by Luke Bamforth

Created on: January 08, 2010   Last Updated: January 09, 2010

The Elephant is the largest land animal on Earth and is well known by everyone adults and children alike for its long, dexterous trunk. The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) is smaller than the better known African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana) though it is most easily distinguished by its ears, which are smaller and rounder than those of an African Elephant.

There are four sub-species of Asian Elephant; the Sri Lankan Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus), the Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus), the Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) and the Borneo Elephant (Elephas maximus borneesis). They inhabit, altogether, a range that covers most of Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Indian Sub-continent. Within this range they can be found inhabiting open grasslands and tropical forests alike.

Fully grown Asian Elephants can be as tall as 3 meters and weigh up to 5000 kilograms; however the average height varies amongst the sub-species, some of them being smaller in general than the others. For example the Sri Lankan Asian Elephants are generally the largest of the species and have been known to reach 3.5 meters in height. In the wild Asian elephants are known to live for up to sixty years.

As with all elephants the females, known as cows, and the juvenile elephants, known as calves, live in matriarchal groups called herds while the adult males, know as bulls spend their lives wandering alone, except when the females are in heat.

All elephants are herbivores; this means that they only eat plant matter. In the case of the Asian elephant their diet consists of fruit, grasses, roots and even some barks. To help them eat they make use of their trunks by using them to grab food. They even have a small finger like structure on the end of their trunks that they use for grabbing smaller items of food, in this they differ from the African Elephant, as the African Elephant has two of these finger like appendages. It is also the case that their tusks, if they possess them, are not just for defence; they too are used when gathering food. The elephant uses them to dig up roots and also to dig for water that may be beneath the surface of the ground. It is fortunate that the Asian Elephant is so adept at gathering food as an adult can eat up to 136 kilograms in one day.

As mentioned previously Asian Elephants have large ears. These are endowed with a vast network of veins near to the surface which helps the elephant to keep cool, something which is very important for

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