African vs Indian Elephant – Difference and Comparison

What is African Elephant?

African elephants are indeed the largest land animals on the planet. An adult African elephant may grow to reach 7.5 meters long and weigh between 4,000 and 7,500 kg. These elephants may live for roughly 70 years.

The trunks of these mammals are composed of their nose and also their upper lips. These elephants even drink, smell, and breathe through their trunks. They even use its trunk to handle food and other things, as well as to communicate.

African elephants are categorized into two types: African forest elephants and the other one is African Savanna elephants. The skulls and ears of these elephants are also different in size and shape. 

The African woodland elephant is considerably smaller and also has various colored tusks. Tusks are seen in both genders of African elephants. Where males have greater than females tusks.

The tusks of bush elephants curved, but those of forest elephants remain straight. African elephants eat the branches and leaves of shrubs and trees. They may consume bark and fruits. These elephants could consume roughly 136kg of food per day.

What is Indian Elephant?

An adult Indian elephant may grow to be 2-3 meters long and weigh between 3000-5,000 kg. An Indian elephant has a life expectancy of 48 years.

In comparison to other elephants, they have long tails. They have huge heads but littlenecks, therefore their body weight is supported by their legs. The trunks of Indian elephants have no bones and are made up of 40,000 muscles.

Because Indian elephants spend most of the day roaming, they require quite extensive living places. They live in a variety of habitats, ranging from woodland to grassland. These creatures eat for 19 hours a day.

They mostly eat grass, although they also ingest fruits such as bananas and sugarcane. They also consume the stems, roots, and bark of plants. They defecate 16-18 times a day while wandering, and as a result, they cover a wide area of soil with feces, which serves to disperse seeds and nutrients.

This is why elephants have earned the title of an ecosystem engineer. Elephants devour flora as well as a clear area for new possibilities. Elephants are intelligent animals with complicated social lives, much like humans.

Difference Between African and Indian Elephant

1. Even if both African and Indian elephants take comparable foods, African elephants consume branches and leaves of trees and bushes, whereas Indian elephants primarily consume grass.
2. African elephants possess huge ears, while Indian elephants possess shorter ears.
3. African elephants is much larger than Indian elephants. They exceed Indian elephants in size.
4. African elephants do have spherical head because they have a single dome on their head. Indian elephants, do have twin-domed head due to an indent in the centre of their skull.
5. Elephant tusks are a remarkable feature. However, not every elephants have tusks. Just few male Indian elephants possess tusks. African elephants, both female and male, have tusks. Meanwhile, the male Indian elephants tusks are much more thicker and curved than among African elephants. The teeth of Indian elephants are more densely packed.

Comparison Between African and Indian Elephant