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How to Walk an Elephant

In Thailand the image of the elephant is ubiquitous: on money, on buildings, on archways, gateways, and even jewelry. But the everywhereness of the elephant is rather ironic-- according to a recent article by Science Daily only 1,000 Thai elephants remain in the wild. The natural species borders on eradication as populations dwindle, habitat continues to be destroyed and the inability of different packs to reach each other leads to more and more inbreeding (a plight similar to that of the Rocky Mountain Grey Wolf, though more extreme).

With the natural population in continued decline, it is increasingly overshadowed by the population of domesticated Thai elephants. Current estimates suggest that as many as 2,000 elephants are living interdependently with their mahouts-- or elephant handlers-- in cities across Thailand. Having been broken in and taken from the forest as babies, or born in captivity, the domesticated elephants depend on their mahouts for food, safety, and survival in places as foreign as the streets of Bangkok. In return the mahouts depend on the elephants (which can eat US $3,000 worth of food per year) for income.

Together the elephant/mahout pairs live in varying states of tragedy. Some wander city streets begging for food or offering up an elephant dance to tourists in exchange for donations. Others are kept in private menageries, which can be bane or blessing depending on the education and relative wealth of the owner. The more unfortunate elephants are put to work as exotic modes of transportation: slap a bench on an elephant's back and voila--a mobile couch tour of Chang Mai. Then there is the a select group of "rescued elephants" who are reclaimed from the city streets or poorly maintained "private zoos" and are relocated to elephant sanctuaries across the country to live out the rest of their days.

It's true, the state of the domesticated elephant today is not as depressing as it was during say... Thai logging (when the elephants were used as beasts of burden, tools for destroying their own habitat)... but a sense of animal welfare is often lacking.

There were four female elephants at the camp where I stayed -- Kjota, Pailin, Samboon, and Nam Phon -- and there was one baby, named Soy Tung.

The baby had torn ears where her earings used to hang when she worked the streets of Chang Mai. Despite her young "age of rescue" she was still convinced that she would not be fed unless she danced first.

Kjota was blind in one eye as a result of both old age and years of inadequate balance to her diet.

Pailin and Samboon were physically damaged-- one now walks with a permanent limp after being hit by a car in her hind legs, the other is cursed with an arthritic and deformed back due to one too many trips through the countryside while bearing upwards of four tourists at a time on her back.

Out of the other four, Nam Phon was the only elephant without health issues-- a fact that was not lost on the volunteers or the staff. You see, Nam Phon was the elephant that ran away on my first day at the camp, and until she was found frolicking about in the banana fields whispers abound that maybe just maybe she'd been kidnapped in the night, and brought back to a life on the streets.

Elephants, though expensive to feed, are a hot commodity. And like many things we cherish they are often poorly maintained and in short supply.