Asian Elephant

Sri Lanka holds well over 10% of the world's Asian elephants in less than 2% of the species' range, which makes it the range country with the highest elephant density (Fernando et al. 2011). Sri Lankan elephants are recognised as a distinct subspecies, although genetic support for that split is low. The island's elephants do carry the highest genetic diversity found in Asian elephants (Fernando et al. 2011).

Elephants are found over almost the entire dry zone, roughly 60% of the island, and their home ranges of 50 to 250 km² are large enough that the country's animals can be treated as one contiguous population. A Department of Wildlife Conservation count in 2011 gave 5,879 elephants for the whole island (Fernando et al. 2011). In the wet zone only remnants survive: about 15 to 20 around the Adam's Peak wilderness and about three in the Sinharaja complex.

The best places to watch them are the national parks, where the animals are habituated to visitors. In the North-central region, over 400 elephants gather each dry season in the reservoir beds of Minneriya and Kaudulla to feed on the lush grass as the water recedes. Habitat loss and fragmentation is the main threat, and conflict with people kills over 200 elephants a year. Nationally Endangered (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).