🐘
🏷️
Classification
Mammal
🍽️
Diet
Herbivore
⏱️
Lifespan
60–70 years
⚖️
Weight
2000–5000 kg
Population Trend
📉Decreasing
Description
The Sri Lankan Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) is a mammal indigenous to Sri Lanka. It inhabits tropical forests, grasslands, and scrublands in the lowland dry and wet zones.
Habitat
🌿 tropical forests🌿 grasslands🌿 and scrublands in the lowland dry and wet zones
Extended Data
Taxonomy
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Proboscidea
Family
Elephantidae
Genus
Elephas
Fun Facts
1
The Sri Lankan elephant is the largest of the three Asian elephant subspecies
2
Only about 6% of males develop tusks — the highest tuskless rate among Asian elephants
3
Listed as Endangered with habitat loss and human-elephant conflict being the primary threats
4
In Sri Lankan culture, elephants are sacred — the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy features an annual procession (Esala Perahera) with ornately decorated elephants
5
They play a crucial ecological role as 'ecosystem engineers,' creating clearings in dense forest that benefit other species