Asian elephants are forest animals, so unlike African savannah elephants that
range in very open habitats, cannot be observed easily. This is
one of the main reasons that so little is known about Asian elephants.
Even though Asian cultures have had a very close association with
elephants for thousands of years, that has been with captive elephants.
Because very few scientific studies have been done on Asian elephants,
people have assumed that their behavior, ranging patterns, social
organization etc. are similar to African savannah elephants, which
have been intensively studied for many years. However, we are now
finding that Asian elephants are quite different to them. In many
respects they are more similar to African forest elephants, which
range in similar habitats to Asian elephants and about which too,
little is known.
In much of Asia, the forest habitats that elephants range in have
very poor visibility. In most of our study areas, visibility within
the forest ranges from about 2-10 m, depending on the type of forest
and season. To make things even more difficult, most Asian elephants
live in areas not far from people, hence come into conflict with
them. As a result, they have become very clever at avoiding people,
hiding in thick impenetrable thickets during the day and coming
out into more open areas only at night. So we use indirect methods
such as radio-tracking to study them.
Elephants have a sexually dimorphic social structure, ie. The two
sexes have different forms of social organization. Females and young
live in groups and have a matrilineal social structure or one that
is based on female lines. Males leave the herd when they become
adult and then on are mostly solitary. This is an area we have been
very interested at studying at CCR. See our project on
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More about tracking elephants:
Elephant "hiding" in the forest
Ekes having a dust bath