Asian Elephant Endangerment
By Leena K.
Giant yet silent on its feet, the African elephant is a majestic animal with big ears, huge tusks, and two signature "fingers" for grasping food at the tip of its trunks. This species of elephant is thought to be doing better and growing in population. Sadly, its close and less talked about relative, the Asian elephant, isn't fairing as well.
The Asian elephant, smaller than its African counterpart, has just one finger on the tip of its trunk and much smaller ears. Formerly, they could be found all over Asia from the Himalayas and southern Asia all the way to China. Now, wild ones are only spotted in parts of India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. Although they have no natural predators, humans have more than enough potential to drive them to extinction. In the beginning of this century, there was thought to be around only 100,000 wild Asian elephants. Their population has been continuing to decrease since then. Now, there are only 40,000 to 50,000 left in their natural habitat.
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