Moreover, cases have been known, when elephants excavated holes in dry riverbeds to get water for other species. They turn some areas of forests into meadows and disperse seeds. Ecological nicheĪsian elephant has huge impact on the ecosystem of its habitat. The ICUN classifies the Asian elephant as Endangered with a decreasing population trend. About 13.000 individuals of Asian elephant are domesticated, working mainly in entertainment area. If listed by countries, on the first place is India with 26.390-30.770 individuals around the country. IUCN says official estimated population number of Asian elephant is currently 41.410-52.345 individuals. Deforestation and agricultural activities are among threats, leading to constriction of the elephants’ habitat. Hunting for ivory continues to this day, being a notable threat to overall population of Asian elephant. Since ancient times, these animals have been hunted and killed in large numbers, as a source of food, and then for ivory. Threats have to do mainly with human activity. This type of activity is horrible and must be stopped or else the population of these beautiful elephants will continue to dwindle.Asian elephant is also included in Appendix I of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). Like the forest elephant, the Asian elephant is greatly endangered due to poaching. Like the African forest elephant, the Asian elephant is known for its beautiful tusks. However, they rarely attack the full grown Asian elephants, preferring to hunt the smaller elephant calves (babies). Tigers are the one major natural predator of the Asian elephant. Though the Asian elephant is quite a lot smaller than the African elephant species, it is still a very large animal! The largest males weigh in at a whomping 8,000 pounds and have a shoulder height measurement of around 2.5 meters.ěecause of its large size, the Asian elephant has very few natural predators-in other words, no dangerous animal wants to eat it except. Probably the most interesting difference between the Asian and African elephants is that unlike African elephants, female Asian elephants do not have tusks! This makes it much, much easier to tell if an Asian elephant is a boy or a girl. These elephants also have very curved backs in comparison and are generally very friendly to humans (this is why they have been exploited by the tourism industry). To differentiate the Asian elephant from the African elephant, one also can look beyond just the size difference for example, the Asian elephant has very small ears in comparison to the African. There are populations across south-east Asia often drawing tourists from all over the world, as well. The Asian elephant is much smaller than the African elephant and is found primarily in India and China. African elephants, however, are the largest living land animals. Photographer: Brian Gratwicke License CC BY 2.0Įlephants are primarily split into two different types, the African elephant and the Asian elephant.
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