ENDANGERED ASIAN ELEPHANTS

elephant umbrella stand in Vietnam

Asian elephants is listed as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The subspecies Asian elephants sumatranus is Critically Endangered. On the US Federal List they are classified as Endangered. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they are in Appendix I, which lists species that are the most endangered among CITES-listed animals and plants. .[Source: Nikitha Karkala, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

The population of Asian elephants is estimated to be 38,500 to 52,500, with 16,000 in captivity. Asian elephants have been threatened by conflict with humans, poaching, and illegal elephant trade. The main threat is habitat loss and fragmentation — where parts of their habitat are destroyed, leaving smaller, disconnected areas. “They live on the most populous continent on the planet alongside a burgeoning human population, so habitat loss is a significant threat,” Nilanga Jayasinghe, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) expert on Asian elephants and species conservation, told Travel+Leisure. [Source: Mary Jo DiLonardo, Travel+Leisure, January 9, 2024]

Domesticated elephants used to be employed in large numbers for logging in Southeast Asia. Mechanization and deforestation pushed most of them out of that role, and they are now often found at tourist attractions. Animal rights activists are concerned that they are mistreated when used for rides and tourist shows.

Websites and Resources: Save the Elephants savetheelephants.org; International Elephant Foundation elephantconservation.org; Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; BBC Earth bbcearth.com; A-Z-Animals.com a-z-animals.com; Live Science Animals livescience.com; Animal Info animalinfo.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org the world’s largest independent conservation body; National Geographic National Geographic ; Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) iucnredlist.org

Decline of Asian Elephants

In the past, Asian elephants were used in armies to transport supplies and troops across the dense forest habitat. They were also hunted for ivory and their hide. Currently, they are mainly used for to provide power in forestry and logging, religious purposes, ecotourism, and education. .[Source: Nikitha Karkala, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=] At the turn of the 20th century there were 200,000 Asian elephants. In the 1970s there were around 150,000. Now there are between 36,000 and 51,000. Asian elephants are in a worse predicament than African elephants even though the latter get much more attention. The total population of Asian elephant is only about a tenth of the number of African elephants.

"A lot of the attention has tended to go to Africa," Simon Hedges, co-chair of the World Conservation Union (IUCN)'s Asian Elephant Specialist Group, told Reuters. “Asian elephants are somewhat the poor relation ... We really don't know how many elephants there are in Asia. In some countries we don't even know where the elephants are."

Clarence Fernandez of Reuters wrote: Across Asia, elephants are being driven from their homes as people clear forests to build houses, roads or cultivate farms, provoking often violent encounters that claim the lives of scores of humans and elephants every year. Poachers are another threat, hunting them for their tusks, meat, hair and skin. [Source: Clarence Fernandez, Reuters, March 3, 2006]

Elephant expert Cynthia Moss told the Los Angeles Times, “Asian elephants are very endangered. There are only 40,000 of them alive. African elephants, there may be as many as 400,000. But there are estimates that as many as 38,000 elephants are being killed every year by poaching and, with only 400,000 left, they could go extinct in a generation. [Source: Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2010]

Threats to Asian Elephants

According to Animal Diversity Web: The greatest threats to Asian elephants include loss and fragmentation of habitat, human-elephant conflicts, and poaching. Asian elephants are being affected by the loss of their natural habitat due to the expanding human population. Poaching male elephants for their tusks is another major issue affecting Asian elephants. .[Source: Nikitha Karkala, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Since only males have tusks, poaching leads to extremely skewed sex ratios, creating a problem with inbreeding since there aren't enough breeding males. The elephants are also hunted for hide and meat. Poor elephant management in captivity is also a major issue.

Asian elephants are sometimes chained and kept separately. This is a problem because elephants are very social, so they will be negatively affected. Another problem is that elephants rarely reproduce in captivity. Since there are so many elephants in captivity, this makes it difficult for the population size to increase. To help the species recover, poaching for ivory has been banned, and there have been measures taken to conserve the habitat of the Asian elephants. The population is still currently decreasing, but these actions have slowed the decline in the population.

Asian Elephants and Loss of Habitat

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While poaching has been the greatest threat to African elephant populations, loss of habitat by human encroachment has posed the great threat to Asian elephants. These animals require huge tracts f land to feed and migrate. "The scenario is rather bleak," an Indian wildlife official told the Washington Post. "The main problem facing us today is habitat destruction. There is frequent straying into human settlements where they raid the crops and people shoot them. [Source: Washington Post]

Wild elephants are being surrounded and squeezed by human populations and threatened by the transformation of forests into farmland and commercial tea, coffee, oil palm, and rubber plantations. Centuries-old migration routes are disrupted by highways, canals and urban development; low valley habitats are flooded by dams; males are killed for their tusks. A report put out by the organization said the future of the Asian elephant is more precarious than its African counterpart because it lives in "smaller more fragmented groups."

Wide ranging elephants in many ways are more vulnerable to human encroachment than tigers, rhinoceroses and other endangered animals who tend to live in small pockets. Elephants by contrast need large areas to roam and feed in. Squeezed by loss of habitat, elephants attack villages and consume farm crops. In some cases elephants are given preference to people. Villagers who have encroached on government forest lands are driven out by police and their villages are destroyed.

Asian Elephants Hunted and Illegally Taken From the Wild

Jennie Rothenberg Gritz wrote in Smithsonian magazine: “In general, poachers, who are primarily interested in ivory, don’t hunt Asian elephants with the same avarice they show African elephants. Female Asian elephants usually don’t have tusks at all, and only some Asian males have prominent ones. But wanton killing does occur. In 2018, the Smithsonian researchers and their partners reported that seven of the elephants they’d fitted with GPS collars in Myanmar had been poached for their meat or skin. “We found entire groups of elephants that had been slaughtered, including calves and cows, and skinned,” said Leimgruber, the Smithsonian conservation biologist. “That’s not a response to an attack.” [Source: Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian magazine, April 2020]

Gillian Murdoch of Reuters wrote: “While tourism has become the only game in town for most of Asia's captive elephants, the industry's growth could also be a threat to dwindling wild populations, conservationists fear. "There are suggestions that elephants are being illegally caught or even being smuggled into Thailand to replace the ones that are dying," said Hedges, referring to elephants dying in camps in the north where they are used for tourist jungle treks. [Source: Gillian Murdoch, Reuters, December 23, 2007]

Once wild animals are sucked out of their forest habitats, there is little chance for "tamed" elephants to go back. Reintroducing captive elephants to forests is neither easy to do, nor a conservation priority, Hedges said. "The priority is that you work with the wild animals, and don't direct too much attention or resources to reintroduction or returning captive elephants back to the wild," he said.

The problem of illegal elephant capture and smuggling is a big problem in India. In November 2010, AP reported: Five people were arrested and three wild elephants seized as Indian police busted an elephant-smuggling ring in north-eastern Assam, officials said today. Police official PK Dutta said documents seized during the operation showed that the gang had smuggled at least 92 elephants from the north-eastern state to other parts of India over the past five years. The smugglers regularly captured wild elephants from the forests of Assam, trained them for a year or two, and then claimed they were the offspring of the state's many domestic elephants, he said.[Source: AP, November 1, 2010]

“Selling elephants is barred under Indian law and even getting permission to move domesticated elephants between states is a lengthy procedure. Nevertheless, authorities say there remains a thriving trade in elephants, with many wealthy landowners in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh buying the animals as status symbols. Authorities said the elephants are usually transported by truck. The smugglers are suspected of colluding with forestry officials, who have checkpoints along the major roads to prevent this type of smuggling.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2024