Feeding sequence of a Sri Lankan Elephant, Wilpaththu, Sri Lanka
Best viewed on a large screen (click photo to enlarge). Here we see how this solitary male elephant feeds. It grabs and then twists the grass to pull it, it will repeat this until it has collected the maximum its trunk can carry, after which it is brought to the mouth. It's an efficient feeding machine, this was hundreds of meters away yet you could hear the pulling of grass in a clock-like rhythm.
The Sri Lankan elephant is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to Sri Lanka. Since 1986, "Elephas maximus" has been listed as endangered by IUCN as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three generations, estimated to be 60–75 years. The species is pre-eminently threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation.
comments (2)