are slightly different.

Habitat

Asian elephants are spread over areas with very different amounts of rain. They can survive in dry places where less than 40cm of rain falls per year and in wet areas where over 8 meters of rain falls in a year.