Elephas maximus orientalis

Asian elephant
	Asian elephant
Conservation status
	; Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Superclass:	Tetrapoda
Class:	Mammalia
Subclass:	Theria
Superorder:	Afrotheria
Order:	Proboscidea
Genus:	Elephas
Species:	E. maximus
Binomial name
	Elephas maximus; Linnaeus, 1758
	Asian Elephant range

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The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus orientalis) is the 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 mostly found in parts of India and nearby countries.

Description[edit]

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 and occasionally none at all. Sometimes pink spots appear on the ears as a result of loss of pigment.

Asian elephants eat grass, hay, twigs, bark and fruits. It can live up to 60 to 80 years. It can weigh up to 5000kg and be up to 300cm tall. It takes up to 660 days or 22 months until the babies are born. ^[1]

Distribution[edit]

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

Habitat[edit]

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.

Culture[edit]

In the Burmese, Thai and Sinhalese animal and planetary zodiac, the Asian elephant, both tusked and tuskless, are the fourth and fifth animal zodiacs of the Burmese, the fourth animal zodiac of the Thai, and the second animal zodiac of the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka.^[2] Similarly, the elephant is the twelfth animal zodiac in the Dai animal zodiac of the Dai people in southern China.^[3]

References[edit]

↑ Hannover Zoo: Asian Elephant^{[permanent dead link]}, viewed 2012-12-06
↑ Upham, E. (1829). The History and Doctrine of Budhism: Popularly Illustrated: with Notices of the Kappooism, Or Demon Worship, and of the Bali, Or Planetary Incantations, of Ceylon. London: R. Ackermann.
↑ Chinese Zodiac. Warriortours.com. Retrieved on 12 June 2017.

[1] Hannover Zoo: Asian Elephant^{[permanent dead link]}, viewed 2012-12-06

[2] Upham, E. (1829). The History and Doctrine of Budhism: Popularly Illustrated: with Notices of the Kappooism, Or Demon Worship, and of the Bali, Or Planetary Incantations, of Ceylon. London: R. Ackermann.

[3] Chinese Zodiac. Warriortours.com. Retrieved on 12 June 2017.

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