Just How Big is an Asian Elephant?

Date: Author: Category: Animals, Elephants, Sri Lanka, The Quintessential Sri Lanka, Travel, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge Tags: , , , , ,

I can’t leave the subject of ‘big’ without a few elephant shots.  Here’re a few out and about elephants I’ve come across – just to show you how big these little Asian elephants really are.

Elephants consume 150 – 200 kg a day so most working elephants will have to carry dinner home. This fellow is in for a treat as one of their favourite foods is the kithul – a high-altitude palm with very sweet nectar.
Elephants love water – they drink 140 litres a day. Domesticated elephants must be bathed to maintain healthy skin.

This is my second response to this week’s ‘Big‘ Challenge

For an astounding out and about elephant sighting, scroll through the flowers on Temple Street and watch bath time at the fountain at Palace Square in  A Close Up of Temple Street and Palace Square During the Perahera.

52 thoughts on “Just How Big is an Asian Elephant?”

    • I’m smitten too, Madame … and here I just have to take advantage of my relative proximity to them in everyday life. How fantastic is that? 🙂

    • You’re starting to pinpoint the type of things that make living here so endlessly fascinating! In many ways, I’d much rather be living in Italy, or even France, but luckily for my pocketbook there’s something in me that craves the exotic and living here gives me a dose of that, every time I leave my front door – well, in this house, just looking out the windows’ll do it!

    • Really small when compared to your African elephants, Ad, but when you look at them compared to us – I think they’re miraculous beings 🙂

  6. If you wanted a horse, I WANTED an elephant. I didn’t see why we couldn’t keep one in our front garden, it was big enough. In fact, if Gibraltar had elephants on the streets as well as monkeys it would be perfect!

    • Ha ha ha = I’m laughing at the thought of elephants on the streets of Gib – how droll that would be!

      Luckily for Mum and Dad I didn’t lust after elephants as a child – that passion only bloomed when I first saw one on the street, among the traffic … 🙂

  7. “to show you how big these little Asian elephants really are.” I love what you have written BIG and LITTLE describing the same thing… glad to see others think of Elephants as cute little mammals…

    • I wonder how easy it would be to think of them so lovingly if I were a struggling farmer and a herd came in and in a night ate or destroyed my crop of whatever, and knocked down my house …

      It’s a huge problem, this fight for territory and we’ve got to make space for them, or corridors for them to migrate between grazing lands.

  8. I love your elephant pics. It amazes me that you have such access to these beautiful creatures. It’s funny but, I am fascinated by the “big toenails”. I am imagining a pedicure. Heheheheh…maybe I need more coffee this morning. Thanks for sharing your elephants.

    • More coffee, by all means – but you’re right – like horses, they need their pedicures when they’re not in the wild 🙂

  9. This week’s challenge is bringing out great (and varied!) interpretations! I just read one about a T-Rex, and now this, about elephants!!
    Excellent photos and educational content….love it!!

    • Yes, it seems to have been a really fruitful challenge – I’ve been enjoying other people’s responses too. Thanks so much for your comment 🙂

  10. The more I learn about elephants, the more I think they are fascinating and want to know more… Thank you for the beautiful photos!

    • Luckily we’re learning more about them all the time, so it’s a fascinating field of study. There are even blogs about them – what a treat!

    • The big problem here in Asia – where the elephants have evolved to grow far less ivory than their African counterparts – is competition for land. Sri Lanka has lots of reserves for them, which helps, but they are isolated patches in a sea of enticing foods like sugarcane and rice – the challenge now is to create corridors for the animals to use so that they can graze according to the seasons. The other question is whether the herds have enough genetic diversity to remain viable.

    • The miracle is that we can get so close to these fantastic creatures to take close-ups of their particulars – the toenails just get to me every time 🙂

  19. I don’t doubt for a second that these “smaller” elephants would amaze me with their size. Your photos are excellent. I can’t believe you get to see creatures like these on a regular basis. Gorgeous!

    • It’s like a gift from the universe every time I have an elephant encounter, Anne – I feel lucky beyond measure 🙂

  20. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Big « Becca's Photo Blog

  21. I never had a passion for elephants but always was intrigued by them – they were the stuff of stories and the exotic. They fascinate me by how strong yet gentle they can be, and how wild but connected to humans… I watched Like Water for Elephants for the first time last weekend and fell a little bit in love 🙂

    • I wish someone had asked me this question from the start, Madhu, ’cause then I could have given them this comparison courtesy of National Geographic:

      AFRICAN
      Average life span in the wild: Up to 70 years
      Height at the shoulder, 8.2 to 13 ft (2.5 to 4 m)
      Weight: 5,000 to 14,000 lbs (2,268 to 6,350 kg)

      ASIAN
      Average life span in the wild: Up to 60 years
      Height at the shoulder, 6.6 to 9.8 ft (2 to 3 m)
      Weight: 2.25 to 5.5 tons (2,041 to 4,990 kg)

      The ears of course are the great defining difference, and the wrinkly skin of the African elephant and … our little Asian elephant is so beautiful 🙂

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