Description
Asian elephant
At Wilhelma we can only keep 4 elephant cows at the moment, as the Elephant House is 40 years old and is too small and rather old-fashioned. We are planning to build a new house with large outdoor paddocks for cows and their young and bulls. The elephant cow Vilja, 60 years old, is the oldest Asian elephant in Europe.
| English name | Asian elephant |
| Latin name |
Elephas maximus |
| Systematics |
proboscidians (proboscidae), elephants |
| Habitat |
forests, savannahs and steppes |
| Distribution | South and South East Asia |
| Diet |
grass, leaves, branches and palms |
| Reproduction | gestation takes around 22 months; mostly one young one, sexual maturity at an age of 7 – 12 years |
| Social structure | cows and the young live in groups of various mothers and families; the groups are of up to 120 animals. Bulls are mostly solitary, but are occasionally in "bachelor" groups |
| Population | endangered, only 20,000 animals left in the wild and around the same amount as working animals in Asia |
| At Wilhelma | 4 cows in the Elephant House |
| Characteristic features | the upper lip and nose have formed into a trunk. The bulls have 2 large tusks, the cows lack these or they have only small ones. Each have only one back tooth at each side of the jaw; this is changed up to 6 times (permanent dentition) during their lives. Weight: up to 5 tons. Size: up to 2.9 metres |
