World Elephant Day is celebrated on August 12th to spread awareness about the importance of the conservation of elephants across the world. Unfortunately, threats like poaching, habitat loss, and mistreatment in captivity are pushing these gentle giants to extinction. Please go through some important facts about elephants.

  • The word elephant originates from the Greek word “elephas” which means ivory
  • Largest land animal in the world; height up to 2m and weighs up to 6000 kg 
  • Called  pachyderm due to its thick skin
  • Three species of elephants are there in the world
  • Elephants do not sweat

  • African bush elephants, African forest elephants and Asian elephants
  • African elephants are larger than their Asian cousins
  • African elephants have larger ears
  • African elephants has two fingers at tip of the trunk as against one in Asian.
  • Both male and female African elephants have tusks. In Asian elephants, males without tusks are called ‘Makhnas’

  • With a mass of just over 5 kg, an elephant’s brain has more mass than that of any other land animal
  •  Elephants have a keen sense of smell, detecting water sources up to 19.2 km away
  • Elephants are colour-blind. In daylight, elephants are dichromic, meaning they have only two types of colour sensors- one for green and the other one for red.
  • Elephants are capable of a range of emotions, including joy, playfulness, grief and mourning.

  • They live in tight matriarchal family groups of related females. Herds can be of 8 to 100 elephants. Males leave the herd at age 9-10 years and live solitary lives joining with the herds occasionally or with small groups of other males called bachelor herds.
  • Female elephants live in family groups and help care for each other’s calves. Aunts will help their sisters’ calves if they get stuck in the mud, swat them with their tails, shade them from the hot sun, and protect them from danger.
  • An elephant herd is considered one of the most closely knit societies of any animal and a female will only leave it if she dies or is captured by humans.

African elephants have a gestation period of 22 months, while in Asian elephants it is between 18-22 months. This is the longest gestation period of all mammals.

  • A calf is up to a meter tall and weighs up to 120kg. Male calves are heavier and taller. 
  • Elephant calves have relatively short trunks compared to their body size
  • Within 6 years, the calves grow faster and weigh up to 1 tonne
  • Occasionally a mother can be seen carrying a dead calf for several days.

  • Adult bulls have their own ‘territory’
  • Musth is a secretion from the glands at the temporal location and is a chemical communication mechanism
  • A bull first comes to musth between 15 and 20 years
  • In younger bulls, musth lasts for a few days but as elephants grow older it may last up to 3 months
  • Males in musth wander more to find oestrous females for mating and spend more energy on moving
  • During musth, males seem to be more aggressive

  • They depend on touch for communication. Sometimes purposefully touch one another using their trunk, ears, tusks, feet, tail, and even their entire body.
  • Chemical communications – Flehmen response, temporal gland secretion
  • Sound: Trumpets to infrasonic calls
  • High pitched trumpets are reflected by vegetation
  • low-frequency musth rumble
  • The infrasonic sound produced by elephants travels several kilometers and helps communicate with family members

  • An elephant’s skin can be up to 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) thick but is so sensitive it can feel a fly landing on it.
  • An elephant’s trunk is a versatile organ and is both an upper lip and a nose. It can hold  about 9 litres of water and 150,000 muscle units for the entire trunk.
  • Elephant trunks can grow to be about six feet long, and can sense the size, shape, and temperature of an object.

From grass and fruit to leaves and bark—about 75 to 150 kilograms each day, which is about 4 to 6 percent of their body weight. They spend an average of 75% of the day feeding.

  • Elephant’s predators are crocodiles, lions, tiger, and humans

  • Threats: Ivory trade, loss/degradation/fragmentation of habitat

  • Corridor: a linear two-dimensional landscape element that connects two or more patches of wildlife (animal) habitat that have been connected in historic times; it is meant as a conduit for animals.
  • There are 101 identified elephant corridors in India.

  • Sri Lankan elephant – Elephas maximus maximus
    • Endemic to Sri Lanka
  • Indian elephant – Elephas maximus indicus
    • Found in mainland Asia, including India, China, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc
  • Sumatran elephant – Elephas maximus sumatranus
    • Found only in the Indonesian island of Sumatra
  • Borneo elephant – Elephas maximus borneensis
    • Elephant found in Borneo often called as dwarf elephant

  • About 22-30% of the elephant population is in captivity
  • Not a self-sustaining population

  • No sweat glands.
  • Metabolic heat from within and temperature from outside.
  • Mostly inactive during hot times of the day to avoid direct sunlight. 
  • Go for wallowing/mud bathing filling the wrinkles on skin with wet mud.
  • Fanning of the ears.

  • About 48,000 Asian elephants are distributed in thirteen Asian countries.
  • India has about 30,000 elephants
  • The largest Asian Elephant habitat is in South India with about 12600 sq. km. comprising Wayanad, Nilgiris, Bandipura, Mudumala, Nagarahole, BRT Hills etc harbouring about 6500 elephants.