The Asian elephant is one of the largest land animals, standing slightly shorter on average as an

African elephant. Asian elephants can be differentiated from African elephants by their smaller,

rounded ears. (An African elephant's ears are more jagged and much larger.) (1)

 

The skin of an Asian elephant is grey. Some parts of their skin sometimes lack colour, especially

on and around areas of the head, and in older elephants. Young elephants also possess a large

amount of brown-red hair. The amount of hair reduces with age, and the colour darkens. (2)

 

Like most elephants, the Asian elephant possesses tusks. However, the male Asian elephant has

a substantially higher chance of being tusk-less than males of other species of elephant, varying

from just 5% in Sri Lanka to as much as 90% of southern India. Female Asian elephants do not

possess tusks. (2)

 

There are three subspecies of Asian elephant – the Indian, Sumatran and Sri Lankan. The Indian

is the most successful, making up most of the remaining elephants in the wild. The Sri Lankan

Elephant is anatomically the largest, and the Sumatran is the smallest. (1) It is possible that the

Borneo pygmy elephants are another subspecies, though not yet backed by substantial empirical

evidence. (2)