EX EW CR EN VU NT LC O Asian Elephant Elephas maximus Asian elephants are valued as working animals so they will probably never become extinct However wild populations face serious threats T he Asian elephant is smaller than the African elephant Found across South and Southeast Asia the Asian elephant has already died out in the eastern and western ends of its former range There are a few hundred Asian elephants in the world’s zoos but few are bred in captivity Unlike their African cousins Asian elephants have for centuries been trained and used as draft working animals Today there are over 10,000 Asian elephants trained for heavy tasks Ironically they are used to help drag out felled trees from the forest the environment on which wild Asian elephants depend Huge areas of forest have already been cut down and losses continue all the time With the destruction of the forests remnant elephant populations get split into smaller groups that become isolated from each other In order to meet and breed it is often necessary to cross developed land with all the dangers that entails In a project in Indonesia some elephants that became isolated in this way were actively driven out to join with others in a larger area of habitat Elephants need a lot of space An individual’s home range is often up to 15 square miles 40 sq km and sometimes over 116 square miles 300 sq km in southern India The animals need to drink over 11 gallons 50 liters of water a day so it is essential that they live near rivers or lakes exactly the type of land that is considered ideal for agricultural use Replacing the forests with farmland gives the elephants little choice but to raid the new crops such as bananas and sugarcane As a result farmers are inclined to shoot and snare the elephants 8 A female Asian elephant and her calf Asian elephants live in small family groups of females and their young most males bulls live in bachelor herds There are about 27,000 elephants in India but only about 1,500 of them are adult tuskers animals with ivory tusks Elephants need to eat at least 300 lb 150 kg of plants every day Such quantities are only available naturally in the lush tropical forests Even in the fastest-growing forests the elephants need to move around in order to find sufficient food The animals migrate seasonally between different feeding areas to overcome food shortages during the dry season However such movements are now prevented by roads
ASIAN ELEPHANT DATA PANEL Asian elephant Indian elephant Elephas maximus Family Elephantidae World population At least 41,000 plus several thousand captive animals Distribution India east to China south to Vietnam and Indonesia Sri Lanka Habitat Tropical forest and grasslands Size Length head body 18 21 ft 5 5 6 4 m tail 4 5 ft 1 2 1 5 m height at shoulder 8 2 10 ft 2 5 3 m Weight females up to 6,000 lb 2,720 kg males up to 12,000 lb 5,400 kg Form Huge animal with long trunk columnlike legs Differs from African elephant in having a rounded back smaller ears and domed head Tusks often absent especially in females Diet Leaves grass and bark also soil to obtain minerals Breeding Single calf born at any time of year after gestation period of about 22 months Life span up to 80 years Related endangered species African elephant Loxodonta africana VU Status IUCN EN and farmland Even national parks may not be large enough to accommodate populations of elephants all year round so special dispersal corridors have been created to link areas of forest and enable elephants to migrate seasonally between them The Kallar Jaccanari corridor for example links the 4,000 elephants of the northern and southern Nilghiri Biosphere Reserve in southern India The corridors have to be about 8 miles 13 km wide Wasteful Killing Shooting and snaring for ivory have been a threat to the Asian elephant for centuries although the females do not have tusks and the males sometimes lack them The African elephant has always been under greater threat from hunting for tusks Trading in ivory is now forbidden under the CITES agreement Another threat to the Asian elephant is the millions of land mines left in the forests of Sri Lanka Cambodia Vietnam and other Asian countries during wars in the 20th century In Sri Lanka it is estimated that each year about 20 elephants die after stepping on land mines Others are crippled 9
Steppe Pika Ochotona pusilla The decline of the steppe pika is a long-term trend dating back to the early days of agriculture The main cause of the decline is habitat loss EX EW CR EN VU NT LC O P ikas are short-eared cousins of rabbits and hares and in some parts of the world they can be exceedingly common They are well suited to life in a harsh climate their short legs small rounded ears thick fur and furry feet are all adaptations to the cold weather They can survive long winters under deep snow where they remain active in networks of hidden tunnels in moist soil Being snowbound for several months obviously restricts the pikas foraging options so over the summer they spend much of their time preparing for the winter by collecting as much extra food as possible Grass and leaves are harvested allowed to dry in the sun and gathered together in haystacks A single pika can gather several pounds of winter fodder in one stack and while this in itself is not enough to support the animal through the winter it provides an essential supplement to the meager winter rations KAZAKHSTAN Aral Sea UZBEKISTAN TURKMENISTAN RUSSIA GEORGIA Caspian Sea ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN Decline in Numbers Over two-thirds of the world’s 26 pika species are currently threatened with extinction in the wild One of the most notable declines has been that of the Russian steppe pika in spite of the fact that pika populations have a quite extraordinary capacity for growth under the right conditions A single female steppe pika can easily produce five litters of 10 babies each in a season Assuming that half of them are females that mature within one month and soon begin to breed themselves by the onset of winter the family could include over 1,000 animals every one a child or grandchild of the original female In a good season even the first-born grandchildren may breed in which case the potential for growth reaches staggering proportions However pika populations can disappear even faster than they build up Populations of the Russian steppe pika vary between 0 04 and 33 animals per acre 0 1 and 80 animals per ha These wild fluctuations are perfectly natural and in a stable environment there are usually enough survivors of a crash to reestablish the population Cycles of boom and bust restrict the genetic DATA PANEL Steppe pika Ochotona pusilla Family Ochotonidae World population Unknown but declining rapidly Distribution Steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan between Volga and Irtysh rivers Habitat Open plains deserts and dry grasslands Size Length 5 12 in 12 5 30 cm Weight 4 5 14 oz 125 400 g Form Dumpy grayish-brown animal resembling small round-eared rabbit with no visible tail and short legs thick dense fur Diet Plant material including leaves of grasses sedges and herbs also twigs and flowers of woody plants Breeding Between 3 and 5 litters of 3 13 young born throughout spring and summer after gestation period of about 1 month young mature at 1 month Life span more than 5 years in the wild Related endangered species Helan Shan pika Ochotona helanshanensis CR Koslov’s pika O koslowi EN Status IUCN LC 10
STEPPE PIKA Pikas also sometimes called mouse hares are small rabbitlike creatures that are found in parts of western North America Asia and eastern Europe The steppe pika right lives in the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan variability of a population however and the problem becomes especially acute when pika populations are isolated by farmland or other human developments Reduced variability makes small postcrash populations even more vulnerable to local catastrophes be they natural fire drought disease or hard winters or persecution by humans especially by poisoning Pikas need grass and other vegetation to support their large numbers but it is destroyed along with their burrows when land is plowed As farmland increasingly dominates the landscape the pikas lose out Crop Raiders Changes in land use during the Middle Ages drove the steppe pikas out of large parts of their former range in what is now the Ukraine The western part of the pika’s range continued to be eroded in the following centuries and by the early 19th century there were no pikas west of the Volga River The remaining populations are fragmented and at risk of being poisoned snared or shot Their habitat is disappearing under farmland leaving the pikas little choice but to raid crops provoking the hatred of farmers and plantation owners The tender saplings of newly planted conifer plantations make easy pickings during the winter when the trees are buried in the snow and the pikas can feed without being seen The extent of their attacks on the trees becomes all too evident when the snow melts but then it is too late to act and the trees die The frustration of landowners on finding their crops nibbled and ruined after the spring thaw is understandable As long as humans and pikas compete for a living on the steppes the future of this hardy and naturally prolific little animal is at risk 11
