elephants
Should We Be Riding Elephants in Thailand?
Among travelers to
Should we be riding around on elephants? Isn’t the elephant being exploited? Is it inhumane for elephants to be used for tourism?
Of course we all wish the elephants could live in the wild and be undisturbed by humans. However, for about the last 4500 years, elephants have been captured, domesticated and used for transportation, labor and even warfare. For thousands of years, the elephant has been living with and around humans and over that time we humans have learned the requirements for ensuring that the relationship is stable and productive. One of the outgrowths of these years of domestication is the role of mahout, which is the elephant’s trainer- an essential and vital role for the elephant and human. For the last three days, I learned a little about being a mahout and his relationship with the elephant. These are mahouts with their elephants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center:
The mahout has a unique relationship with the elephant- one that can last decades. When an elephant is born into domestication, it is assigned a mahout who will be responsible for the elephant for the mahout’s whole life. In fact, some elephants outlive their mahouts (elephants can live 80+ years) and the elephant is then often passed down to the mahout’s son. As you might imagine, a strong bond develops between the mahout and the elephant that goes beyond trainer and animal. When I asked about the nature of the relationship, it was described as companionship. The elephant seeks the company of the mahout and feels at home with the mahout on his back- they are a lifelong team.
As I experienced, the relationship is not one purely of hugs and treats. As dog owners know, a dog seeks to be the alpha (dominant) dog in the family and if it perceives that it has reached this role, it will become less trainable and try to dominate the humans. The same basic idea is true with the elephants. The mahout must maintain a relationship with the elephant that ensures that the elephant is not dominant, but submissive to the mahout. A dominant elephant can be lethal.
How do you dominate an elephant? Unfortunately, is partially through pain, or at least the threat of pain. Elephants are incredible heavy, strong, willful and tough animals. In order for the mahout to be able to train the elephant, he must have some way to send positive and negative messages. Along with voice commands and touching, the tool of choice for mahouts is an ominous looking pointed metal hook called an ankus. This hook is used to guide the elephant and to correct poor behavior. Though it seems a bit barbaric to the layperson, this evolved over many years and ensures that the elephant and mahout have mutual respect.
For hundreds of years in
Today, many elephants have found a new home by working in the eco-tourism industry. Elephants that are sufficiently trained and mild-mannered can now be supported through tourism. By offering rides through the jungle, elephant shows and elephant education, the mahouts and their elephants can support themselves without the logging industry. For many elephants, working conditions are greatly improved and as more tourists come to
The
So, to return to the original questions…
Should we be riding around on these animals? Isn’t the elephant being exploited? Is it inhumane for elephants to be used for tourism?
Of course, this is a personal decision. I realize that many readers will not ride an elephant on principle alone. However, I hope that I’ve provided information here that illustrates a bit of the complex circumstances of the elephants in
3 Day Mahout Training, Thai Elephant Conservation Center
I return from 3 days of learning about elephant training more of an elephant lover and with more mixed feelings about the life of the domestic elephant.
The Thai Elephant Conservation Center offers a multi-day mahout training course that enables a tourist to live at the center for 3 days to learn about elephants and elephant training, their relationship with their trainer (the mahout) and general elephant/mahout life. The course includes accommodation for 2 nights, 5 meals and all instruction for about $125. Below is one day in the mahout training program.
The experience at the
Though they are very well cared-for at the center, their size and potential for destruction requires that they lead a life in bondage- chained to a tree or the floor consistenly. Being domesticated from birth, this lifestyle is a reality to the elephant in the way that a dog is kept in a kennel or a rabbit in a cage. I left with the feeling that the elephants at the center are quite happy, but there are many in the country (and world) that are not so happy and it pains me to think of the life they lead. Thankfully, organizations like the
See Also: Should We Be Riding Around On Elephants in Thailand?
Bring on the Elephants
Though they say that the classes are sold out until August, I somehow got myself into a three-day "homestay" elephant mahout training course, starting tomorrow. It's through the much-respected Thai Elephant Conservation Center, which offers 1 day, 3 day and 10-30 day courses where you learn to care for, bathe, ride and train a single elephant. This should be really, really interesting. I do love those beasts.
Sachi isn't going to join me, so she is going to party solo in Chaing Mai for a few days- our first (even hours) apart in six months.
More info on the course here.
Trekking From Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is the northern city that makes up the mountainous part of what I would call the Big Three regions of
From the moment we arrived, we started to get a good feeling for Chiang Mai. It doesn’t have the colossal population, traffic and pollution of
Chiang Mai is also the jumping off point for the surrounding mountains that offer access to the Thai Hill Country Tribes, rivers, elephant camps and beautiful scenery. After seeing so much of the beach, it was nice to venture up into the mountains recently for a one day trek (US$25 per person). Trekking is big business in Chiang Mai and we were a bit overwhelmed with all the choices. In the end, we choose a day that included a visit to an elephant camp, two hill tribes, a waterfall and a trip on a bamboo raft. We were skeptical and the tour exceeded our expectations. Here are some of the things we saw:
After an hour or so in a minivan with a fun group of Aussies and Austrians, we arrived at an elephant camp. I have a soft spot for elephants and I get a little conflicted when it comes to riding them and seeing them used purely for human amusement. The fact is that most of the elephants in Thailand are working elephants used in the lumber industry, which was banned in 1989. This left a large population of elephants unemployed and many were abandoned by their owners. Tourism offer a sustainable way for the domesticated elephants to remain healthy and live quite well with their life-long companion, the mahout. Here is a mahout with his bathing elephant trying to get completely sumerged:
There are a number of hill tribes in Northern Thailand and most migrated from China and Burma. The Karen tribe is the largest and has a few hundred-thousand members. We learned that they are traditionally animist, meaning that they believe in the spirits of living things. However, about 80% have recently been converted to Christianity. While they see tourists every day, it seems that their village life is still quite traditional and tourists aren't allowed in most areas.
We did visit what was called a "hill tribe" but resembled more of a gift shop with a few huts around it. Not great.
One of the highlights was floating down a river on a bamboo raft. Touristy? Yes. Fun? Very much so. I got to do my best to be the aft guide...
We did some trekking through the woods, where Sachi tried her best to avoid bugs:
We crossed some super-sketchy bamboo bridges...
And had a better time than we expected.
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