How are African and Asian elephants different?
• Both male and female African elephants have tusks. Only a male Asian elephant can grow tusks and somewhere between 40 and 50% of them never develop tusks at all. • An African elephant has two finger-like protrusions on the tip of its trunk that it uses to grab objects. The Asian elephant only has one “finger” and, therefore, it can only scoop objects rather than grasp them. • Asian elephants are smaller in size and have smaller ears than the African elephant. • African elephants are grayish in colour, but Asian elephants range from gray to brown. • African elephants have a concave back, but the backs of Asian elephants are convex.
