Distribution and Status of the Asian Elephant

Abstract

This comprehensive survey of the Asian elephant is the result of an FPS-sponsored project dating from 1973. The author is Co-Chairman with J.C. Daniel, Curator of the Bombay Natural History Society) of the Survival Service Commission's Asian Elephant Group, created in 1976. He discusses the history of man-elephant relationships in Asia,the animal's status in each country where it occurs, and the reasons both for its disappearance from most of its former range and for its continuing decline. Much of the information is based on reports direct from the field and, in the case of peninsular Malaysia, on the author'sown observations while attached to the office of the Chief Game Warden of West Malaysia. He estimates that only 28,000-42,000 Asianelephants remain in the wild. © 1978, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.