Description:
Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants, and their backs are more convex or level. Their head has two domes rather than one, and they have smaller ears. Their trunk has just one “finger” while African elephants have two, but they are both just as dextrous. Unlike African elephants, predominantly only male Asian elephants have tusks, and even tuskless males – makhnas – are regularly recorded. Some females have just short, stunted tusks known as tushes. Their skin is smoother than African elephants, grey-brown in colour, and often lacking pigment in patches on the trunk, ears and neck, which consequently appear pink. Males can be taller than 3m at the shoulder, with females reaching up to 2.5m.