Giant Asian Elephants

It’s often said that the Sri Lankan Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) is the largest Asian Elephant subspecies. Other subspecies – like the Sumatran Elephant and Borneo Elephant – are smaller than Sri Lankan and Indian Elephants. However, there are records of exceptionally large elephants from the Indian subcontinent. So, just how large can Asian Elephants get?

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#nature #wildlife #elephants #elephant #india #indianelephant #africa #africawildlife #africanelephant #srilanka #srilankanelephant

[AegleCreations]

Here's a summary of the impressive Indian & Sri Lankan elephant specimens mentioned in the comments -

INDIA:
‘Chengallur Ranganathan’ from Kerala – Height: 11.4 feet. The skeleton is mounted at the Thrissur Museum. Status: Deceased.
‘Bilkandi Tusker’ – Height: 11.3 feet at the shoulder. The skeleton is mounted at the Indian Museum in Kolkata. Status: Deceased.
‘Tula Hatti’ from Nepal – Height: 11.3 feet at the shoulder. Status: Deceased.
‘Koodalmanikyam Valiya Ravi’ from Kerala – Height 13 feet (reportedly). Since this elephant lived over 200 years ago, there are no photos. But the chains used for this elephant (twice larger) can be seen at the temple. Status: Deceased.

SRI LANKA:
‘Maharaja’ - Reportedly 13 feet tall. Carried the sacred Tooth Relic between 1920-1945. Died in Kandy in 1945.
‘Beligammanaya Elephant’ - 14 feet? Captured in 1870. Died in the 1940s.
‘Kondadeniye Elephant’ - 12 feet? Captured in 1934 at Manampitiya. Died in the late 1990s.
‘Gannoruwe Elephant’ - 11.5 feet. Captured in 1942 at Ampara. Died in 2007.

[thesapphire]

Sri Lankan elephants were massively hunted by Europeans for their fun. And it caused to wiped out elephants from sri lankan mountains. And also they were nearly in the mouth of extintion at colonial time

[viduranimalarathne]

When british took over sri lanka, there were estimated (from hunting records) 19, 000 elephants in the island. When they left, there were fewer than 1500 left. Now there are around 7000 elephants again.

[vikiclips]

Funny part is that, now those Europeans consult us Sri lankans about "animal rights" when we use Elephants in "Dalada Maligawa perahara" event..

[no.spectator]

War Elephants were selectively breeded to be larger, stronger and more Balanced than the Wild elephants,
Chandra Gupta Maurya the Mauryan Emperor is said to have maintained 9000 War Elephants alongside his 250, 000 strong Infantry and Cavlery, He defeated Salucas who sceeded Greeco-Bactria (M-D Afganistan) to Chandra Gupta and in Return he gave 500 War Elephants to selucas.

[arunmattmathew]

You have missed Chengalloor Ranganathan (died 1917) a male Asian elephant in Kerala, India, which is believed to have been the tallest captive elephant in Asia which had a Height of
3.45 m (11 ft 4 in).
Ranganatha's skeleton is 345 cm (136 in) was obtained by the Thrissur Museum from Madras and was reassembled and installed in the main hall of the museum where it continues to be a major attraction.

[matthewzito]

It's worth mentioning that the African Elephants that were known to the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were of the extinct North African variety. North African Elephant were much smaller than the African Savannah Elephants found south of the Sahara. They were similar in size and appearance to African Forest Elephants and may have been the same species although their habitat was very different. Compared to these smaller elephants even average-sized Indian Elephants would be larger.

[chandanafernando]

In 1800 Most Europeans Hunted Sri Lankan Elephants for Just Fun and Elephants Population in Sri Lanka nearly got to extinction. Sri Lankans expelled those Europeans to save Elephants. Now Europeans come and Tell us to protect Elephants while their ancestors are Responsible for the Extinction.

[nirjharghosh]

Good to see that you are making such informative videos. The video was really awesome. Although the question of bigger asian elephants than their african counterparts in the ancient past remained unanswered. Looking forward to get more such informative videos from you. Thanks. From Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

[Caliber-R]

Sri Lanka would be a cool country to visit.

[arpforrealkashman]

In south India the war -elephants were regularly brought from Sri Lanka....now i know the reason.Thanks.

[amithrodrigo]

As per old ROMAN records(you can look up on web), they considered Sri Lankan elephants to be the most intelligent and vicious elephants they encountered, making them the Best breed of elephants for warfare. Sri Lanka has a long history of using War elephants in combat also Sinhalese used elephants for construction work as well as a way of Capital punishment where the convicted person would be crushed, chewed or ripped alive using war elephant. Also Indians and Sri Lankans had these massive elephant swords /blades they could fit to a war elephants partially cut tusks. The elephants were trained to slash and thrust with these massive blades during combat making an Indian or Sri Lankan war elephant nightmare fuel.

[chandanafernando]

The Tallest Elephants in Sri Lanka is not only a treasure to Sri Lanka . They Belongs to the whole world. Currently Elephants security and welfare depends on its tourism Funding in Sri Lanka. Which isn't enough.I would say the Animal Protection Bodies in Whole world should come to protect them by giving medical facilities, funding, make awareness in communities to protect them, providing new technology to protect them. That's when things would work out. Then we would be able to avoid extinction. Just talking about animal Cruelty doesn't help, but most of foreigners do.

[ZxZx-ihnl]

Africa, India or Sri Lanka lets stand against animal cruelly and harassments by human activities. Elephant is not a small animal and even such massive animals get tragic endings because of human then what about others

[aarondsouza]

I would have loved a spotlight on the famed "Syrian Elephants" used for war and supposedly gigantic.

[rishi]

"Indian elephant" is basically the mainland elephant, found from Indian peninsula to Indochina & South China... South Indians (like Nadungawamuwa tusker) & Himalyan foothill ones are largest at same size as Sri Lanka, Chinese the smallest, thus mainland elephants averaging below Srilankans.

PS: Until 2004 Tsunami the landbridge was passable at low tide, so population exchange may have happened

[safedonation]

Chengalloor Ranganathan was 11 ft 4 in (3.45 m) tall. He was an Asian elephant who lived in Kerala and was likely the tallest tamed elephant in Asia.

[leedave]

Great video and information for elephant lovers! Are you planning to make a video introducing some of the largest african elephants? I'm quite curious about how the largest individual can be for the species.

[sumansarkar]

Excellent presentation.Learned so much!!

[sherlocknoseranju]

Amazing documentary, in the southern indian state of kerala, there was an elephant called chengalloor ranganathan, it is reported that it had been 11 feet 3 inches, the intersting fact is that his full skeleton is on display at thrissur museum in kerala . He passed away in 1917, and his photographs are still available online. He used to be the elephant who carries the idol in the temple festivals.