Daily Life

Asian elephants need a large feeding range, as each animal can eat about 150 kg of food a day. They are mainly browsers rather than grazers, and use their trunk to pick off leaves, fruits and new shoots from trees. Soft bark is torn off young trees using the tusks, and is then put into the mouth with the trunk. The trunk is very important to an elephant, and if it is damaged, the animal is likely to starve to death. The trunk is used to suck up large amounts of water, and to squirt it into the elephant's mouth.

Asian elephants are able to travel great distances to find food and water. They have large territories and often follow the same paths from one feeding area to another over several generations. This means that large 'elephant roads' can be seen through even dense jungle areas.