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Asian Elephant
Common name for the largest living land animal in Asia
and the national animal of
Thailand
(fig.), with the scientific name Elephas maximus. The
Asian
Elephant
is naturally
a
forest dweller but
actually roams through a
vast range of topography
to a height of 1,700
meters.
They live in
medium sized
herds of mostly females and their calves.
Female elephants are pregnant for 22
months. The males
leave the herd around puberty
and
live
solitary or in small temporary
groups. The weight of a fully grown Asian elephant can vary, but on average,
male Asian elephants weigh between 2,000 to 4,990 kilograms, while females
typically weigh between 1,350 to 3,990 kilograms.
It is
usually stated that elephants eat about 10 percent of their body weight and
that a full-grown elephant may consume as much as 300 to 400 kilograms of
food each day, but the specific amount may vary per animal depending on
factors like size, age, health, and the quality of available food sources,
which usually consists of a mix of grasses, leaves, bark, fruits, and other
vegetation. Their
daily water intake is around
115 to 190 litres, although this can vary based on factors such as climate,
diet, and individual needs. For chewing, it has large ridged molars, known as
krahm chang
(กรามช้าง -
fig.).
Those continue to grow throughout their lifetime, growing from the back
towards the front, thus pushing the older ones ever forward as the newer
ones grow,
eventually puhing the old one out completely.
This slow process, somewhat reminiscent of a conveyor belt, happens up to
six times in their lifespan. Besides several high pinched sounds that are unhearable to humans and with which
elephants communicate over distances as far away as 10 kms, they are able to
produce
another
five
trumpet-like sounds.
For eating as well as
for producing sound elephants use their
trunk, a movable elongated prehensile nose made up of more than 150,000 separate
muscles.
There are
no perspiratory glands on an elephant's skin, yet instead they
sweat from their toes (fig.).
In addition, their oversized droopy skin creates a natural cooling system and
they
flap their ears to control their body temperature,
as
the draught created by the fluttering cools the internal capillaries.
Behind the
ears, elephants have sensetive nerves, which
mahouts
(fig.) pinch with
the feet to steer their animal.
If
an elephant spreads its ears and points its tail
upwards, it is a telltale sign that it
is
getting annoyed or angry and one should take extra caution.
In Thai
history the Asian Elephant played a major
role in the construction of temples
and palaces, and in the exploitation
of
teak forests
(fig.).
In the
Army, it was an important means of
transport and legendary
battles were often fought on elephant
backs (fig.).
They can run up to
23 kms
per hour.
Nowadays a
large number of animals are employed in the tourist industry offering shows (fig.)
and rides, both in nature (fig.)
and in cities that attract visitors (fig.),
though they are often still used for wood logging during the rainy season.
They
haul the felled trees out of the
jungle and into the river. The felled trees then float downstream on the
rain-swollen waters.
The approximate age and height of an elephant can be determined by its
footprint, since its shoulder height is exactly twice the circumference of its
footprint.
Thai
law compels that working elephants
retire at the age of sixty-one, and sometimes they are released back into the
wild, were they can live up to the age of eighty. The country also has a
hospital for elephants, located in
Lampang and known in Thai as
rohng phayaban chang khong moonlaniti pheuan chang
(fig.).
Thailand has around 3,000 domesticated elephants, whilst its wild elephant
population has plummeted from 4,000 twenty years ago to an estimated 1,000 to
1,500 today (fig.),
although proper data is lacking.
Sadly, on 5 October 2019, six wild
elephants
died at Haew Narok, a three level
waterfall
(fig.)
in
Khao Yai
National Park
(fig.),
after falling into the waterfall when trying to help a circa 3 year old
elephant calf that had fallen into the first tier of the cascade. The
elephants were swept away and drowned, and their bodies ended up at the base
of the waterfall, that on this day seemed to live up to its name. Rescue
workers were able to save two other exhausted and struggling elephants from
the cliff near the waterfall, using ropes.
In the past
wild elephants were
caught
by snaring them with a lasso (fig.)
or by driving them into a
phaniad,
i.e. an elephant
kraal (fig.),
an event which is commemorated in the annual
Elephant
Round-up, a festival in
Surin
that celebrates Thailand's elephants (fig.).
Unlike African elephants (fig.),
where
ivory
poaching contributed
most to the drastic population decline, Asian elephants have been much more
affected by the rapid loss of habitat. Due to
this wild
elephants
can
occasionally be seen wandering onto roads (fig.).
To warn traffic, special road signs (fig.)
have been introduced (fig.). In 1950, some 60 percent of Thailand was
covered with forest, today it is less than 15 percent, and declining.
Contrary to the African elephant where both male and female elephants
develop tusks, only the Asian bull
wears sizeable
ivory tusks (fig.),
whereas the female Asian Elephant usually lacks tusks or has very small ones.
If small tusks are present, they are usually
barely visible and only seen when the
female opens her mouth. Whereas previously the Asian Elephant was
considered to be a single species, there are now three distinct subspecies
recognized, i.e. Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka (fig.); Elephas maximus indicus from mainland Asia, which includes the
Indian (fig.),
Burmese (fig.)
and Thai elephant;
and Elephas maximus sumatranus from the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
In the history of Thailand, as well as in
ancient India,
there are records of elephants being used in the execution of
condemned prisoners, when one form
of
capital
punishment consisted of
crushing
the convict to death
(fig.).
The latter's head was placed on a stone executioner's block and then trampled on
by an elephant. In a later period, elephants in Thailand were used in the
torture of prisoners by
letting them
kick
a large rattan
takraw ball (fig.),
referred to as the Elephant Ball (fig.),
that on the inside had sharp nails sticking
through, and in which a
prisoner was placed. Elephants are
also often used in metaphors and
Thai proverbs.
Elephants are said to bring good luck and prosperity, and they are often
depicted in art and on souvenirs, and appear as effigies in all sizes and
materials (fig.).
Together with the
bull, the
lion and the
horse, it is one of the four animals, that represent the four stages in the life
of the
Buddha
(fig.).
In Thai called
chang; in Burmese
sain or shaing; and in Sanskrit
karin. See also
Elephant Building,
White Elephant,
elephant trunk pose,
phlaay and
phang,
as well as
WILDLIFE PICTURES
(1),
(2)
and
(3);
THEMATIC STREET LIGHT (1),
(2),
(3),
(4),
(5),
(6),
(7),
(8),
(9),
(10),
(11),
(12),
(13),
(14),
(15),
(16),
(17),
and
(18);
WATCH VIDEO (1),
(2),
(3),
(4),
(5),
(6),
(7)
and
(8);
WATCH VIDEO ENG (1),
(2) and
(3); and
PANORAMA PICTURE.
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