More Elephants (Day 161) — Harmon Family

We spent around a week at a hotel with its own elephant park, giving us our most in-depth encounter with any one animal. We had hours with elephants every day: feeding them, going for walks, and even giving them a check up with a real elephant veterinarian. Elephants became our new favorite animal !

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ELEPHANT ARRIVAL

To get to the hotel, we took a small boat up the river. We pulled up to a dock, climbed up to a little house on stilts, and were greeted by… a group of 5 elephants! We were told that we would each spend most of the week with the same elephant. We learned a bit about them and got a chance to feed them some tasty elephant treats.

Here, an elephant reaches in with her trunk to ask for more snacks!

Later, we climbed on their backs and rode the rest of the way to the hotel! One theme of the trip is trying new things. It was amazing to see our kids climb bareback onto the shoulders of a 5,000 pound, 8 foot tall elephant… and just ride off down the path.

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WALKING WITH GIANTS

Some of our best activities were the simplest, such as going for a walk with the elephants around the camp.

The camp was built as a home for rescue elephants (sort of like rescue dogs in the USA). The elephants have been saved from really bad situations such as street begging, illegal logging camps, etc. The park has over 150 acres, so there is a lot of space for the elephants to roam around.

Later, the elephants walked over to the river to take a bath.

The elephants loved to throw dirt on themselves. We learned that they do this for a variety of reasons: as a natural sunscreen, to stay cool, to remove bugs, etc.

Here are 2 elephants cooling off and having fun!

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JUNGLE BUBBLE SLEEPOVER

We had the opportunity to spend a night in clear “Jungle Bubble” tents where we could be right next to a group of elephants all night. A sleepover with elephants! Definitely one of our best nights of the trip.

How often do you sleep in a room that has an airlock? (The tent needs a double door airlock system to stay inflated.) And you could see so many stars through the roof!

We arrived in the afternoon and sat by the tents, watching the elephants play in the mud. They had so much fun!

Two of the elephants, named Dah and Pum Pui, were especially close. One was much younger than the other, but they had an unusual bond because both were scarred from their time as street begging elephants. They loved to nuzzle each other, spray water on each other, and sort of hug with their trunks. Pum Pui still has lasting affects from an injury where she was hit by a car when she was begging on the streets in a big city. She would make frightened trumpet noises when cars passed. The camp does so much for the elephants – they even have a physical therapist who comes and helps her with the lingering effects of the car accident.

Here, Dah and Pum Pui play in a mud pit right outside our room. And they hug!

Here, a curious elephant comes right up to Jamie and tries to eat his phone!

The elephants were so close that we could hear them breathing as we went to bed.

In the morning, we woke up to watch them as the sun rose. Then we had breakfast, and it was time to say goodbye.

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AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS

You may have heard the phrase, “An elephant never forgets.” But have you ever thought about if it is true? How you would test it? Luckily for us, the director of the elephant camp was an expert in elephant cognition, having received her masters degree studying with one of the world’s leading authorities. She was also (like the veterinarian we met later) super nice and fun!

Here are a variety of elephant intelligence facts. Compare what elephants can do with maybe a dog, cat, or sometimes even a 2-year-old kid. Overall, the elephants are pretty impressive!

Elephants are 1 of only 8 animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror.
Elephants will mourn for dead elephants. They will also avoid walking in places where elephants died in the past.
There are plenty examples of elephants using tools (which very few animals can do). They often pick up a stick to scratch themselves or even to break down a barrier in front of them!

An elephant can use logic to infer information about things it cannot see. Imagine you give an elephant 2 closed boxes with yummy seeds inside – but one box has just a few seeds and one box has many. Can the elephant figure out which box has more seeds without opening the boxes? Yes! It will lift the boxes with its trunk and shake them to hear which one makes more of a noise. Understanding this correlation between sound and volume is unusual in the animal world.

Elephants can learn how to cooperate to achieve a goal. In one test, 2 elephants were presented with ropes they can pull on to get food. You might think that the test is set up so that the elephant pulls a rope and gets food. Lots of animals can do that. In this test, the ropes are reversed, so if one elephant pulls a rope, the OTHER elephant gets food. Most animals cant figure out that is it “rational” to cooperate – you both pull the ropes, so you both get food. How do the elephants respond? Elephants learn to work together, each pulling to give food to the other. (Would your pet figure this out? How about your kids on a bad day? Or your political leaders???)

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HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU GET THROUGH AN ELECTRIC FENCE??

One set of stories about elephant intelligence is related to their attempts to break through electric fences. This is actually important because one of the keys to helping wild elephants survive is to keep them from destroying farmers’ crops (making farmers hunt and kill them). Here are some of the tricks elephants use to get through electric fences:

Tools. They figure out how to use tools, like picking up a stick and banging the fence until it breaks.
Protective coatings. They sometimes put mud on their chest as protective coating and then just run through the electric fence.
Finding weak spots. They can figure out that some parts of the fence are not electrified (such as the pole supporting it), and then they learn they can push down this part.
On or off? Elephants also have learned that the fence is sometimes on and sometimes off, so they can test to see if it is off and just run through it.

And the list goes on. It is sort of funny and sad at the same time – a lot like thinking about how you would keep a 6,000 pound 5-year-old kid away from a cookie jar. It would not be easy!

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VET VISIT

We had so many questions about elephants that the hotel let us spend time with their elephant veterinarian, something that is not normally offered. We thought it was totally fascinating!

We learned about all the things the camp does for the elephants: medical check ups, physical therapy, and even dental visits! (The elephant dentist is also a human dentist. How cool is that?)

We got a chance to clean the elephants and also to feed them.

So many aspects of elephant healthcare are tricky. For example, how to do weigh an elephant? Clearly, it is hard to make a scale big enough (or cheap enough for the size). The vet had a clever way to estimate the weight of an elephant. You can take a measurement that is easy to get (in this case, chest girth) and use that in a formula to estimate the weight of the elephant. So, the next time you need to weigh an elephant, all you need is a tape measure and this equation:

(Chest Girth in cm x 18) -3,336 = Elephant Weight in kg

The vet also took the elephant’s temperature.

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EVEN MORE ELEPHANT TIME

With so many elephant activities, we got weirdly used to having elephants around. One day, we had a picnic, and a long trunk snaked over the blanket to grab some of our food. We found ourselves saying, “Hey, Hazel, an elephant is after your cookie,” as if that were a completely normal thing to say (and not really something to worry about).

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ANOTHER ELEPHANT EXPERIENCE

Before the elephant camp in Chiang Rai, we also spent a morning at a small elephant park in Chiang Mai. We were the only guests that day, and it was fun to have so much time with the elephants just ourselves. This camp also seemed to be on the “good” end of the spectrum in terms of elephant treatment — lots of space, elephants seemed happy, etc. Still, they focused more on fun and games instead of the more natural experiences.

The main theme of the day was the amazing things elephants can do with their trunks. The trunk is like a nose, shovel, straw, hand, super bendy arm, extra leg, communication device, and more – all rolled into one.

It was fun and a bit scary to feed them by hand. A 7,000 pound elephant could easily rip your arm off… but all we got was wet slimy hands from the ends of their noses. They were so gentle at every turn, amazing for such huge animals. You’d never get to feed a lion, gorilla, or rhino like this.

Here is Ashley feeding some of her elephant freinds.

Later, we walked over to the river to give the elephants a bath. They loved to lie down in the cool water and get cleaned.

We thought elephants drink water with their trunks, but that is only partially correct. They really use the trunk as a sort of straw to suck up water– which they then shoot into their mouth.

Or they could shoot the water at us!

The trunks are also good for elephant “kisses.” Their kisses are really wet and have a lot of suction! It was gross and awesome at the same time, a bit like our giraffe kisses in Nairobi. (What other wacky animal kisses could we try on our next trip???)

Here, an elephant shows her dexterity by taking Costanza’s hat off and putting it back on again!

But the truly amazing thing the elephants could do was paint. We were struck so many times by how elephants could do things that young human children could not do. But these elephants were probably better painters than we are! (At least better than Jamie.)

The elephant has a steady hand - I mean trunk!

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HISTORY OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS

Elephants are the official national animal of Thailand and are seen as a royal animal. The long and complex history of human-elephant relations here helps us understand the difficult situation for elephants in Thailand today.

Many Thai people view elephants a bit like how many Americans view horses: animals that are special and wonderful — and are trained to do work for humans. Elephants have been working with humans for 1,000’s of years. At first, elephants were used by Kings for royal transport and for war. Think of the surprise and shock when Alexander the Great became the first European to encounter an elephant – and in battle! – around 327 BC. The history of royal battle elephants continued for a long time. One of the best battle elephant stories we heard was about how King Rama IV of Thailand (who was the real king depicted in The King and I) offered to send battle elephants to Abraham Lincoln to help in the American Civil War!

As logging became a big business around the mid 19th century, elephants were increasingly used to transport heavy timber. This was hard work. Sadly, the elephants were forced to destroy the forests that were their own natural habitat.

People also wanted to clear the forests for growing cities, new roads, new villages, farms, etc. This human encroachment on natural elephant terrain drove the Thai wild elephant population from around 100,000 in 1900 to about 3,000 today (down 97%!). The few wild elephants left are under constant threat from farmers and rural villagers who view them as huge, crop-destroying pests.

In 1989, Thailand banned commercial logging. This sounds great for elephants, but it was also bad because it put them out of work. It costs about US $20,000 per year to care for an elephant (they eat a lot!), but the average Thai worker only makes about US $7,000 per year. Clearly, there is basically no way for an individual to pay the costs for an elephant. Without a “job” for the elephant, many owners saw no other choice than letting their elephant starve rather than pay the massive costs to keep it.

This led some elephant owners to bring them into cities to beg on the streets. Baby elephants would be separated from their mothers very early since they were cuter, easier to work with, and cost less to feed. But, of course, a big city is not the best place for an elephant! And it is not good to separate the babies so early.

The elephants are in a tough spot. They can’t easily be let into the wild because there isn’t enough wild space left, and farmers and villagers try to kill them. They face cruel and difficult “jobs” in cities, illegal logging camps, etc. What should be done?

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TRYING TO HELP ELEPHANTS

Thai elephants face so many problems that it is probably good to have help coming from many directions.

We felt like spending time and money at this elephant camp was a way of helping. Maybe a bit like how someone might think their purchase of organic food makes a difference. Incentivizing small changes, one step at a time.

Clearly, a truly safe wild existence would be best for the elephants, but that does not seem to be a realistic option for most elephants in Thailand today. There is not enough space for the existing wild elephants, let alone thousands of new ones.

This preserve rescues elephants from street begging, circuses, and illegal logging camps. It gives them a better life, lots of space, food, and even medical care. Importantly, the hotel also tries to help the mahout (elephant trainer) and their family, providing them with not just a job but also free accommodation, food — and even schools for their children. Over time, the camp wants to see fewer elephants in captivity, so they do not buy elephants They don’t want to incentivize capturing wild elephants for sale. They also do not try to breed their elephants, again because they don’t want to have more captive elephants.

The camp also supports an associated non-profit that helps protect wild elephant habitats. They buy cheap land in Cambodia for dedicated elephant parks. They install electric fences to try to keep wild elephants away from farms. They even try to retrain elephant poachers to become elephant rangers (protectors). This was a bit like what is happening in Rwanda, where the government has been trying to protect the gorillas with a mix of nonprofit and for profit work. And where they also try to retrain the poachers to be rangers and show them that there is more money to be made helping the animals than hurting them.

We also gave money to a foundation that helps both captive and wild elephants. With so many threats, there are also so many ways to help!

Were we comfortable with riding the elephants? Some people are concerned about that, and we spent a lot of time thinking about this. Ultimately, we decided it was ok here. The camp limits riding to bareback only (more comfortable for elephant), 1 person at a time (or 1 mahout with a small child), and they also limit time per day. Ultimately, humans weigh around 3% of what a 5,000-7,000 pound elephant weighs, so an elephant carrying me is like Hazel carrying a camera or me carrying a very small backpack. The elephants gave no indication they were unhappy at all.

It is basically like riding a horse in the USA. If you are super interested in animal rights, you may think both things are bad, but we have ridden horses (and camels!), and we thought it was ultimately fine. Strangely, we spent so much time with elephants that both kids have probably spent more time riding elephants than horses.