Difference Between African and Indian Elephants

African vs Indian Elephants

African and Indian elephants differ in many ways, and the two can be differentiated by just a look. The first signs that can be seen is that the African elephants come with bigger ears that reach up over the neck whereas the Indian elephants have small ears that do not reach the back.
The African elephants are heavier and are larger than the Indian elephants. When an average African elephant weighs around 4,000 to 7,000 kilograms, an Indian elephant just weighs around 3,000 to 6,000 kilograms. Looking at the height, the African elephants reach about four meters at the shoulders, and the Indian elephants just come a half inch below it. The highest point of an African elephant is on the shoulders whereas an Indian elephant’s highest point is on the back.
One can also differentiate the two elephants by looking at the skin. The African elephants have more wrinkled skin than the Indian ones.

The two elephants also differ in the shape of their back, belly, and head. The African elephants have a concave-shaped back, and the Indian elephants have a convex or straight-shaped back. The belly of the African elephant is shaped diagonally downwards towards the direction of the hind legs. The Indian elephants have a straight or sagging belly in the middle.

The Indian elephants have a crumple-shaped head from the front to the back with humped structures and no dent, but the African elephant does not have this shape of its head.

While the teeth of the African elephant have diamond-shaped molars, the Indian elephants have compressed molars. Both the female and the male African elephants have tusks with the males having longer and bigger ones. It is only the male Indian elephants that have tusks, and females have no tusks or they are just rudimentary. The lower lip of the African elephant is short and round when compared to the long and tapered lip of the Indian elephant. The African elephants have more rings in the trunk whereas the Indian elephants have fewer rings. The trunk of the African elephant is comparably less hard to that of the Indian elephant.

Summary:

1.African elephants come with bigger ears that reach up over the neck whereas the Indian elephants have small ears that do not reach the back.
2.The African elephants are heavier and are larger than the Indian elephants.
3.The African elephants have more wrinkled skin than the Indian ones.
4.The two elephants also differ in the shape of their back, belly, and head.

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