Why, in live-action movies, do they always use Indian elephants even in African settings? Are African elephants too expensive? Hollywood usually ignores expenses for the best effect, and Indian elephants look garishly out of place on African plains, so the cost factor doesn’t really make sense. So are African elephants just plain banned from being used in movies because they’re endagered?
From what I remember, Indian elephants can be tamed/trained; African elephants cannot.
African elephants are wilder and harder to tame. There are some laboring elephants in Africa, but Asia has a larger elephant workforce. This might mean there is a greater pool of docile® Asian elephants from which to choose.
The famous Jumbo was an African elephant.
The population of Asian elephants is estimated to be only about 50,000, while that of African elephants (now thought to consist of two species) is about 600,000, so that the Asian form is considerably more endangered.
Asian elephants are considered to be much easier to train, and were first tamed for work as much as 4,000 years ago. They have not, however, been truly domesticated, since they infrequently breed in captivity, most captive ones having been taken from the wild.
African elephants have be tamed and trained for work, but it is generally conceded be much harder and not worth the effort.