African (Savannah) vs. Indian (Asian) Elephants

African Elephant, picture courtesy of the Oakland Zoo
This is a public service message for traveling internationalization (I18n) and localization (L10n) personnel. You might need to know the difference between an African or Savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) and an Indian or Asian elephant (Elephas indicus)...

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An excited jeweler called the police station to report a robbery.

"You'll never believe what happened, Sergeant. A truck backed up to my store, the doors opened. Out comes these robbers and they lead an elephant out of the truck. The elephant then breaks thru my plate glass window, sticks his trunk in, sucks up all the jewelry. Then they lead the elephant back into the truck. The robbers close the truck doors and the truck pulled away."

The desk sergeant said, "Could you tell me, for identification purposes, whether it was an Indian elephant or an African elephant?"

"What's the difference?" asked the jeweler.

"Well," said the sergeant, "an African elephant has great big ears and an Indian elephant has little ears. So which kind of elephant was used in the robbery?"

"How should I know? I couldn't see his ears," said the jeweler. "He had a stocking over his head."