Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms: Elephas maximus Holmre, 

1766; Elephas indicus Kelaart, 1852; 

Elephas sumatranus Schlgel 1861. 

English names: Asian Elephant, Indian Elephant. Local names: Hati, Hosti, Oirabot. 

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Description: Largest and haviest land mammal of Bangladesh, with long trunk and very broad ears. Looks grey with thick loose, sparsely covered hairy skin. Male larger than female. Long trunk, sail-like ears that make it an easily recognized animal. Head very large, neck short, body bulky. Limbs thick and very straight and are about equal in length (Finn,1999). Double-domed forehead and ears triangular (Menon, 2003). Eyes tiny but vision keen. Nostril and upper lip elongated into a proboscis, which is powerful and sensitive organ specialised as prehensile, food gathering structure. Ers large, triangular; skin thick and loose, sparsely covered with hairs. The niale elephant has modified incisor teeth known as tusks while the females have small dental protuberance known as tusks. The tusk may grow up to 1.8 m and a pair may weigh 72-73 kg (Prater, 1971). Tusk may have up to 27 ridges across the crown (Khan, 1985). 

Upper incisors in male protrude from the mouth on either side of the trun as tusks. Tail includes a row of long coarse hairs before behind and around the tip. Tail comparatively short with tassel of bristles (Kabir, 2002). Legs pillar-like . All the five toes jointed into cine pad , but the circular sole on soft padded, and palm each has 4 and 5 nails respectively (Khan, 1985). Some males, known as makhnas, are tuskless and are distinguished from adult females by the penis that bulges under the tail. Colour: deep grey. Size: length 6.5 m, shoulder height 2.4-2.7 m and weight 3 tones (Menon, 2003). 

Habits: A social animal and found in herds of 5-60 or more with closely relates individuals e.g., a mature bull, a number of cows and calves, and some younger bulls. The females and young are gregarious in habit, but the males are often solitary. Fond of bathing and wallowing during the hot weather and often take up dust etc., to cover their back while exposed to the sun. They also squirt water over themselves with the help of the trunk. They are restless, but remain quiet during the mid­ day. Migrate over along distances in search of food and water, or for security. Use the same forest corridors for many hundreds of years. If their corridor is blocked they enter human settlements. Feeds on grasses, banana plants, bamboo, tree barks, leaves, fruits, flowers, grass and other vegetations and also raid crops. Elephants use their dextrous trunk to pluck at grasses and pass them into their mouths, the aver_age daily intake of food is about 150 kg of vegetation (Animal Diversity Web, 2009). They need 80-200 litres of water a day. It produces sound with deep oonks by its trunk (Khan, 2008). The elephants breed mainly between March and June (Khan, 2008). The bull reaches sexual maturity at the age of 15, while cows mature earlier. The cow at the age of 9-15 years gives birth usually to a single young after a gestation period of 22 months. Twins are rare. The newborn, which may be 0.9 m tall weighing about 90 kg grows rapidly (Kabir, 2002; Menon, 2003). The calf runs under its mother's body when quite small. The calf starts to eat grass when 6 months of age. Males have home ranges of about 15 sq km, and herds of females of about 30 sq km (larger in the dry season). When a The cow at the age of 9-15 years gives birth usually to a single young after a gestation period of 22 months. Twins are rare. The newborn, which may be 0.9 m tall weighing about 90 kg grows rapidly (Kabir, 2002; Menon, 2003). The calf runs under its mother's body when quite small. The calf starts to eat grass when 6 months of age. Males have home ranges of about 15 sq km, and herds of females of about 30 sq km (larger in the dry season). When a potential predator such as a lion or tiger threatens a calf, the adults form a defensive circle with the calf in the middle. Adult elephants are probably not susceptible to predation by any species other than humans. The Asian Elephant may live as long as 70 years. 

Habitat: Inhabits mixed deciduous forests and adjacent villages, evergreen, semi-evergreen forests, scrubs, tea states, grasslands, marshes, savannas and lowlands. 

Distribution: In Bangladesh the species occurs in mixed evergreen forests of Southeast and Northeast Bangladesh including Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Teknaf Penninsula and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It also lives n deciduous forests and adjacent villages in the northern border of Bangladesh. Although once elephants were found in the forests of Sylhet and Madhupur, now in Bangladesh they are available only in certain areas of Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Occasionally wild elephants from Indian territory enter in Balijpur and Durgaptl:F areas of Mymensingh, and Patharika areas of Sy,ett (Kabir, 2002). Its range extends through India Sri\ Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and China (extinct in the wild), Brunei, Bhutan to Southeast Asia (Asmat and Hannan, 2007). Asian elephants were formerly widely distributed south of the Himalayas, throughout Southeast Asia, and in China as far north as the Yangtze River (Animal Diversity Web, 2008).

Copy from

Encyclopedia of flora and fauna of  Bangladesh