The African elephant is bigger than the Asian elephant, and has
larger ears. The large ears are one of the main ways to
differentiate the two. The African elephant also has a dip in its
back, where the Asian elephant has a hump. The African elephant has
a smooth curved forehead, while the Asian elephant has two humps on
its forehead. The African elephant has four or five toes on its
front feet and three on its back feet. The Asian elephant has five
toes on its front feet and four on its back feet. The trunk of the
African elephant has two knobs of flesh on its tip, one on top and
one on the bottom. The Asian elephant has only one knob of flesh on
its trunk, and it's at the top. The African elephant's tusks are
longer than the Asian elephant's.
The African elephant is much larger than the Asian Elephant, in
both height and weight, and as stated, the ears are clearly larger.
African elephants also have a single round 'dome' on the top of
their head, while Asian elephants have 2 'domes' on top of their
head with a small indentation in between. African elephants are
also known to be more 'wrinkly' than Asian elephants. In Asian
elephants, only some of the males will get tusks, however among
African elephants both the male and female can have tusks. African
elephants also have two 'fingers' at the end of their trunk used to
grabbing and moving things, whereas Asian elephants only have one
'finger' at the end of their trunk on the top, but they make it
work just as well as having two.
A very distinct difference between the two is in the ears. The
African elephant's ears are overtwice the size of the Asian
elephant's. Also the African elephant's ears are shaped quite
differently, and are often referred to as the "Map of Africa" by
some wildlife biologists. The Asian elephant's ears are not shaped
this way. This is easy to see from afar and is, therefore, often
the way the animals are told apart from a distance.
