Asian and African elephants are sometimes hard to
differentiate between. Today I am going to tell you about some physical features that
are essential to distinguish between the two.
Firstly, their ears are different. When stretched out, the
ears of an African elephant look like the continent of Africa. Whereas Asian
elephants ears are smaller and droop down more. The African elephant uses its
large ears to protect itself from the strong sun in Africa.
Another thing that is different is their tusks. In Asian
elephants, only the males develop tusks. Both sexes of African elephants grow
tusks.
Despite having these physical differences, mentally and
emotionally the two types are very similar. African and Asian elephants do not
encounter each other in the wild and they are usually kept separate when they
are in zoos.
There has only been one incident of cross-breeding between
the two. In Chester Zoo in 1978 an Asian elephant was impregnated by an African
elephant. Their calf had features that resembled both of them but unfortunately
two weeks after his premature birth he died due to stomach complications. A
study came back with inconclusive results as to whether or not the calf’s death
was an effect of the cross-breading.