Quote Originally Posted by Kralizec
Hannibal took a bunch of them across the Alps. Most of them died, but that's because it's way colder up there. Maybe they could survive an average winter if the handlers take proper care of them.
Of Hannibal's elephants something like a quarter survived the trek over the Alps. By the end of the next winter, there was exactly one left alive - and I don't think combat casualties featured heavily in the reason.

Obviously the beasts didn't feature too heavily in his Italian operations, although one imagines they made a major impression on the assorted Celts along the way there.