Indian Elephant
© Kirsty Burgess/WLT
Indian Elephants
Their scientific name is Elephas maximus.
The Indian Elephant, an Asian Elephant, is found in India.
Asian Elephants are also found in Thailand, Mynamar, Sri
Lanka, and Malaysia.
What habitat do they live in?
Indian Elephants are one of
the largest land mammals
alive today and they need a
lot of food and habitat to
move about in.
© Images copyright WLT
Indian Elephants can live
in a range of habitats.
From tropical forests to
grassland and scrubland.
Why are they threatened?
The major threats to the Indian Elephant are;
habitat loss, conflict with people, and hunting by
people.
Click to see a picture of crops
where there used to be forest.
People cut down the forest,
where Indian Elephants live,
to grow crops.
Humans and Elephants can come into
conflict when the people try to defend
their crops (for example rice and
bananas) against the hungry
Elephants.
© Images copyright WLT
Click to see a picture of
Elephant footprints
through a field of crops.
How do they communicate?
Indian Elephants use loud
trumpets when they are
excited or afraid.
They also use chirps, roars
and rumbles to
communicate.
Click here to find out how else
they communicate
They use body language
such as flapping their ears
or raising their tail.
© Emily Brickell
Family Life
© Emily Brickell
Indian Elephants live in family groups of 6 or
more.
Click to
learn about
elephant
family will
groups
Sometimes
several
family
groups
travel together.
A family group is made up of a mother and
youngsters. The old males travel alone.
What do they eat?
Indian Elephants are herbivores.
Indian Elephants eat all parts
of a tree; twigs, bark, roots,
leaves and fruit, they also eat
grasses and shrubs.
Click to learn about the wild
food of Indian Elephants.
Here Indian Elephants have fed on
banana plants
Click to see picture
© Images copyright WLT
Unfortunately Indian
Elephants will also eat
crops planted by people.
How long do they live?
© Gareth West
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How big do they grow?
© WLT
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What do they look like?
© Gareth West and Stacey Manley
Indian Elephants have thick, wrinkly, grey skin,
and big ears. Their long trunks (noses) are used
to breathe, touch and pick things up, and to
suck up water to drink.
A female Indian Elephant will give birth
to one calf every 4 years, after a long
pregnancy.
All the female elephants in the group
will help take care of the babies.
© Gareth West and Stacey Manley
Tell me about their babies:
How long do you
think baby elephants
will feed on milk?
Click for answer
For up to 2 years.
© Gareth West and Stacey Manley
Interesting facts:
The pregnancy of an Indian Elephant is 22
months, the longest pregnancy of any
mammal.
Indian Elephants have been used by
people to clear logs in the forest, carry
heavy objects, and entertain tourists for
many years.
Indian Elephants are good swimmers and
use their trunks as snorkels in deep water.
A story from the wild:
Indian Elephants travel along the same routes as they search for
food and water, as their parents and grandparents did before them.
Because there are so many people living in India, roads and
villages are sometimes built along these ancient routes.
© Marie Chambers
Click to see an Indian
Elephant crossing a
road in front of a van.
Because Indian Elephants are such big
animals they can frighten people if they
cross roads in front of them, or if they
walk through villages.
Click again to see another reason
Indian Elephants can scare people.
A house damaged by hungry Indian Elephants
© WTI
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and damage
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The World Land Trust works with the
Wildlife Trust of India to protect the
ancient routes that Indian Elephants
use.
They do this by inviting villagers who live along ancient
How do
they do routes,
this? Click
to find to
outareas that are not used
Indian
Elephant
to move
by Indian Elephants.
New houses are built for the villagers who want to move, and they
formally hand over the village land for the protection of Indian
Elephants.
This is a new house that has been built for a family that
moved away from land used by Indian Elephants.
Click again to see the family who have moved there.
© WTI
© Marie Chambers
A story from the wild:
© Emily Brickell
If you choose the Indian Elephant as your fundraising
focus, your donation will go towards World Land Trust
projects for the conservation of wildlife habitat in India.