Asian elephant
Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758
The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), also called the Indian elephant or Asiatic elephant, is a mammal in the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. It is a giant terrestrial herbivore of forest habitats, with a cathemeral activity pattern and an adult body mass of 2.9 tonnes, up to 4.5 tonnes.
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Quick facts about the Asian elephant
Gestation lasts 642.8 days (1.8 years), females have 1 young per litter at 0.23 litters per year, and sexual maturity comes at 9.4 years. Its lifespan is 73.5 years, up to 80 years, and the IUCN Red List classifies it as Endangered (EN), a threatened category.
- Weight
- 2.92 t – 4.55 tsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 73.5 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 80 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 643 days – 670 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 9 years – 9.77 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.23src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the Asian elephant
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the Asian elephant live?
Not recorded
What is the Asian elephant?
The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species in the genus Elephas. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living elephantid in the world. It is characterised by its long trunk with a single finger-like process; large tusks in males; laterally folded large ears and wrinkled grey skin that is partly depigmented on the trunk, ears or neck. Adult males average 4 t (4.4 short tons) in weight and females 2.7 t (3.0 short tons). It has a large and well developed neocortex of the brain, is highly intelligent and self-aware, being able to display behaviours associated with grief, learning and greeting. Three subspecies are recognised—E. m. maximus, E. m. indicus and E. m. sumatranus.
The Asian elephant is distributed in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west to Borneo in the east, and Nepal in the north to Sumatra in the south. It inhabits grasslands, tropical evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests and dry thorn forests. It is herbivorous, eating about 150 kg (330 lb) of vegetation per day. Cows and calves form groups, while males remain solitary or form "bachelor groups" with other males. During the breeding season, males temporarily join female groups to mate. Wild Asian elephants live to be about 60 years old. While female captive elephants are recorded to have lived beyond 60 years when kept in semi-natural surroundings, Asian elephants die at a much younger age in captivity; captive populations are declining due to a low birth and high death rate.
Since 1986, the Asian elephant has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three elephant generations, which is about 60–75 years. It is primarily threatened by loss of habitat, habitat degradation, fragmentation and poaching. The earliest indications of captive use of Asian elephants are engravings on seals of the Indus Valley civilisation dated to the 3rd millennium BC.
From the Wikipedia article “Asian elephant” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asian_elephant&oldid=1377410481), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the Asian elephant sound like?
Is the Asian elephant endangered?
The Asian elephant is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Endangered species.
How is the Asian elephant classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderProboscidea
- familyElephantidae
- genusElephas
- SpeciesElephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Elephas asiaticus, Elephas gigas, Elephas indicus bengalensis, Elephas indicus ceylanicus, Elephas maximus vilaliya
Other names and names in other languages (70)
- Asiatic elephantEnglish
- Indian elephantEnglish
- Indian elephantEnglish
- Oosterse olifantAfrikaans
- Asiatiese OlifantAfrikaans
- فبل هنديArabic
- فيل آسيويArabic
- Elefant asiaticoAragonese
- এছীয় হাতীAssamese
- Азіяцкі слонBelarusian
- Азиатски слонBulgarian
- এশীয় হাতিBangla
- Olifant AziaBreton
- Elefant asiàticCatalan
- aleclt
- Slon asijskýCzech
- Slon indickyCzech
- Asiatischer ElefantGerman
- Indischer ElefantGerman
- Ασιατικός ελέφανταςGreek
- Azia elefantoEsperanto
- Elefante AsiáticoSpanish
- Aasia elevantEstonian
- Asiar elefanteBasque
- AasiannorsuFinnish
- Asiatiskur fílurFaroese
- Eléphant d'AsieFrench
- Éléphant d'AsieFrench
- Eléphant d'IndeFrench
- פיל אסייתיHebrew
- गजHindi
- हाथीHindi
- एशियाई हाथीHindi
- Azijski slonCroatian
- Indijski slonCroatian
- ázsiai elefántHungarian
- Gajah AsiaIndonesian
- AsíufíllIcelandic
- Elefante asiaticoItalian
- アジアゾウJapanese
- Үнді пілдеріKazakh
- Азиялық пілдерKazakh
- ಆನೆKannada
- 아시아코끼리Korean
- Asiateschen ElefantLuxembourgish
- Azijinis dramblysLithuanian
- Азиски слонMacedonian
- हत्तीMarathi
- GajahMalay
- Asiatisk ElefantNorwegian Bokmål
- Aziatische OlifantDutch
- Elefant asiaticOccitan
- Słoń indyjskiPolish
- Elefante-asiáticoPortuguese
- Азиатский слонRussian
- Индийский слонRussian
- ආසියානු අලියාSinhala
- ආසියාතික අලියාSinhala
- Elefant aziatikAlbanian
- indisk elefantSwedish
- ஆசிய யானைTamil
- ఆసియా ఏనుగుTelugu
- ช้างเอเชียThai
- Asya FiliTurkish
- Слон азійськийUkrainian
- ایشیائی ہاتھیUrdu
- Voi châu ÁVietnamese
- 亚洲象Chinese
- 亞洲象Chinese
- 印度象Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the Asian elephant
Other species in the same genus Elephas.
CompareAsian elephant vs Elephas celebensisAsian elephant vs Elephas hysudrindicusAsian elephant vs Elephas planifronsAsian elephant vs Elephas maxitnus
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How heavy is an Asian elephant?
An adult Asian elephant weighs 2.9 tonnes, with weights up to 4.5 tonnes reported.
What does the Asian elephant eat?
The Asian elephant is a herbivore.
Is the Asian elephant endangered?
Yes. The IUCN Red List classifies the Asian elephant as Endangered (EN), a threatened category.
How long does an Asian elephant live?
The Asian elephant has a lifespan of 73.5 years, with values up to 80 years reported.
How many young does an Asian elephant have?
The Asian elephant has 1 young per litter, at a rate of 0.23 litters per year, after a gestation of 642.8 days (1.8 years).
At what age does an Asian elephant reach sexual maturity?
The Asian elephant reaches sexual maturity at 9.4 years, with values from 9.0 to 9.8 years reported.
What kind of animal is the Asian elephant?
The Asian elephant is a mammal of the family Elephantidae, a giant terrestrial animal of forest habitats.
Who named the Asian elephant?
The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, was named by Linnaeus, 1758.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/asian-elephant
“Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/asian-elephant.
@misc{asian_elephant_2026,
title = {Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/asian-elephant},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}