VMD 512: Zoo/Wild Animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

Difference between African and Asiatic elephants

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASIATIC AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS

Details	African elephants	Asiatic elephants
Size	Larger	Smaller
Bull-weight in Kg	4100-5000	3700-4500
Cow-weight in Kg	2300-4000	2300-3700
Height at shoulder in mt (Bull)	2.7-3.2	2.4-2.9
Height at shoulder in mt (Cow)	2.3-2.7	2.1-2.4
Ears	Larger	Comparatively smaller
Highest point	At the shoulder	At the middle of the back
Trunk	Small	Large
Surface of trunk	Transverse ridges and grooves on the trunk	More or less uniform
Tip of trunk	Two finger like processes at the tip of the trunk	Only one finger like process
Tusks	Present in both sexes and are larger	Present in males only and are smaller comparatively. Some times, smaller ones called tushes may be present.
Dip	Marked dip is present on the back between fore and hind quarters	Back has unbroken convex curve
Face	Elongated and narrow face with flat fore head	Face is with twin domed fore head
Nails in fore limb	Four nails in each fore feet	Five nails each on fore feet and some times, four each.
Nails in hind limb	Four nails in each hind feet	Four nails each on hind feet; sometimes five each
Skin	Coarser and lacks the depigmentation areas	Smooth with white or pinkish depigmented areas
Temporal gland secretion	Present in both males and females	Present in males only.
Intelligence	Less intelligent and is difficult to domesticate	More intelligent and is easy to domesticate