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In May 2021, a photograph supposedly showing a dwarf elephant was shared on social media: This is a genuine photograph of an elephant with dwarfism that was spotted at Sri Lanka's Uda Walawe National Park in 2013. And as noted in a brief paper published at the time by researchers with the Centre for Conservation and Research, this was the first record of a free ranging adult wild animal -- an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), with disproportionate dwarfism. The researchers explained that this wasn't the first time that dwarfism has occurred in the animal kingdom. Rather, animals with disproportionate dwarfism are less likely to survive into adulthood. Since Asian elephants have few predators, this lil' squish of an elephant, known as the Walawe Dwarf, managed to survive: The Walawe Dwarf elephant, which was estimated to be about 30 years old when it was first discovered in 2013, went viral a few years later when a video surfaced of the dwarf elephant fighting a full-size male elephant. Here's one clip from this tussle of trunks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fa0PGcCNJ8&list=PL9bMmwn87-aAGU_3kaP1Xk88jX494lfB8&index=4 The BBC reported:
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