Elephant
In 2008, the IUCN listed the Asian elephant as endangered due to a 50% population decline over the past 60–75 years while CITES lists the species under Appendix I. Asian elephants once ranged from Syria and Iraq (the subspecies "Elephas maximus asurus"), to China (up to the Yellow River) and Java. It is now extinct in these areas, and the current range of Asian elephants is highly fragmented. The total population of Asian elephants is estimated to be around 40,000–50,000, although this may be a loose estimate. It is likely that around half of the population is in India. Although Asian elephants are declining in numbers overall, particularly in Southeast Asia, the population in the Western Ghats appears to be increasing.
Asian elephant
Three subspecies are currently recognised: the Sri Lankan elephant, the Indian elephant, and the Sumatran elephant. In 1950, Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala described the Borneo elephant under the trinomial "Elephas maximus borneensis", taking as his type an illustration in "National Geographic", but not a living elephant in accordance with the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. "E. m. borneensis" lives in northern Borneo and is smaller than all the other subspecies, but with larger ears, a longer tail, and straight tusks. Results of genetic analysis indicate that its ancestors separated from the mainland population about 300,000 years ago.