Indian elephant

Indian elephant
Male with tusks, Bandipur National Park
Systematics
Class : Mammals (mammalia) Order : Russell animals (Proboscidea) Family : Elephants (Elephantidae) Genre : Elephas Type : Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ) Subspecies : Indian elephant
Scientific name
Elephas maximus indicus
(Cuvier) , 1798

The Indian elephant ( Elephas maximus indicus ) is one of three subspecies of the Asian elephant . It is native to the Asian continent . Since 1986 Elephas maximus has been classified as critically endangered by the IUCN because the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three generations. Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation .

features

In general, Asian elephants are smaller than their African relatives and the head is their highest point. The tip of their trunk has a finger-like extension. Your back can be arched or straight. Indian elephants reach a shoulder height between 2 and 3.5 m, weigh between 2000 and 5000 kg and have 19 pairs of ribs. Their skin color is lighter than that of the Sri Lankan elephants with minor spots of depigmentation, but they are darker than the Sumatran elephants . Females are usually smaller than males and have small or no tusks at all .

The largest Indian elephant had a shoulder height of 3.43 m. In 1985 two large bull elephants, named Raja Gaj and Kanchha , were spotted for the first time in Bardia National Park . They roamed the park area together and occasionally visited females. Raja Gaj had a shoulder height of 3.4 m and was extremely heavy. Its shape has been compared to that of a mammoth because of its double-arched head .

Compared to African elephants, Indian elephants have smaller ears, but a relatively wider skull and longer trunk. The toes are big and wide. In contrast to the African elephant, their abdomen is proportional to their body weight; African elephants, on the other hand, have a large abdomen compared to their skull.

distribution and habitat

Wild elephants in Munnar , Kerala

A herd of elephants in Corbett National Park

An elephant bathing in Nagarhole National Park

Indian elephants are native to the continent of Asia: India , Nepal , Bangladesh , Bhutan , Myanmar , Thailand , Malay Peninsula , Laos , China , Cambodia and Vietnam . They inhabit grasslands , dry deciduous , moist deciduous, evergreen and semi-evergreen forests. In the early 1990s, their estimated population size was:

• 27,785–31,368 in India, where the population is limited to four general areas:
  • In the northwest - at the foot of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh , from the Katarniaghat Nature Reserve to the Yamuna River
  • In the northeast - from the eastern border of Nepal in northern West Bengal through western Assam along the Himalayan foothills to the Mishmi Hills , expanding into eastern Arunachal Pradesh , the flatlands of Upper Assam, and the foothills of Nagaland , to the Garo Hills of Meghalaya across the Khasi Hills , from parts of the lower Brahmaputra Plains and Karbi Plateau ; isolated herds appear in Tripura , Mizoram , Manipur and in the Barak Valley neighborhoods of Assam
  • In the central part - in Orissa , Jharkhand and in the southern part of West Bengal, with some animals migrating to Chhattisgarh
  • In the south - eight populations are separated from each other; one in northern Karnataka , one on the border of Karnataka Western Ghats , one in Bhadra - Malnad , one in Brahmagiri - Nilgiris - Eastern Ghats , one in Nilambur - Silent Valley - Coimbatore , one in Anamalai - Parambikulam , one in Periyar - Srivilliputhur and one in Agasthya Malai
• 100–125 in Nepal, where their range is limited to a few protected areas in Terai along the border with India. Estimates in 2002 ranged from 106 to 172 sedentary and migratory elephants, most of which are in Bardia National Park
• 150–250 in Bangladesh, where only isolated populations survive in Chittagong Hills
• 250–500 in Bhutan, where their range is restricted to protected areas in the south along the border with India
• 4,000–5,000 in Myanmar, where the populations are very dispersed and are found in the northern and western mountain areas, in Pegu-Joma in central Myanmar, Tenasserim and Shan states
• 2,500–3,200 in Thailand, mainly in the mountains along the border with Myanmar, with less dispersed populations on the peninsula in the south
• 2,100-3,100 in Malaysia
• 500–1,000 in Laos, where they are widespread but unevenly distributed in wooded areas, in the highlands and lowlands
• 200–250 in China, where they only survive in Xishuangbanna , Simao, and Lincang prefectures in southern Yunnan
• 250-600 in Cambodia, where she mainly mountains of the southwest and in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri inhabit
• 70–150 in the southern parts of Vietnam

Ecology and behavior

Wild Indian elephants

Elephants are known as giant herbivores and eat up to 150 kg of plants per day. In a study area of ​​1130 km² in southern India it was recorded that elephants ate 112 different plant species, most frequently from the orders of the mallow-like , legume , palm , sour grass and the sweet grass family . The amount of grass varies with the seasons. In April, when the grass is still low, the elephants remove the delicate leaves in small bushes. Later, when the grass is higher than 0.5 m, they uproot all of the bushes, cleverly dust them off, eat the fresh leaf tips and throw away the roots. When the grasses are ripe in autumn, they clean and eat the succulent part with the roots and throw away the fibrous leaves. They eat the seedlings, stalks and side shoots from the bamboo . During the dry season from January to April, they graze on leaves and twigs, preferring fresh leaves, and eat thorn-bearing shoots of the genus Acacia with no apparent discomfort. They feed on the bark of the hawthorn and other flowering plants and eat the fruits of the so-called elephant apple , of tamarind tree , Kumbhi and the date palm .

In Nepal's Bardia National Park, elephants eat large amounts of Saccharum spontaneum , a wild grass species, especially during the monsoons . In the cold part of the dry season, bark takes up the bulk of their diet. During a study in a humid tropical, mixed deciduous forest area of ​​160 km² in Assam, it was observed that the elephants ate around 20 species of grass, plants and trees. Grasses such as silver hair grass and Leersia hexandra , a marsh grass, are by far the most important component of their diet.

The movement and habitat use patterns of an elephant population were studied in southern India between 1981 and 1983 over an area of ​​1130 km². The vegetation types in this area include dry thorn forest at an altitude of 250 to 400 m, deciduous forest at an altitude of 400 to 1400 m and stunted evergreen forest and grassland at an altitude of 1400 to 1800 m. Five elephant families, each consisting of 50 to 200 individuals, each had an area between 105 and 320 km², which overlapped. They preferred habitats in which water was available and the forage plants were edible. During the dry months from January to April, they gathered at a high density of up to five individuals per square kilometer in the river valley, where the plants have a much higher protein content than the tall grass on mountain slopes. When the rain began in May, they spread out over a wider area, mostly in forests with tall grass, at lower density, to eat fresh grass, which then has a higher protein content. During the second wet season from September to December, when the tall grasses become fibrous, they moved to lower elevations of short-grass forests. The normal movement pattern could have been unbalanced over time by unfavorable environmental conditions. However, the movement pattern of elephants in this region has not changed significantly over the last century, which can be concluded from documented descriptions from the 19th century.

In the Nilgiri Biosphere Reservoir , three elephants had a habitat of 562 km², 670 km² and 799 km² in the early 1990s. During the three-year survey, their annual habitats largely overlapped with only small changes in habitats over the years.

threat

The main living space consists of wooded area

A calf in Nagarhole National Park with a wound on the head, suggesting a possible attack by a leopard or tiger

Ivory chopsticks

The greatest threat to the Asian elephant today is the loss, degradation and fragmentation of the habitat, which are caused by the increasing human population; this in turn leads to conflicts between humans and elephants when the elephants eat or trample fields. The loss of suitable habitat for the elephants continues; Their freedom of movement is restricted by dams and reservoirs, numerous plantations, roads, railways, mining and the expansion of industry. Elephant calves also have natural predators.

In some parts of Asia, elephant poaching because of ivory is a serious threat. Poaching for tusks affects the sex ratio in favor of the females; this reduces genetic variation and decreases reproductive and recruiting. Poaching has severely distorted the gender ratio in Periyar National Park : The gender ratio (male: female) changed from 1: 6 to 1: 122 between 1969 and 1989.

Frequent conflicts between humans and elephants and railway accidents with fatal outcomes for elephants led to setbacks in elephant protection in northern West Bengal. The railway line between Siliguri and Alipurduar crosses several forest areas over a length of 74 kilometers. Every day 20 trains run at high speed on this route. Elephants, which move from one section of the forest to the other, run into a train and die. Between 1958 and 2008 a total of 39 dead elephants were counted; ten of them died between 2004 and 2008.

In Bangladesh, forests, the elephants' essential habitat, are declining dramatically. This has a strong impact on the wild elephant population. The loss and fragmentation of the habitat is attributed to the increasing human population and the need for firewood and useful wood. Illegal logging plays an important role in deforestation and habitat degradation. As a result of the shrinking habitat, there were more and more direct confrontations between elephants and humans.

In Myanmar, the demand for elephant ivory for making souvenirs is higher than ever. The military government shows little interest in reducing the ivory trade. Following the global ivory ban, the price of raw ivory in the country rocketed from $ 76 per kilo for a large tusk in 1989/1990 to over $ 200 per kilo in the mid-1990s. Foreign tourists are responsible for the massive rise in the price of ivory tusks, fueling the illegal killing of elephants. There is also a sizable trade in ivory chopsticks and carvings which are smuggled into China from Myanmar by traders .

Young, wild-born elephants are separated from their mothers in Myanmar in order to be used in Thailand's tourist industry. The mothers are often killed and the calves are placed next to unrelated cows to make them feel like they are with their mothers. The calves are often exposed to a risk process that includes being tied up, locked up, starved, beaten and tortured. Two thirds are killed.

protection

Indian elephant in the zoo

Elephas maximus is listed in CITES (Washington Convention on Endangered Species) Appendix I. The Elephant Project was started in 1992 by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Government of India to provide financial and technical support for wildlife management for their wild Asian elephant populations. The project aims to ensure the long-term survival of viable, conservation-dependent populations of elephants in their natural habitat by protecting the elephants, their habitat and their migration corridors. Other goals of the Elefant project are to support research into the ecology and organization of elephants, to raise awareness of protection among the local population and to provide improved veterinary care for captured elephants.

See also

• Sri Lankan Elephant
• Sumatran elephant
• Borneo pygmy elephant

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Elephas maximus (Asian Elephant, Indian Elephant). In: www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved April 6, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Shoshani, J., Eisenberg, JF (1982). Elephas maximus . Mammalian Species 182: 1-8.
3. ↑ Shoshani, J. (2006). Taxonomy, Classification, and Evolution of Elephants In: Fowler, ME, Mikota, SK (eds.) Biology, medicine, and surgery of elephants. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-8138-0676-3 . pp. 3-14.
4. ^ Pillai, NG (1941). On the height and age of an elephant . Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 42: 927-928.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Sukumar, R. (1993). The Asian Elephant: Ecology and Management Second edition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43758-X
6. ^ Elephant population in India . Government of India.
7. ↑ Bhatta, SR (2006) Efforts to conserve the Asian elephant in Nepal . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group 25: 87-89.
8. ↑ Samansiri, KAP, Weerakoon, DK (2007). Feeding Behavior of Asian Elephants in the Northwestern Region of Sri Lanka . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group. Number 2: 27-34.
9. ↑ Sukumar, R. (1990). Ecology of the Asian Elephant in southern India. II. Feeding habits and crop raiding patterns ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Journal of Tropical Ecology (1990) 6: 33-53. 
10. ↑ Pradhan, NMB, Wegge, P., Moe, SR, Shrestha, AK (2008). Feeding ecology of two endangered sympatric megaherbivores: Asian elephant Elephas maximus and greater one-horned rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis in lowland Nepal . Wildlife Biology 14: 147-154.
11. ↑ Borah, J., Deka, K. (2008). Nutritional Evaluation of Forage Preferred by Wild Elephants in the Rani Range Forest, Assam, India . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group 28: 41-43.
12. ↑ Sukumar, R. (1989). Ecology of the Asian elephant in southern India. l. Movement and habitat utilization patterns ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Journal of Tropical Ecology 5: 1-18. 
13. ↑ Baskaran, N., Desai, AA (1996). Ranging behavior of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, South India . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group 15: 41-57.
14. ↑ Joshi, R. (2009), " Asian Elephant's Elephas maximus Behavior in the Rajaji National Park, North-West India: Eight Years with Asian Elephant " (PDF), Nature and Science 7 (1): 49-77
15. ↑ Chandran, PM (1990). Population dynamics of elephants in Periyar Tiger Reserve . Pages 51-56 in: CK Karunakaran (ed.) Proceedings of the Symposium on Ecology, Behavior and Management of Elephants in Kerala . Kerala Forest Department, Trivandrum, India.
16. ^ Roy, M. Baskaran, N., Sukumar, R. (2009). The Death of Jumbos on Railway Tracks in Northern West Bengal . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group 31: 36-39.
17. ↑ Islam, M.–A. (2006). Conservation of the Asian elephant in Bangladesh . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group 25: 21-26.
18. ^ Vigne, L., Martin, E. (2002). Myanmar's ivory trade threatens wild elephants . Gajah: Journal of the IUCN / SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group 21: 85-86.
19. ↑ M. Shand: The agonizing blows that expose the evil secrets of Thailand's elephant tourism con: The Duchess of Cornwall's brother tells how baby elephants are brutally starved and tortured . In: Daily Mail , July 21, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2012. 
20. ↑ Tourism driving illegal elephant trade in Burma and Thailand - video . In: guardian.co.uk , July 24, 2012. 
21. ^ Project Elephant . wildlifeofindia.org.
22. ^ Project Elephant . Government of India.

literature

• GP Sanderson (1907): Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India: their haunts and habits from personal observation: with an account of the modes of capturing and taming elephants . John Grant, Edinburgh. 8th edition in 2000 by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi. ISBN 81-206-1464-X , ISBN 978-81-206-1464-2

Web links

Commons : Indian Elephant ( Elephas maximus indicus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files