Endangered Species of The Week:        The Asian Elephant

Scientific Name: Elephas maximus

 

The elephant is Earth’s largest land animal, although the Asian elephant is slightly smaller than its African cousin. Asian elephants can be identified by their smaller, rounded ears. They live in forested regions of India and throughout Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. About a third of Asian elephants live in captivity.

The Asian elephantis classified as Endangered by the IUCN. Its population has declined by an estimated 50 percent over the past 75 years, and there are an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Asian elephants left in the wild.

Fun Facts:

• An elephant’s trunk contains about 100,000 different muscles.  It’s used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and grabbing things.
• An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds of food in a single day.
• Elephants are widely viewed as one of Earth’s most intelligent animals. They demonstrate a wide variety of behaviors associated with high intelligence, including compassion, mimicry, grief, altruism, use of tools, and self-awareness.
• According to Hindu mythology, the gods (deva) and the demons (asura) churned the oceans in a search for the elixir of life so that they would become immortal. As they did so, nine jewels surfaced, one of which was the elephant. In Hinduism, the powerful deity honored before all sacred rituals is the elephant-headed Lord Ganesha, who is also called the Remover of Obstacles.

What is Threatening Them?

HABITAT LOSS AND FRAGMENTATION

The biggest threat to Asian elephants is habitat loss and fragmentation. Asia is the most populous continent on Earth, where development and economic growth have led to encroachment into places where elephants live. This has led to an average of 70% of elephants being found outside protected areas today. Expanding human settlements, plantations, industry, farming, mining, and linear infrastructure (roads, railway lines, irrigation canals, etc.) have squeezed elephant populations into smaller pockets of forest surrounded by human settlements that often block traditional migratory routes.

GENETIC THREAT FROM EXTIRPATION OF SMALL POPULATIONS

Elephants confined to smaller populations as a result of habitat loss are at a higher risk of becoming wiped out due to natural disasters, disease, inbreeding, and more.

HUMAN-ELEPHANT CONFLICT

Another significant threat to elephants is human-elephant conflict. With a significant portion of the elephant population living outside protected areas, most of which contain agricultural lands and human settlements, interactions between elephants and humans have been on the rise. These encounters, often negative, lead to crop and property loss, injury, and death. These impacts may cause humans to retaliate against elephants, often with lethal outcomes.

POACHING AND ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE

Even where suitable habitat exists, poaching remains a threat to elephants in many areas. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a global agreement among governments to regulate or ban international trade in species under threat, banned the international trade in elephant ivory. However, there are still places where the trade is thriving, and unregulated domestic ivory markets in a number of countries fuel the illegal international trade. Although most of this ivory comes from poaching of African elephants, Asian elephants (tusked males) are also illegally hunted for their ivory. There is also a steady market for other elephant products, such as skin, tail hair, and meat, which continues to fuel poaching, a significant threat to already small elephant populations found in many of these countries.

CAPTURE OF WILD ELEPHANTS

The illegal capture of wild elephants and elephant calves for various purposes, such as tourism, has become a threat to some wild populations, significantly affecting population numbers. India, Vietnam, and Myanmar have banned capture in order to conserve their wild herds, but illegal captures still occur in a number of countries where elephants live.

Why Are They Important?

A future for Asian elephants ensures a future for other species and wild spaces. By protecting elephants, we also protect other animals that live in their habitat.

Asian elephants help to maintain the integrity of forest and grassland habitats. Their large size enables the creation of pathways through dense forests along which they travel, which then creates access for other wildlife.

Asian elephants may spend up to 19 hours a day feeding, and they can produce about 220 pounds of dung per day while wandering around an area that can cover up to 125 square miles. This helps to disperse germinating seeds.

What Is Being Done?

Wildlife Without Borders, a program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is working to mitigate human-elephant conflict and stop poaching by supporting conservation projects that seek to identify ways to alleviate human-elephant conflict, increase law enforcement capacity to monitor illegal logging and poaching, and conduct community outreach and awareness to inspire pride and optimistic views about Asian elephants in range countries.

The United States Congress passed the Asian Elephant Conservation Act in 1997, which established a fund to protect the Asian elephant and conserve its habitat. The 2011 Congressional appropriation of $1.5 million to the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund allowed the Service to support 29 vital elephant conservation projects in Asia, including in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia.

Since 1989, Wildlife Without Borders has provided over 2,700 grants for international conservation totaling more than $100 million. The United States has worked with nearly 700 partners in developing countries, who have contributed more than $200 million in matching support for grant projects, tripling the impact of American funding. The United States remains committed to working with international partners to protect Asian elephants and other endangered species.

Sources

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/asian-elephant/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/asian-elephant

https://editorials.voa.gov/a/protecting-asian-elephants-09-02-12/1500954.html

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