Chester Zoo 

Asian Elephant

Asian Elephants are smaller than African elephants and have much smaller ears. Their backs are also more rounded than the African elephant and they have an extra toenail on each foot – four per foot in all. The tusks, which are specially adapted incisor teeth, are only found on males, although some males, especially in Sri Lanka, have no tusks. They have stout bodies and thick legs, with a thick, wrinkled, dry skin, grey to brownish in colour. The long sensitive trunk comprises of the nose and upper lip and is used to feed, plucking at grasses and passing them into the mouth. They also use the trunk to wash with and to vocalise. The trunk has a single prehensile ‘finger’ at its tip, unlike African elephants which have two.

What they eat

Chiefly grasses, but also scrub and bark, fig leaves and some fruit. They have also been known to eat banana or rice crops if they roam into plantation areas. They eat an average of 150kg of vegetation a day and drink 80 to 100 litres of water a day.

How long they live

Up to 70 years

Biology

Asian Elephants are intelligent, social animals which follow migratory routes dictated by the changing seasons. Females are generally found in groups of up to seven, with males more solitary. Males reach sexual maturity at about six years when they leave the group they were born into. At the age of about 20, males go into a testosterone-charged state called ‘musth’ which lasts for about three weeks. During this time the testosterone level in their bodies can be up to 20 times its normal level, they can be aggressive and will search determinedly and widely for females with which to mate. If they encounter other males while in a ‘musth’ a fight will often ensue. Females don’t reach sexual maturity until they are about 10 years old and may only give birth about once every four years due to the long gestation period of 18 to 22 months and the high dependency of young on their mothers after birth. They generally give birth to a single calf, weighing about 100 kg, which will suckle for about 18 months, often from other females in the group as well as its mother.

Did you know?

Elephants use infrasound to communicate, which is a sound level with a frequency too low to be detected by the human ear. It is also used by whales, alligators, giraffes. rhinoceros and hippopotamuses.