Study on the social behavior of male Asian elephants
As human-elephant conflicts increase with time and expanding human range, understanding social behavior becomes crucial to the conservation and management of the highly social and endangered Asian elephant (Elephasmaximusindicus).
Context
As human-elephant conflicts increase with time and expanding human range, understanding social behavior becomes crucial to the conservation and management of the highly social and endangered Asian elephant (Elephasmaximusindicus).
- A study is being conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous Institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
About the Asian elephants
- IUCN STATUS: Endangered
- It is kept under Appendix I of the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory.
- POPULATION: Fewer than 50,000
- The Asian elephant is the largest land mammal on the Asian continent.
- They inhabit dry to wet forest and grassland habitats in 13 range countries spanning South and Southeast Asia.
- Asian elephants are extremely sociable, forming groups of six to seven related females that are led by the oldest female, the matriarch.
- In Asia, elephant herd sizes are significantly smaller than those of Savannah elephants in Africa.
- In India, the Asian elephant was once widely distributed throughout the country, including in states like Punjab and
- Currently, they are found in four fragmented populations, in the south, north, central and northeast India.
- Their habitat ranges from wet tropical evergreen forests to semi-arid thorn and scrub forests. However, the highest densities of the elephant population are found in tropical deciduous forests.
- Elephants are ‘megaherbivores’ that require vast tracts of forests, rich in food and water to survive.
