Elephant Species

Classifications of Elephant Species

There are two surviving elephant species: African elephants and Asian elephants.

The African elephant has two subspecies, the savannah (or bush) elephant and forest elephant.

For the Asian Elephant, there are four confirmed subspecies. These are:

  • Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus)
  • Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus)
  • Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis)
  • Borneo (or Pygmy) elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis)

There is a possibility of a fifth Asian elephant subspecies too; however this will only be finally determined once the tests currently being performed on the elephant population in Vietnam and Laos, have been completed.

Here's a news article about Pygmy elephants:
Satellite tracking of Pygmy Elephants (Please note that this is a news article, hosted on another site. The link will open in a new window, for your convenience.)

Indian Elephant. Click to go to the african wildlife photos page Indian Elephant

For more detailed information about Asian elephants and the different sub-species, see Wikipedia's page on Asian elephants.

We have added some photos so that you can see one of the most noticeable differences between the two elephant species -- their ears.

The African elephant has very large ears in comparison with the Indian elephant. An interesting point to note, is that the shape of their ears are very similar to the country and continent they inhabit!

African elephants have ears shaped like the continent of Africa. An African elephant browsing. Note the African continent shaped ears.

For more information about African elephants, their behaviour and general characteristics, check these other pages on our site:

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Elephants at the Bridge of Time, Sun City, South Africa Elephants at the
Bridge of Time, Lost City
South Africa