A Giant Rescue (5 page)

The Asian elephant is an endangered species with only 30,000 to 40,000 individuals left in the wild.

They are found in fourteen different countries throughout South-East Asia and surrounds.

Asian elephants can live to sixty years old in the wild and up to eighty years in captivity. They can stand anywhere from 2–3 metres high and weigh a whopping 2–5 tonnes.

Asian elephants are large mammals that inhabit a variety of tropical forest habitats, adjoining grasslands and scrub in Southern and South-East Asia.

Among the largest herbivores in the world, Asian elephants' dexterous trunks and large molars enable them to gather and process up to 150 kilograms of vegetation per day, including grasses, leaves, bark, fruit and farm crops.

Elephants do not drink with their trunks; they use them as ‘tools' to drink with. Consuming up to 200 litres of water each day, an Asian elephant will fill its trunk with water and then pour the water into its mouth.

The gestation period for an Asian elephant is 22 months. At birth, an Asian elephant calf weighs approximately 100 kilograms. The calf remains with its mother for five years.

Asian elephants hate eggplant, but African elephants love it!