When a young Asian elephant is stressed and nervous they will go to an adult and place the tip of their trunk in the adults mouth. Elephants also use a broad range of sounds to communicate. Males secrete musth, a signal to local females that males are ready to reproduce. Elephants can walk in areas where machines are unable to navigate. About 15,000 Asian elephants are held in captivity as work animals.
Elephants are important in Asian folklore and religion.
They are believed to be cousins of the clouds and able to cause lightening. Although there is no accurate census available, it is estimated that about 2500-3000 elephants are still found in the wild, and a further 500 odd in captivity. It occupies a variety of habitats from open grasslands to forested regions, including open savannas, wet areas of marshes and lake shores. At the turn of the century more than 10,000 elephants were found distributed all over the island. These numbers were rapidly depeleted, firstly due to big game hunting, and subsequently because of rapid development and deforestation, which in turn increased the conflict between man and elephant.