Today, these elephants, which used to live across large parts of Asia, occupy only 15% of their original ranges. With about 100,000 of these gentle giants existing at the beginning of the 20th Century, their numbers have rapidly dwindled to lower than 50% of that figure over the past few decades.

Today, the Asian elephant has been categorized as ‘Endangered’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The elephants also require large intakes of water on a regular basis, the volume of which ranges between 21 and 53 gallons (80-200 liters) of water daily. Often, the act of raiding farmers’ crops by elephant herds results in serious human-animal conflicts, which can even end in the death or injury to either the elephants or humans involved. The foraging techniques of these pachyderms involves both grazing and browsing activities, and their diet consists of grasses, barks, roots, stems, and the leaves of trees, as well as crops growing on human-cultivated lands, such as bananas and sugarcane. Consumption of such large volumes of food is crucial to the survival of these elephants. DietĪsian elephants can be classified as 'mega-herbivores', as they are completely dependent on herbivory and consume up to 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of vegetation each day. Such statistics exhibit a pattern that is believed to correspond to the prevalence of hunting in their respective areas, with tusks being especially sought after in Sri Lanka. Some populations, like the Sri Lankan elephants, have only 5% of their males being 'tuskers', as compared to 90% in nearby states in southern India. Depending on the subspecies, male elephants usually possess tusks, which are used to dig up the ground, debark trees, or as a weapon of defense. The trunk alone has about 100,000 individual muscles, accounting for the efficiency and work capacity of this unique appendage. The Asian elephant possesses one such fingerlike projection at the end of its trunk, while African elephants' trunks have a pair of them. There are fingerlike structures at the ends of these trunks, which are primarily used to hold onto objects with a firm grip.

The trunk can be used for multiple purposes like breathing, smelling, sucking in water, producing their characteristic 'trumpeting' sounds, as well as for grabbing and picking up objects. The most interesting part of these elephants’ physical features are their highly functional and agile trunks, which are actually an extension of the nose and upper lip, ending in nostrils at the bottom of the trunk. These elephants are dark gray to brown in color and have pinkish patches on their ears, trunks, and some other areas of their bodies. Their heights at their shoulders range between 6.6 and 9.8 feet (2 to 3 meters) and their weights lie between 2.25 and 5.5 tons (2,041 to 4,990 kilograms). The largest terrestrial animals of Asia, and the second largest elephant species in the world, Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus) differ from their African counterparts in terms of their smaller size and shorter ears. Asian Elephant Facts: Animals of Asia Now an Endangered species, Asian Elephants, such as this one in Thailand, have long been important beasts of burden in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Asian elephant outline