Sri Lankan Elephants..

Sri Lanka is one of the best places in the world to watch Asian elephants in the wild. There are a number of National Parks where these gentle giants can be watched in their natural splendor. The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) in Sri Lanka is one of the 3 recognized subspecies along with the Indian and Sumatran Elephants. It lives in a variety of habitats which range from scrub jungle to open plains. Their diet consists mainly of grass, leaves and twigs.

Sri Lanka’s history with elephants dates back to the time of our kings when these giants were used as working animals and in historical battles. Elephants are still used today as work animals to transport logs and more importantly in religious pageants such as the Kandy Esela Perehara, held annually in the hill city of Kandy.

In the wild the Sri Lankan Elephant can be seen in herds ranging from 5-10 individuals consisting of mothers and calves. The males remain in the herd until they reach puberty where they are then pushed out of the herd to live solitary lives. During ‘The Gathering” up to 300 Elephants can be seen on the receding banks of the Minneriya tank. This is the highest concentration of Asian Elephants occurs in Asia. This is a seasonal event which takes place at Minneriya National Park during August and September. 

Apart from Minneriya, Elephants can be seen year round in parks like Udawalawe and Yala. In Udawalawe National park sightings are virtually guaranteed as he park is home to nearly 300 Elephants, Yala National Park is famous for the 10-12 Tuskers which call the park home. Only 6% of all male Sri Lankan Elephants have tusks making this a very rare specimen to see in the wild. Wasgamuwa National park is also famous for watching Elephants. During the wet season when Minneriya National park is in accessible the Hurullu Eco park in the jungles of Habarana can be used to see the Elephants.

Elephant sightings are virtually guaranteed in Sri Lanka and this is a promise which no other park in Asia can make, making Sri Lanka indeed a very special place to watch wild Asian Elephant Roam Free.

Elephants have always held great cultural and religious significance in Sri Lanka. They are

symbols of wisdom, power and wealth.Elephants are a central part of most Sri Lankan religious festivals. The Maligawa Tuskers are particularly revered by the Buddhist population. It is the 'Maligawa Tusker' who leads over 100 elephants in procession and is entrusted with the most sacred of relics - the Tooth Relic of the Buddha - at the famous Esala Perahera festival in Kandy. The tusker is draped 'from trunk to tail' in brightly colored cloth decorated with light bulbs. When a much loved Maligawa Tusker named Raja died in 1998, the government declared a national day of mourning. His stuffed remains are kept in a special museum within the grounds of the Temple of the Tooth.

Today there are a few thousand elephants in the wild and several hundred in captivity.

Domesticated elephants have served Sri Lankans for over 2000 years, even helping to clear

land for tea plantations.

The Sri Lankan elephant is a sub-species of Asian elephant which includes the Indian elephant, the Sumatran elephant, the Sri-Lanka elephant and the Borneo elephant. The Sri Lankan elephant is the largest of all the Asian elephant sub-species and is thought to be most closely related to the Indian elephant.

As its name suggests, the Sri Lankan elephant is found on the Island of Sri Lanka and is thought to have arrived there from southern India. Despite once roaming the Island, the Sri Lankan elephant is now restricted to just a few designated National parks as the Sri Lankan elephants natural habitat gets turned into crop fields.

The Sri Lankan elephant has smaller ears than the African elephant and the Sri Lankan elephant also has a more curved spine than the African elephant. Unlike the African elephants, the female Sri Lankan elephants very rarely have tusks, and if the female Sri Lankan elephant does have tusks, they are generally barely visible and can only be seen when the female Sri Lankan elephant opens her mouth.

The Sri Lankan elephant follows strict migration routes that are determined by the monsoon season. The eldest elephant of the Sri Lankan elephant herd is responsible for remembering the migration route of its Sri Lankan elephant herd. This Sri Lankan elephant migration generally takes place between the wet and dry seasons and problems arose when farms where built along the migratory routes of the Sri Lankan elephant herds, as the Sri Lankan elephants caused a great deal of destruction to the newly founded farmland.

Sri Lankan elephants are herbivorous animals meaning that they only eat plants and plant matter in order to gain all of the nutrients that they need to survive. Sri Lankan elephants eat a wide variety of vegetation including grasses, leaves, shoots, barks, fruits, nuts and seeds. Sri Lankan elephants often use their long trunk to assist them in gathering food.

Due to their large size, Sri Lankan elephants have very few predators within their natural environment. Besides human hunters, tigers are the primary predator of the Sri Lankan elephant, although they tend to hunt the smaller Sri Lankan elephant calves rather than the much larger and stronger adults.

Female Sri Lankan elephants are generally able to breed by the time they are 10 years old, and give birth to a single Sri Lankan elephant calf after a 22 month gestation period. When the Sri Lankan elephant calf is first born, it weighs about 100 kg, and is cared for not only by it's mother by also by other female Sri Lankan elephants in the herd (known as aunties). The infant Sri Lankan elephant remains with its mother until it is around 5 years old and gains its independence, with males often leaving the herd and female calves staying.

Today, the Sri Lankan elephant is considered to be an animal that is in immediate danger of becoming extinct due to the fact that Sri Lankan elephant populations have been declining at a critical rate. Sri Lankan elephants are thought to be suffering primarily due to habitat loss in the form of deforestation and hunting for their ivory tusks by human poachers.