They can be found in the countries of Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Asian elephants live in many different habitats including open grasslands, marshes, savannas and their traditional habitat of tropical forest. In the dry season elephants enjoy eating leaves and the inner core of wild bananas, probably because of their high water content. During the monsoon season they prefer young shoots and the stems of bamboo. However, differences in diet relate to differences in habitat and food availability.
Elephants begin mating at the age of twenty.
Usually only one male breeds with all of the females of one herd. Females are capable of giving birth to about 7 calves in a lifetime. The interval between births typically ranges between two and a half to four years, which is primarily due to the elephant's very long gestation period of 19-22 months. A cow will have babies until about the age of fifty, afterwards she will have a long post-reproductive phase, similar to human menopause. The average life span of an elephant is about 60 - 70 years.