Current Conservation Status and Research Progress on Asian Elephants in China

The general situation of the Asian elephant As a large territorial herbivorous mammal, the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) or Indian elephant, mainly inhabits forests and jungles, and often occurs in the gullies, river side and bamboo-broadleaf mixed forest with altitudes under 1000 m. It is a class I protected animal in China, and listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Historically, the Asian elephant was widely distributed. It is estimated that there were about 100,000 elephants scattered from the drainage area of Tigris and Euphrates of Syria and Iran to the West, the Yellow River in China in the East, and Indonesia in the South at the beginning of 12th century. But their habitats have reduced