Asia’s disappearing giant
The Asian elephant is the largest surviving land mammal in Asia. Although significantly smaller than its African cousin, it is still an awesome beast. An adult bull can weigh well over five tonnes.
It’s no surprise that one of the largest animals in the world requires a lot of space. Asian elephants need over 4,000 square kilometres of continuous habitat to thrive. Across much of their remaining range, however, the reality is very different – Asian elephants are now restricted to just 10% of their historical range. They are in urgent need of conservation attention.
Fascinating facts about Asian elephants
Asian elephants. © Jeremy Holden / Fauna & Flora
Short in the tooth
Female Asian elephants have rudimentary tusks called tushes.
Ganesha carving at a temple. © saiko3p / Adobe Stock
Hero worship
The Asian elephant is an important cultural and religious icon.
What is the difference between Asian and African elephants?
The Asian elephant is distinguished from the African elephant by its much smaller stature. It also has smaller, more rounded ears and a twin-domed head rather than a rounded head. Female Asian elephants usually lack tusks, which has the added benefit of making them less vulnerable to ivory poachers. Asian elephants have only one ‘finger’ at the tip of their trunk, while African elephants have two. The highest point of an Asian elephant is its slightly humped back, while African elephants are tallest at the shoulder.
Asian elephants. © Bjorn Olesen
A herd of Asian elephants reinforcing family bonds at the water's edge.
Asian elephant behaviour
Asian elephants are highly intelligent animals. Led by a matriarch, their herds are characterised by strong family bonds, sophisticated forms of communication and complex behaviour. Asian elephants use tools and can feel grief and compassion. Their versatile trunks are equally capable of brute force (pushing over a tree in order to reach leaves on the inaccessible upper branches) or performing a delicate task such as manipulating a morsel of food using the ‘finger’ at the tip.
What do Asian elephants eat?
Asian elephants can consume up to 150 kilos of food a day. Their diet includes grasses, bamboo shoots, leaves, roots and bark. They also have a fondness for cultivated crops such as rice and sugar cane, which can lead to conflict with humans.
Asian elephant. © Suzi Eszterhas / Nature Picture Library
The Borneo pygmy elephant is a very small subspecies of Asian elephant found only on the island after which it is named.
Why are Asian elephants important?
Asian elephants have a significant physical impact on their environment. As they move in herds, they make wide paths, create mud wallows and play a crucial role as seed dispersers and forest gardeners.
Asian elephant family. © Chaiphorn / Adobe Stock
Asian elephants can be found in a wide variety of habitats, including grasslands.
Where do Asian elephants live?
Asian elephants are adapted to a wide variety of habitats including dense tropical evergreen forest, dry and wet deciduous forests, scrubland and grasslands.
The Asian elephant has disappeared from much of its former range. It is now largely confined to isolated populations across 13 countries in South and Southeast Asia. These are scattered across a total area of roughly half a million square kilometres, stretching from India in the west to Indonesia in the east. Even where it is still found, the Asian elephant is under severe pressure.
How many Asian elephants are left?
Fewer than 50,000 wild Asian elephants are estimated to survive today, compared to around half a million of their African cousins.
Many of the countries where the species still occurs hold wild populations numbering just a few hundred, usually in small, fragmented groups. Asian elephant populations made up of fewer than 500 individuals are unlikely to remain healthy enough to survive long term.
In Cambodia, for example, the total number of wild Asian elephants is estimated to be somewhere between 400 and 600, with different groups scattered across two main areas on opposite sides of the country, each home to between 175 and 300 individuals. A handful of other, much smaller populations exists in other areas in Cambodia. In the forests
What threats do Asian elephants face?
Asian elephants are threatened by forest destruction and population fragmentation, due to agricultural expansion and infrastructure development. Other threats to their survival include targeted and opportunistic poaching, as well as the trafficking of live elephants for captive entertainment purposes.
On the densely populated continent of Asia, humans and animals increasingly find themselves competing for space and living side by side. As their natural habitat shrinks and traditional migration routes are cut off, elephants are forced onto agricultural land or into newly urbanised areas. Confrontations are inevitable and can result in death or injury to both people and elephants.
Whilst habitat loss – and the ensuing conflict with humans – undoubtedly poses the greatest threat to the survival of Asian elephants, poaching for their ivory, meat and even their skin is also taking a severe toll on numbers.
Elephant crossing a road. © Avijan Saha/ BIA / Minden / Nature Picture Library
A juvenile Asian elephant crossing a busy road at night.
How can we help save Asian elephants?
Working with local partners, Fauna & Flora has been at the forefront of Asian elephant conservation since 1995, focusing on Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and, more recently, Myanmar. The Asian Elephant Conservation Programme has worked in partnership with governments, communities and local NGOs to increase understanding of the species’ needs, safeguard its habitat and reduce human-elephant conflict.
A successful elephant landscape conservation programme in Aceh – Indonesia’s westernmost, biologically rich province on the island of Sumatra – led to Fauna & Flora being invited by the Indonesian government to help put together a national elephant conservation strategy for the Sumatran elephant, a critically endangered subspecies of the Asian elephant.
In 2001, Fauna & Flora convened a historic bilateral conference between the governments of Vietnam and Cambodia – the first ever on elephant conservation. This resulted in an official transboundary cooperation agreement to protect one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining tracts of dry deciduous forest, a vital refuge for Asian elephants and other threatened species.
The Cambodian Elephant Conservation Group, established in 2005, aims to conserve the country’s Asian elephants by bringing together governmental and NGO wildlife managers and forest communities. In 2020, this coalition was formally strengthened with the launch of Cambodia’s first national Asian Elephant Conservation Action Plan, which was prepared with technical support from Fauna & Flora. If successful, the plan will not only safeguard the elephants themselves but also help restore the health of their forest habitat, benefiting hundreds of other species in the process.
Fauna & Flora was among the many organisations that called on the UK government to introduce a domestic ivory ban to help safeguard both Asian and African elephants from poaching. We need other countries – particularly in Southeast Asia – to follow the UK’s example. In the meantime, Fauna & Flora is continuing to support anti-poaching, conflict mitigation and awareness-raising activities in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Elephant camera trapping. © Jeremy Holden / Fauna & Flora
Elephant camera trapping.
"We need to find ways for Asian elephants and humans to live side by side. In Cambodia, Fauna & Flora is engaging directly with local people to monitor elephant hotspots and safeguard these populations by addressing human-elephant conflict, poaching and habitat loss. Without our help, these iconic animals will disappear, but there is still time to save them if we act now."
Vanny Lou
Program Manager, Terrestrial Conservation, Cambodia
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