Elephants

Today was elephant day. We drove up into the mountains, about an hour north of Chiang Mai to an elephant preserve. Elephants are sacred animals in Thailand but destruction of their natural habitat and hunting by poachers has reduced their population from over 100,000 in the early 20th century to a mere 5000 now. There are now concerted attempts to increase the population and to create natural habitats where the elephants can live safely and be cared for humanely. Until the early 80’s elephants were used for the logging industry, helping to clear teak forests and drag logs for that industry. When the Thai government outlawed logging teak and began to control the deforestation of teak forests, the elephants were out of work. That is when they became big players in the growing tourist industry. Many of the villagers who own elephants rely on them for their main income. The problem is that the traditional way of training them is, in many cases, abusive to the animals. The preserve that we visited today rescues abused and abandoned animals and also goes around the country providing free medical care to villagers who own work elephants and also tries to educate them in humane ways to care for and train the animals. I’m really glad that we were seeing animals who are being treated humanely, because we were shown a video which depicted some very inhumane treatment of animals and it was horrifying!

When we first arrived we bought some food to give the elephants and Sam fed sugar cane and bananas to several of the elephants. He also sat on one and the elephant had a good time teasing him with her trunk and reaching up for food. I’ve posted pictures of Sam on elephant for your viewing pleasure! We then watched the elephants go into the river for a swim which was great fun as they cavort (as much as an animal that size can be said to cavort!!) in the water and they enjoy coming up with a trunk full of water and spraying the tourists with it. We all got an elephant shower during that segment! After that they have a show where the elephants perform various tricks and entertainment. They played harmonicas (yes harmonicas) by holding them with their trunks and blowing through them. It was very funny. They played soccer and it was amazing to see how they could kick those balls into the goal! Then they actually painted pictures. They stood at an easel with paintbrushes and paint and drew pictures – two of them drew trees and one drew an elephant! The “mahouts” are the villagers who care for and train the elephants. They usually come by the job through long time family tradition and a mahout will usually work with his or her animal for life, often with the elephant outliving the human. Elephants life span is about 80-90 years. The bond between mahout and elephant is very strong and it was incredible to watch how the mahouts and their elephants interacted.

Then after the show we got our ride on the elephants and that was truly the highlight of the day. The elephants are very sure footed, which is a good thing as we were walking up very steep hills in the forest and along very narrow footpaths in the forest, after first crossing the river which required the elephant to walk down a steep ramp into the water. We discovered that as passengers on the elephant the downhill stretches were the most precarious and we were holding onto the crossbar of our seat for dear life trying not to slide out onto the elephants shoulders and then to the ground!! Our elephant was very hungry and kept stopping to “snack” on grass, vegetation and tree branches as we moved along. I said to Sam, “This gives a whole new meaning to the words “trail mix!” Our elephant had a particular proclivity for getting near the edge of the path which was on a steep hill so Sam and I decided we had to not look down while the elephant grazed!! I’ve included a picture of us atop the elephant, taken by the mahout when we stopped along the way for the elephants to snack. (Elephants eat A LOT. Apparently they consume about 10% of their body weight in food each day – roughly 300 pounds of food a day. And they are complete vegetarians.)

Then we went to another part of the preserve, where young elephants and older, “retired” elephants or elephants that are disabled in some way roam freely on many acres. Several elephant families came to the riverside so the tourists could participate in bathing them and then feeding them. There were two baby elephants who got a lot of attention from the tourists. It was fascinating to watch the elephants interact with each other. They form strong family bonds and friendship bonds and they are highly intelligent and emotional animals. We had a great time watching them interact with each other and the humans who were feeding and bathing them.

Then we returned to Chiang Mai and had a brief break before leaving for dinner at the Galleria restaurant, which was lovely, as it is on the riverbank. We had a table right next to the river and enjoyed our Thai food while watching the boats go up and down the river. It was a beautiful scene with the city lights reflecting on the water and candles on the tables, not to mention the delicious Thai cuisine. When we got back to the hotel Sam and I made ourselves go out to the Night Market across the street because we leave here tomorrow for Chiang Rai, further north, and we wanted to do some shopping before we depart. Both of us are still exhausted and are looking forward to sleeping on the bus ride to Chiang Rai tomorrow (as are most of our travelling companions!!)