Gajah Sumatra or Elephas Maximus.

The Largest Herbivore

The Physical Characteristics

As its name suggests, this kind of animal can only be found exclusively in Sumatra. One city that is most well known to have a high population of Sumatran Elephant is Lampung. The Sumatran Elephant is also known by the locals as Gajah Sumatra or Elephas Maximus. They can distinguish by other elephants because they have smaller ears than the African Elephant. They Sumatran Elephant also have a more curved spine than the African elephant. Another distinguishing feature is the tusks. The female Sumatran elephant rarely have tusks and even when they do, the tusks are barely visible from a glance. You can actually see the female Sumatran Elephant tusks when they open their mouth.

The advantage of this fact is, female Sumatran Elephant are rarely hunted because of their tusks.

The Behaviour

The Sumatran elephant are among the animals that migrate. However their migration rules are very strict and they always follow this route. The oldest elephant in the Sumatran elephant herd will be the one to lead the pact through the route. This means that they are the ones that actually remember the route. But of course this is not a difficult thing to do for an elephant as they are known to be one the animals to have great memories. In fact, there is a saying that ‘elephant never forgets.’ The migration usually takes place between the change of the rainy season and the dry season. However, as human keep the deforestation, including the areas around the route, the migration can become a problem. The elephant will keep on using the route and therefore destroying what they human has built along the route.

As this herbivore is among the largest animal existed in the world, very few predators can actually cause harm to the Sumatra’s elephant. The female Sumatran elephant will start to breed when they reach the age of 10 years old. They usually give birth to only one calf after a 22 months gestation period.