Elephants of Asia at the LA Zoo

Elephants of Asia

Los Angeles Zoo at Griffith Park: On December 16, 2010, the Los Angeles Zoo has opened its long awaited Elephants of Asia habitat with three Asian elephants: Billy, Jewel and Tina. While Tina and Jewel are older cows and will not be able to produce offspring, the Los Angeles Zoo’s hope is to bring in more cows so that Billy will have some offspring and the LA Zoo can help to build a population of this dying species of elephants.

Elephants are the world’s largest living land mammals. Male Asian elephants grow up to 11 feet tall and weigh six tons. Females are generally smaller. Compared to African elephants, Asian elephants are smaller overall, with noticeably smaller ears. They have just one “finger” on the top of trunk (Africans have two). Their foreheads are more rounded with two “lobes,” and their backs are more arched.

Asian elephant skin is less wrinkled and may appear browner than their African counterparts. Whereas most male and female African elephants have tusks, only male Asian elephants have tusks; female Asian elephants have small, rudimentary “tushes.”
Tusks

Tusks serve to dig for water, salt, and rocks, to debark trees, as leers for maneuvering fallen trees and branches, for work, for display, for marking trees, as weapon for offense and defense, as trunk-rests, as protection for the trunk, as lawn carriers for house building. They are known to be right or left tusked.

Female Asian elephants usually lacks tusks; if tusks — in that case called "tushes" — are present, they are barely visible, and only seen when they open the mouth. The enamel plates of the molars are greater in number and closer together in Asian elephants. Some males may also lack tusks; these individuals are called "filsy makhnas", and are especially common among the Sri Lankan elephant population. Furthermore, the forehead has two hemispherical bulges, unlike the flat front of the African elephant. Unlike African elephants which rarely use their forefeet for anything other than digging or scraping soil, Asian elephants are more agile at using their feet in conjunction with the trunk for manipulating objects. They can sometimes be known for their violent behavior.

A record tusk described by George P. Sanderson measured 5 ft (1.5 m) along the curve, with a birth of 16 in (41 cm) at the point of emergence from the jaw, the weight being 1041⁄2 lb (47 kg). This was from an elephant killed by Sir V. Brooke and measured 8 ft (2.4 m) in length, and nearly 17 in (43 cm) in circumference, and weighed 90 lb (41 kg). The tusk's weight was, however, exceeded by the weight of a shorter tusk of about 6 ft (1.8 m) in length which weighed 100 lb (45 kg).