An Asian elephant lives in South and Southeast Asia. It uses its trunk to grasp food and pour water into its mouth.
The trunk tip has one finger-like projection. Only some males develop large, prominent tusks.
Asian elephants grasp objects with a single finger-like projection at the trunk tip. Related females and young live together. Their movements also connect them to water: research in southern India examined how elephant concentrations changed as rivers and pools dried during the dry season.
In a 1981–1983 study in southern India, elephants occurred at high densities in riverine areas during the January–April dry season. In 1983, elephant density declined in an area where the Araikadavu stream had almost no water, while concentrations increased around a permanent pond in another area during March–April.
Calves grow on their mother’s milk. Females remain with their family, while males leave their birth herd as they mature.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Forest loss and fragmentation reduce the large areas elephants need. Where farms meet elephant habitat, crop damage can lead to conflict and deaths of both people and elephants.