Asian elephant

The Asian elephant is the biggest land animal in Asia. It has thick grey skin, a long curly trunk, and a tall, gently rounded back. It is a little smaller than its cousin in Africa, and it has smaller ears too. Only some of the males grow long white tusks, so many Asian elephants have no tusks at all.

An elephant's trunk is the most useful part of its body. It is really a very long nose and top lip joined together, with one soft fingerlike tip at the end. The elephant uses its trunk to smell, to drink, to greet its friends, and to pick up food. It can wrap around a whole branch or lift up a single leaf.

Asian elephants are plant eaters. They munch grasses, leaves, bark, roots, and fruit, and they spend most of the day looking for food. A grown elephant can eat well over a hundred kilograms of plants every day, so it needs a lot of space to find enough to fill its tummy. On hot afternoons, elephants like to rest in the shade and flap their big ears to stay cool.

Elephants live in close family groups. A herd is usually made up of mothers, aunts, and their calves, who look after one another and help raise the babies together. Young male elephants leave the group when they grow up and often wander on their own. A newborn calf can already stand and walk soon after it is born.

There are fewer Asian elephants in the wild than there once were, and they are an endangered animal. Much of the forest they need has been cleared to make farms and towns, which leaves them less room to roam. Many people are now working to protect wild places and to help elephants and farmers live safely as neighbours.