Sumatran elephant
| Sumatran elephant | ||||||||||||
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Sumatran elephant, mother with newborn baby (photo from Tesso Nilo National Park ) |
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| Elephas maximus sumatranus | ||||||||||||
| Temminck , 1847 |
The Sumatran elephant ( Elephas maximus sumatranus ) is one of the three currently recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant . It is endemic to Sumatra is home and is on the red list of IUCN threatened with extinction (critically endangered) classified.
features
Sumatran elephants are the smallest subspecies of the Asian elephant with a shoulder height of 2 to 3.2 meters and two to four tons in weight. They also show a number of characteristics that are considered to be relatively original, which distinguish them from other subspecies. With 20 pairs, for example, they have one more pair of ribs , relatively large ears and less pigmentation, so that they appear lighter. They may also have more tusks .
threat
The elephants on Sumatra are mainly dependent on the forests of the lowlands as a habitat. As these forests are increasingly being converted into agricultural areas and settlements, the elephants repeatedly come into conflict with humans, which often ends in their displacement or killing. Individual specimens that have been captured by the government in the past are now used as part of human-led "elephant patrols" to prevent their wild conspecifics from crossing over to farmland and thus prevent conflicts with the population. In addition, they are threatened by poaching because of their ivory . While around half of Sumatra's forests were still intact in the mid-1980s and elephants were found in 44 populations in all eight provinces of the island , around 69% of the available habitat has been lost since then and the remaining forest remains are often too small to contain another to provide suitable habitat for elephants. Within three generations, the Sumatran elephant population is believed to have declined by at least 80%. The habitat destruction and the decline hold it to continue.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Elephas maximus ssp. sumatranus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: Gopala, A., Hadian, O., Sunarto, Sitompul, A., Williams, A. Leimgruber, P., Chambliss, SE & Gunaryadi, D. ., 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
- ↑ Murray E. Fowler, Susan K. Mikota: Biology, Medicine, and Surgery of Elephants . Blackwell Publishing, Ames 2006, ISBN 978-0-8138-0676-1 , pp. 8 .
- ^ Welttierschutzgesellschaft eV: Elephants in Indonesia. A better life for the Sumatran elephants. Retrieved February 2, 2018 .