Elephants
are a species of most interesting animals in the world which are the largest
terrestrial animals on the earth. There are lots of marvelous elephant facts
that are elephant lovers should get to know. This write-up will provide a considerable amount of sri lankan elephant facts
Body characteristics in the area of Sri Lankan Elephant facts
Body characteristics in the area of Sri Lankan Elephant facts
Elephants
are the largest terrestrial animals on the earth and there are only two species
are left in the present. Those species are African elephants and Asian
elephants. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants in size. They
differ from many other features like size of years, density of the skin,
content of the meal, etc. but all the elephants are herbivores. Asian elephants
are again divided in to three subspecies which are Indian elephants, Sri Lankan
elephants and Sumatran elephants. Sumatran elephants are the smallest elephants
among those subspecies. Sri Lankan elephants are the largest ones and they are
closely related to Indian elephants.
Sri Lankan Elephant facts about the Diet of an Elephant
Sri Lankanelephant is considered to be the largest subspecies because of having the best
shoulder height of 2m to 3.5m. They are 2000kg to 5000kg in weight. When it
comes to the skin color the Sri Lankan elephants are the ones who are having
the darkest skin. Also distinct patches of depigmentation can be seen on ears,
trunk and face. The female elephants are usually smaller than the male and only
males bear tusks.
The
southwest part of Sri Lanka is known as the wet zone and most of the elephants
live this area in mature forests. In the past the density of elephants were 0.1
– 0.2 elephants per km2 and there were around 6000 – 12000 of elephants in Sri Lanka. It is
considered that Sri Lanka has the highest density of elephant population in
Asia. With the population growth of humans the elephant population has been
restricted to the dry zone in Sri Lanka. Most of them are living in yala
national park, wilpaththu national park, udawalawe national park and
lunugamwehera national park. Some of them lives in non-protected areas.
Since
elephants are megaherbivores they need normally about 150kg of grass per day to
survive because they have a large body to maintain. They usually spend more
than two third of a day for feeding. In addition to grass Sri Lankan elephants
depend on tree barks, roots and stems in their diet. Not only food but also
water is critical fact for an elephant’s life. At least once a day they need to
drink water and therefore normally elephants do not go far away from a good
food and water sources.
Sri Lankan Elephant facts on migration habits’ of an Elephant
One of the
most considerable sri lankan elephant facts about Asian elephants is the conflict between
elephants and humans. Even if Asia has been the area with highest density of
elephant population now it has been changing due to the higher rate of
population growth of humans and the habitat loss of elephants due to
civilization of humans in the areas where elephants have lived once before. Due
to loosing of habitats elephant population has been fragmented and populations
of wild elephants are now mostly small. Although losing habitats leads wild
elephants to become more aggressive. The ranges of the forests where elephants
live have been cleared for crop cultivation by farmers. Because of these
farmlands are in the areas where wild elephants used to roam daily, they attack
crop fields and damage cultivated crops. Also people are losing their lives by
attacks of wild elephants. In Sri Lanka, approximately 50 people are killed by
wild elephant attacks in each year. This has been a huge problem to humans and
they veer to kill elephants to defend their lives. Landmines and gun shootings
has been a massive threat to wild elephants since past. Farmers build trap guns
for elephants to protect their crops. ‘hakka patas’ is another type of threat
which is a small mine cause shatter of the jaws on being bitten because of the
pressure. Farmers conceal these mines in fruits or vegetables. After-ward the
war in north and east parts in Sri Lanka, many deaths and injuries of elephants
were reported due to landmines. In some areas where wild elephants are a huge
problem to human lives electrified fences are made along the margin of forests
to avoid the migration of elephants to villages. Not only in this case, wild
tuskers were rapidly killed for taking ivory in the past. It is now strictly
prohibited in Sri Lanka but still some trades in ivory goes on. Unawareness of
humans is also responsible for elephant deaths. Farmers have large wells in their croplands
which are used for irrigation and most of their edges are not covered with
safety fences. Elephants fall down into these wells and die pathetically after
suffering. Trains which are running through the areas crosses elephants’ paths
also cause damages to elephants. Mostly at night elephants strike on running
trains.
There is a place at pinnawala near to kegalle town in
sabaragamuwa province where taking care of orphaned wild elephants. It is also
used as a captive breeding ground and is considered as the largest captive
elephant herd. The personnel in this orphanage bring young elephants found in
the forest which are wounded, abandoned from their mothers, lost their herds,
fallen in to pits and feed, nurse and keep them in captivity until they get
better. This helps to slower the depletion of elephant population in the
country to some extent.
The Zoological garden and Sri Lankan Elephant facts
Another very special elephant fact that elephant is considered as a flag species in Sri Lanka.
Elephants are used in traditional rituals such as in perahera functions in a
very prestigious form. Especially in dalada perahera in Kandy a giant mature
and calm elephant with a fulgent figure is used to carry the sacred tooth relic
of Lord Buddha along the streets annually to show it to devotees. People think
that this opportunity is a fortune for that elephant and they treat it with
honor. However since the human-elephant conflict the number of wild elephants
in the country is decreasing rapidly because of habitat loss and other human
activities. Therefore effective conservation strategies for elephants must be
made. Currently the common conservation strategy used in Sri Lanka as well as
in other Asian countries is to mitigate the human-elephant conflict and limit
the elephant population to protected areas using boundaries such as electric
fences. Elephants in other unprotected areas can be translocated to these area. But this strategy is not much
effective because elephants usually need roam in a wide area of land and when
the population density in a particular area becomes high they try to outrun the
limits. Therefore managing elephants outside of protected areas but together
with protected areas is considered to be more effective and harmless for both
elephants and humans.i think know you have some idea sri lankan elephant facts.
source - elephantfacts.com
