The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is listed as a first-class protected species in China, and is only distributed in Xishuangbanna, Pu'er, and Lincang prefectures of Yunnan Province. The main threats to the survival of elephants in China were habitat loss and fragmentation. Only 5 elephants were reported in Pu'er in 1996, and currently, there are over 80 elephants belonging to 8 groups living in the region. In this study, we collated 152 elephant occurrence points within the entire Pu'er range in 2010, and assessed habitat suitability for Asian elephant in Pu'er, based on Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) of the field survey data. We also predicted the distribution of suitable habitats for elephants in Pu'er. The marginality value obtained from ENFA was 0.992. This result indicated that the deviation of the preferable niche of elephants was different from the average value of the environment, and that elephants chose their habitat non-randomly. The tolerance value was 0.315, which indicated that the niche of Asian elephant was narrow, and that environment indicators restricted the survival of elephants. Results showed that the elephants in Pu'er preferred natural forest with low elevation (<1419 m) and moderate slopes (<14°), as well as areas far from streams and human disturbance (villages and roads). We divided elephant habitat in Pu'er into 4 categories: optimal habitat (409.32 km²), suitable habitat (574.32 km²), marginal habitat (2909.48 km²), and unsuitable habitat (38722.32 km²). The unsuitable habitat accounted for 90.86% of the total area, whereas the optimal habitat occupied only 0.96%. Natural forest is the major vegetation type in optimal (55.6%), suitable (54.55%), and marginal (48.21%) habitats, but it constituted only 33.05% of the unsuitable habitat, indicating that natural forest is the preferred habitat for Asian elephants. According to landscape structure analysis using FRAGSTATS, the mean patch fractal dimension indices (FRAC_MN) for marginal, suitable, and optimal habitats were found to be close to 1, and the meancontiguity indices (CONTIG_MN) were found to be 0.12-0.15. Landscape analysis showed that the optimal, suitable, and marginal habitats all suffered severe fragmentation, low connectivity, and high levels of human disturbance. In comparison with real distribution, the predicted map incorporated some farmlands where Asian elephants forage. The proportion of optimal and suitable habitat in Pu'er is very low, owing to the loss of natural forest and the cultivation of economic plants. It is critical to establish protected areas in the habitat of Asian elephants, in combination with effective conservation measures. In addition, the three main areas of elephant distribution in Pu'er are isolated. It is understood that low connectivity among populations impedes important communication among different population groups. Therefore, it is also necessary to establish and restore ecological corridors to link the current elephant habitats in Pu'er, and to increase their connection with other elephant populations in Xishuangbanna.