The Amazing World of Asian Elephants

Minneriya lies in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province, and its appeal to the elephants and other wildlife is that there is a guaranteed supply of water available throughout the year, along with food. Elephants require large amounts of water for drinking, consuming up to 200 litres (44 gallons) daily, and must also bathe regularly, to keep their skin in good condition. They have big appetites as well. An adult elephant will typically eat 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of plant matter every day. AN ANCIENT MONUMENT What may be less apparent to visitors today is that the lake lying in the park is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made structure, created by an ancient Sri Lankan civilisation. It was constructed by King Mahasena (277-304), when he ruled over the Anuradhapura…

The elephant lineage had split away from primates about 80 million years ago, although not all members of the group looked like modern elephants. However, a number of proboscideans living during the Eocene (56-34 million years ago) epoch resembled modern-day elephants to a much greater extent. A typical example was Palaeomastodon, which had a very evident trunk, although it also possessed two sets of tusks. The lower set was flattened, and probably served to scoop up plant matter into the mouth, as with Platybelodon. Stegodon is believed to have been one of the largest proboscideans that ever existed. These giants lived across much of Asia, with their range extending to Africa. They could measure up to 4m (13ft) at the shoulder, with a body length of double that figure, not…

In various parts of mainland Asia, especially in western areas of their former range such as Syria, elephants have already gone extinct and they are right on the edge in others like China, where just over 200 individuals are believed to survive. They are most critically endangered in Vietnam, however, where their population has shrunk to barely a hundred. LIFESTYLE Elephants live in what is described as a matriarchal society, with herds being led by an older female. Males become largely solitary by nature, once they are mature. They undergo a period of so-called ‘musth’ each year, when they turn very unpredictable and dangerous. Their behaviour is triggered by an increased output of the hormone testosterone, and this is the stage at which mating occurs. COMMUNICATION Individual elephants can keep…

TELLING THEM APART The Asian elephant can be recognised not only by its smaller overall size, but also it has decidedly smaller ears, compared with the African species. From a distance away, a further point of distinction is that the back of an Asian elephant is flatter than that of an African elephant, which has a slightly concave appearance. African elephants also have an extra pair or two of ribs. In Asian elephants, the tip of the trunk has just a single finger-like projection, whereas there are two present in the case of African elephants. This affects the way that they feed, with Asian elephants wrapping their trunk around vegetation and pulling, while their African relatives tend to pluck their food more delicately. If you look inside their mouths, the…

In spite of their name though, white elephants are not always pure white in colour, as the circus entrepreneur P. T. Barnum discovered to his cost, having purchased a white elephant called Toung Taloung in 1884 from the King of Burma at great expense. Unfortunately, she was only partly pale in colour. When she arrived on a boat with her handler, the pale areas of her body were also more pinkish than white. This is because although the dark melanin pigment is not present in the skin of white individuals, the blood vessels here just below the surface create a pinkish colour. SRI LANKA’S WHITE ELEPHANT There was great excitement when Sri Lanka’s first white elephant was confirmed in 2004. Various rumours of sightings in the area of the Yala…

AN ANCIENT FESTIVAL One of the most famous events that links both Buddhist and Hindu traditions is Sri Lanka’s Festival of the Sacred Tooth. The ceremonies last for 10 days, and typically occur in July or August, with the exact dates being determined by the lunar calendar. One of Buddha’s teeth that survived the flames of his cremation was passed to the King of Kalinga in southern India, where this precious object was displayed in a temple in the capital Dantapura. During the fourth century, however, with war threatening, the tooth was then send for safety to Sri Lanka, where it was highly prized. The ruler there decreed that it would be taken through the streets every year so that ordinary people could see it. One of the earliest accounts…