One of last week’s non-Covid 19 news was about a DLTV (Distance Learning Television) class for kindergarten students, whose teacher taught them the names of native animals.
When it came to the national animal, she showed a picture of an African instead of a Thai elephant. That became a social media issue, which put the spotlight on the pachyderm.
The public relations of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation posted on Facebook the characteristics of the Thai elephant, with its scientific name Elephas maximus indicus is actually a subspecies of an Asian elephant from India.
There are many physical characteristics that differentiate the Asian from the African species. The most recognisable is the Asian elephant’s smaller and rounded ears compared to the African species’ large fan-shaped ears.
Nevertheless, the world’s…
