Endangered Species ‘Asian Elephant’ On Stamp

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Do you know that the Indian Elephant (featured on the postage stamp) ,a sub species of Asian Elephant is on the verge of extinction ?.The threats to the Asian elephant today are in the form of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation.Asian Elephants are threatened by poaching for the ivory of their tusks.The Asian elephant population is below 30,000 and is on the endangered species Red list

A Unique collection of stamps on Elephants with the theme “Lord Of The Jungles” by Santhosh of Bangalore Won Medal at recently concluded international stamp exhibition INDIPEX 2011

The stamp featured as part of the “Fauna Stamp Of The Month” is the Indian stamp of Indian Elephant released on 17th October .1963.

The Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) is a one of three subspecies or races of the Asian elephant ''Elephas maximus". The other two subspecies of the Asian elephant are E. m. sumatranus on Sumatra and E. m. maximus on Sri Lanka (Stamps Featured Below). The Indian elephant for example, is larger, has longer front legs and a thinner body than the Asian elephant found in Thailand.

Elephants in general are the largest existing land mammals and they have the biggest brains in the animal kingdom.Asian Elephants are endowed with versatile trunks, which have over 100,000 muscles units that make it extremely dexterous.This incredible dexterity enables an elephant to pick up very small items and use their trunks for a wide variety of functions.

Asian Elephants have the tusks, which never stop growing, are in fact teeth (elongated upper incisors) and are classified as ivory. They are modified incisors made up mostly of dentine (a bone like tissue found in many animals). The only other animal to have ivory teeth is the walrus