Asian Elephant

With the African elephant, it is the largest and heaviest terrestrial mammal in the world: a male can measure 3.5 meters at the shoulder and weigh up to 5 tons. In addition to its slightly smaller size, the Asian elephant differs from its African cousin by its narrower ears, its trunk with only one “finger” instead of two, and two bumps on the top of the skull.

Only males have long, visible tusks.

The trunk is an extraordinary organ, the result of a fusion between the nose and the upper lip: flexible and very sensitive, it can weigh up to 100 kg and is powered by about 150,000 muscles, some of which are used to move it in all directions, and others to contract or relax the two ducts that correspond to our nostrils.

Living in family groups led by a matriarch, elephants roam forests and savannas in search of food, consisting exclusively of plant material: they can consume more than 200 kg per day.

In the past, they lived all over Asia where they were highly respected, but nowadays, with their natural habitat more limited, only a small population survives in the wild.