An Asian Elephant, Elephas maximus, drinking from a pool in Yala National Park in southern Sri Lanka. Cattle Egrets, Bubulcus ibis, are waiting to see if any insects will be kicked up for them to catch and eat.
Asian Elephants are most easily distinguished from their African cousins by being smaller, having two ‘bumps’ on their heads and by their relatively smaller ears.
The Sri Lankan subspecies, E.m.maximus is the largest and darkest subspecies of Asian Elephant. Its males are also said to be the most ‘moody’. Once distributed over most of the island of Sri Lanka, they have been pushed into ever-smaller areas because of development taking over their habitat and cutting off many of their traditional migration routes. Their numbers have fallen by 65% in the past century.
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It is available for sale as various types of wall art, and as home and personal accessories, from my gallery at Pixels.com.
My original photo of a Sri Lankan Elephant, from which the image is derived, is available to purchase as a stock photo from my portfolio at iStock.
