Differences in Asian and African elephants

July 4, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN Topics

Differences in Asian and African elephants

Subject: Environment

Context: Researchers have found that social structure differs in Asian and African elephants,

Concept:

The African elephant species into two distinct species, the larger being the African savanna elephant and the smaller being the African forest elephant. While the two African species are about as genetically different as tigers and lions, they still have more features in common with one another than with their Asian counterpart.

African elephants	Asian elephants
African elephants have much larger ears that look sort of like the continent of Africa	Asian elephants have smaller, round ears
African elephants have rounded heads	Asian elephants have a twin-domed head, which means there’s a divot line running up the head
Both male and female African elephants can have tusks	Both male and female African elephants can have tusks, but only male Asian elephants can grow them.( It’s important to note, however, that not all male Asian elephants nor all African elephants necessarily develop tusks)
African savannah elephants are about 8,000 kg (9 tons) and are between 3 and 4 meters tall (between 10 and 13 feet) at the shoulder. African forest elephants are a bit smaller than their savannah	Asian elephants weigh 5,500 kg (about 6 tons) and, at most, are 3.5 meters tall at the shoulder (11.5 feet).
African savannah elephant population, young males seemed to prefer old males possibly due to opportunities for social learning	Young males spent a greater proportion of time associating with females (in mixed-sex groups) than with other males (in all-male groups).
African savannah elephants spent only about 30-60% of their time in all male groups	Asian elephant spent only about 12% of their time in all male groups

Both species, herds of elephants are matriarchies, with the oldest female leading the way. Older males are often solitary.
Despite the fact that they occupy similar ecological niches (In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition), the social structure of Asian elephants differs from that of their African savannah counterparts. This is perhaps due to their differing habitats.

Recent findings Asian elephants,

They do not move in mixed groups consisting of males and females.
Males use smell to track females. Males check females (and vice-versa sometimes) to probably assess fertility and possibly identity. Rarely, this might lead to a mating. Sometimes, the male just feeds alongside the female herd for some time and then leaves.
There was also a constraint on the group size in the case of the former. This may be because of the differences in resource availability. The food distribution is such that it limits large groups of elephants from feeding together
Young males spent a greater proportion of time associating with females (in mixed-sex groups) than with other males (in all-male groups).While males met at random in the presence of females, the behaviour differed in their absence. Old males preferentially associated with other old males, and old and young males met each other less than expected by chance. Young males met each other as expected by chance. There was no evidence that young males spent more time with old males relative to time they spent with other young males. They also did not preferentially initiate associations with older male
The two possibilities for adult male elephants getting together in groups
Testing their strength in a relaxed setting against similarly sized and closely matched age-class peers and settling their dominance position,
Young males preferentially associating with, and socially learning from, older males..