Which island is the Sri Lankan elephant native to?

The Sri Lankan elephant is native to the island nation of Sri Lanka.

It is the subspecies Elephas maximus maximus, one of the recognised forms of the Asian elephant. Carl Linnaeus described it in 1758 as the type form of the species, so Sri Lankan elephants have a particularly important place in elephant taxonomy as well as in the island’s natural history.

Today, most wild Sri Lankan elephants are concentrated in the country’s dry zone, especially in the north, east and southeast. They occur in and around protected areas such as Yala, Udawalawe, Wilpattu and Minneriya, although much of their range lies outside national parks. Habitat conversion and encounters between elephants and people remain major conservation concerns.

The distractors are other islands or regions associated with Asian elephants, but they do not answer this question. Java’s former elephant population is extinct, while Borneo and Sumatra have their own Asian-elephant populations or proposed forms. The island named directly in the subspecies’ common name is the canonical answer: Sri Lanka.