Asian Elephant

Open encyclopedia reference

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.

Wikipedia contributors, Asian elephant; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T03:36:17.742109+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758

Name authority

Linnaeus, 1758

Common name

Asian Elephant

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Proboscidea

Family

Elephantidae

Genus

Elephas

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderProboscidea Illiger, 1811
12. familyElephantidae Gray, 1821
13. genusElephas Linnaeus, 1758
14. speciesElephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 3 records assigned to Elephantidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=584938 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:398D9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.