With the aliases of Indian Elephant and Wild Elephant, it belongs to the Elephantidae family of Proboscidea order. Its Latin scientific name is Elephas maximus, and English name is Asian Elephant.
It is 550 to 640 centimeters in body length (containing nose), 120 to 150 centimeters in tail length, 250 to 300 centimeters in shoulder height, and around 5,000 kilograms in weight. Its skin is grayish brown. Male elephants have tusks, the longest of which is up to 1.5 to 1.8 meters, the ivories of female elephants are relatively small, generally not protruding out of the mouth. Compared with African elephants, Asian Elephant has smaller ears, with only one finger-like protuberance on their nose ends.
It inhabits in tropical regions, frequently moving about in gulches, riversides, bamboo forests, mixed broadleaf forests below the elevation of 1,000 meters. It leads a group life, of which the number varies from several heads to tens of heads, with an adult male elephant as the leader of the group. It has no fixed domicile and a wide territory of activities, mainly feeding on bamboo shoots, tender leaves, wild Japanese bananas and palm leaves, reeds, etc. It breeds without seasonal nature, with a gestation period of 615 to 668 days. It has one baby per fetus, weighing 107 kilograms.The young elephant is covered with brown hair all over that comes off gradually along with growing. The female grows to sexual maturity at the age of 9 to 12, while the male at the age of 10 to 17. Under breeding condition, it has a lifespan of up to 69 years.
Wild Asian elephantsare rare now, but domestically tamed elephants and servant elephantsin some Southeast Asian countries are of great quantities. In China, Wild Elephant is only distributed in the south of Yunnan Province and border regions adjacent to Myanmar, Laos, with a very small quantity due to excessive killing. China has established nature reserves in these regions and strict laws and regulations to protect Asian elephants.
Asian Elephant has beenlisted in Appendix I ofInternational Trade Convention on Endangered Wild Animal and Plant Species.
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