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Search for:
♀
Neema
born 2025-04-16 at
Sharjah Safari park
♂
Kam Muen
died 2025-04-19 at
Maesa Elephant Camp
♀
Pupy (Pupi)
relocated 2025-04-18 to
Elephant Sanctuary Brazil (ESB)
🎈 ♂
Siddha Prasad
have birthday at
Suklaphanta hattisar
🎈 ♀
Sonje
have birthday at
DSWT Umani Springs (Kibwezi Forest)
🎈 ♂
Gus
have birthday at
Wuppertal Zoo
🎈 ♀
Kimana
have birthday at
Wuppertal Zoo
† circus elephant trainer
Adi Enders
died 2025-04-05
† circus artist
Patty Maloney
died 2025-03-31
† circus elephant trainer
Gary Thomas
died 2025-03-24
Elephant locations in
Sri Lanka
94 locations has kept elephants in Sri Lanka
There is presently 284 (123,115) living elephants in locations in Sri Lanka in this database
Country+info
camp
circus
dealer
hospital
museum
orphanage
private
sanctuary
temple
village
wild
zoo
all
Sri Lanka
Region:
Sri Lanka is in this database included in
asia
Wild elephants:
Sri Lanka has about ca 7,500wild elephants. Source:https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/photosin-search-of-sri-lankas-vanishing-tuskers/
Location holdings:
94
locations
has kept 395 elephants in
Sri Lanka
(Database tables with collection of elephants
further down on the page
)
Elephants in locations
284 (123,115) living 111 (61,26) dead
Sri Lanka is an island with a land area of approximately 62,000 km2 situated in the Indian Ocean, 35 km from the southern end of the Indian Peninsula.
2004: In 2004 a rare albino elephant was spotted roaming Sri Lankas Ruhunu National Park, the first recorded sighting in the country.
2011: The first-ever nationwide elephant census in August 2011 produced a total of 7,379 jumbos across the island: 5,879 of them were spotted near parks and sanctuaries, while another 1,500 were estimated to be living in other areas.
(Earlier 2 000-3 000, Santiapillai, IUCN1996, Sukumar 2008)
2021: Sri Lanka is home to an estimated 7,500 elephants, which is about 10% of elephants that live in Asia. They live on about 2% of the country’s land area, and a little more than 7% of male elephants bear tusks.
Poaching
A record number of elephants - 361 - have died in Sri Lanka during 2019, environmental groups say.
It is highest figure of elephant deaths to be reported since Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, conservationists said. Most were killed by people.
There are an estimated 7,500 wild elephants in Sri Lanka. Killing them is illegal, but the animals often come into conflict with rural communities.
Sajeewa Chamikara, an environmentalist from the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform, told the BBC that some 85% of elephant deaths last year may have been caused by human activity.(Sri Lanka elephants: "Record number" of deaths in 2019, BBC)
Human-elephant conflict
2019: In 2019 alone, 407 elephants and 122 humans were killed due to the country’s worsening HEC. Man-elephant conflicts are the major cause for the elephant killings whilst a number of elephants were run over by trains accidentally. In some other cases elephants were killed as they fell in man-made structures like farming wells.
Research has indicated that
problem-elephant translocation causes intensification and broader propagation of HEC and increased elephant mortality, hence defeats both HEC mitigation and elephant conservation goals.
Captive elephants
1946: In 1946 Sri Lanka was said to have 736 elephants in captivity (Santiapillai and de Silva, 1994)
1955: there were said to still be 670 elephants (Deraniyagala, 1955).
1967: census conducted by the University of Peradeniya and the Smithsonian Elephant Research Programme showed 532 elephants, with two owned by government and the remaining 530 in private hands (Jayasinghe and Jainudeen, 1970).
1982: In the early 1980s a census conducted by the DWLC listed 344 elephants, including 29 tuskers and 154 makhnas (Anon., 1982d); but A.B. Fernando, who handed the mimeographed single page to the author, estimated that about 10% were uncounted, the addition of which would give about 380 elephants (A.B. Fernando, 1988).
Recommended Citation
Koehl, Dan,
Facts about elephants in Sri Lanka
. Elephant Encyclopedia, (2025) available online retrieved 2025-04-20 at
https://www.elephant.se/country.php?name=Sri Lanka
.
(
archived
at the
Wayback machine
)
Sources, among others
Ashley de Vos, The Special Sri Lankan Elephant and the Import Export Trade.
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/01/24/the-special-sri-lankan-elephant-and-the-import-export-trade/
Current status of Asian elephants in Sri Lanka, by Fernando et al. (2011),
http://www.asesg.org/gajah35.htm"
>Gajah nr 35, 2012. (Journal of the IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group)
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/AC774E/ac774e0g.htm"
>FAO: elephants in Sri Lanka
https://www.nature.com/news/linnaeus-s-asian-elephant-was-wrong-species-1.14063
http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-27295-news-detail-pinnawala-zoo-ready-by-end-2013.html
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=51569
http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/provincial-news/25377.html
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/10/elephant_pharyngeal_pouches.php?utm_source=sbhomepage&utm_medium=link&utm_content=channellink
http://www.eturbonews.com/17761/revisiting-gathering-elephants-minneriya-national-park
https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1869.tb07303.x
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/AC774E/ac774e0g.htm
http://www.sfltimes.com/news/human-elephant-conflict-soars-in-sri-lanka-green-activists-blame-habitat-loss
Problem-Elephant Translocation: Translocating the Problem and the Elephant? available online at
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0050917
Sri Lanka elephants: "Record number" of deaths in 2019, BBC online at
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51076898
Internal relevant links
The elephant database startpage. Statistics
News about elephants in Sri Lanka
(From the sister site Elephant News)
2020-10-01
Wild elephants spotted foraging for food in trash dump encroaching on their land in sri lanka - Elephant News
2013-11-04
Linnaeus's asian elephant was wrong species - Elephant News
Pinnawala zoo - Elephant News
2011-11-05
Sri lankan ivory carvings from the dutch period at francesca galloway in london - Elephant News
2010-10-27
Field days for wild elephants in kekirawa - Elephant News
2010-10-12
Pouches, pockets and sacs in the heads, necks and chests of mammals, part ii: elephants have a pouch in the throat... or do they? - Elephant News
2010-08-09
Revisiting "the gathering" of elephants at minneriya national park - Elephant News
2020-10-02
Human-elephant conflict soars in sri lanka; green activists blame habitat loss - Elephant News
2021-10-06
Copa presents its second report containing information on 16 investigations to parliament - Elephant News
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