Indian Elephant
Elephas maximus
Summary 3
The Asian or Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus) is the only living species of the genus Elephas and is distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized — Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m. sumatranus from the island of Sumatra. Asian elephants are the largest living land animals in Asia.
Description 4
Asian elephants are smaller than their African savannah relatives (Loxodonta africana) and have many other physical features that distinguish them. The ears are smaller and the back is more rounded so that the crown of the head is the highest point of the body (2). One of the characteristic features of an elephant are the modified incisor teeth which are known as tusks, however, only some male Asian elephants have tusks, whilst females (cows) have 'tushes' instead, that are seldom visible (3). Elephants support their stocky body on stout, pillar-like legs, and the nose and upper lip are joined and elongated into a trunk (3). The trunk provides a wide variety of functions from feeding, vocalisation, bathing and fighting; those of the Asian elephant have only a single finger-like process on the base, whilst the African elephant has two (4). The thick, wrinkly skin covering the body is a greyish-brown colour and very dry (5).
Habitat 5
Asian elephants mainly use scrub forest, although their habitat can vary. They can be found in the jungle, but generally on the edge where open, grassy areas are accessible. They prefer areas that combine grass, low woody plants, and forest. Elephants rarely forage in one area for more than a few days in a row.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; forest ; scrub forest
Other Habitat Features: agricultural
Fuentes y créditos
- (c) luke cox, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/37451309@N00/2080610020
- (c) Bernard DUPONT, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/8074119227/
- Adaptado por Brian Martin del trabajo de (c) Wikipedia, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephas_maximus
- (c) Wildscreen, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/6686029
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/18646035
