|
The
Unemployed Elephants of Thailand
Thailand: Elephants
in the Unemployment Line
100 years ago there were
at least 100,000 elephants in Thailand. They were a treasured resource.
Now sadly, they have become useless and their number has dropped to under
5,000.
Some of the beings on this planet are so small we barely notice when we
step on them. Others, like our pets, are of a more manageable size and
can live with us as companions. The elephants I met in Thailand, though,
were so huge that I understood why cultures have seen them as gods. We
imagine it’s our human intelligence that sets us so far above, but
a deep look into their wise eyes gives me pause even there. These massive,
intelligent, and fully conscious mammals have been our friends, workers,
warriors, and gods. Now, having become obsolete, they are reduced to begging
in the streets and threatened with their own extinction.
| In their ancient
partnership with the people of Thailand, the elephants helped build
that nation. For decades, they were a key to the valuable teakwood
timbering industry. The elephant’s unique ability to carry logs
through narrow forest paths and traverse steep mountainous areas made
them indispensable. |
 |
Both captured from the wild
and born in captivity, these elephants were joined in lifetime partnerships
with human caretakers, called mahouts, and taught how to roll
and carry felled logs.
In 1989, the worst flooding in the Thai history caused the death of thousands
of people. The flood was a direct result of excessive timber harvesting.
In reaction, and to protect the rapidly diminishing forests, the Thai
government outlawed timbering. This left over three thousand domesticated
elephants with no means of supporting themselves.
An adult female elephant weighs 3 to 5 tons and stands almost 8 feet
tall. Her six foot trunk has the strength to move 1500 pounds and the
agility to pick up a dime. She lives for 70 years, consuming 300 pounds
of foliage and 20 gallons of water a day. But with all her intelligence,
strength, and loyalty, there is little use for elephant power in the modern
world.
The unemployed elephants and their mahouts had only a few choices.
Many continue illegally logging in the northern Thai-Burmese border area.
Here, hundreds of elephants a year are injured by land mines, the mountainous
terrain, and the drugs they are fed by the mahouts so that they can produce
enough to survive. Often, they work at night to avoid detection further
increasing their peril.
The tourist industry has provided a haven for thousands of elephants.
Elephant camps provide a place where elephant rides and performances generate
enough for their food and health care. They also produce dubiously marketable
items like elephant dung paper, elephant paintings, greeting cards, and
souvenirs. These camps exist through admission fees and donations.
Taking to the streets and begging
became a resource for some. Mahouts and elephants would sell trinkets
and offer photo opportunities. This is becoming illegal in many areas.
Some were released into the
wild. For the most part, that was a death sentence for the elephants.
Firstly, there is not much left of ‘the wild’ anymore. Secondly,
an unemployed, socialized, and domesticated elephant could no more survive
in the wild then could a domesticated poodle.
So what can be
done? Elephants are loyal, intelligent, family and community oriented,
and very easy to train.
Visit the elephant
camps.
We thoroughly enjoyed a two hour elephant ride at the Mei-Ping Elephant
Camp. The bench atop a female elephant is breathtakingly high. It sways
with a lumbering roll as she walks across the river and through the forest.
The mahout sits behind her ears, on the back of her neck and guides her.
A gust of wind took my partner’s hat. The elephant behind us reached
down with his trunk, picked it up, and handed it back.
| The
elephant picked up her hat and 'handed' it back to her! |
 |
Support the elephant
camps.
Purchasing products or contributing to the camps is an easy way to help.
The US dollar goes a long way in Thailand and any amount is appreciated.
Contributions can be made to the organization or to a specific elephant.
Sponsor an elephant.
You can care for an elephant without the perils of paper-training. Individuals
or groups can sponsor a baby elephant from birth to age four for $760.00
per year. An adult or an injured elephant can be supported for about twice
that.
All too often there seems
to be no room on this crowded planet for creatures when they are no longer
useful to humans. Perhaps it is inevitable that these gigantic companions
are to be relegated to begging, dangerous slave labor, and tourist attractions.
If we cannot stop the trend toward near-extinction, let’s at least
proclaim that it won’t happen in our lifetimes.
Mark Robinson
Caretaker
HandicappedPets.com
Links
http://www.changthai.com
Changthai.com website the most complete reference to Thai elephant support.
A Brilliant tribute to elephants and other animals
Lampang's Thai Elephant Conservation
Center (TECC) was established to care for working elephants and their
mahouts.
Km. 28-29 Lampang-Chiang Mai Highway,
Hang chat District Lampang Province 52190
Office Phone: (+66) 54 229 042
Fax: (+66) 54 231 150
Bank account (for donations and elephant adoption):
Krung Thai Bank, Lampang Branch
Account name: The Thai Elephant Conservation Center Fund.
Account no: 503-1-84611-9
Once the money is transfered, please notify the staff of TECC by sending
transfer slip to the fax number is +66(54)231 150
Elephant Dung Paper Factory,
Thai Elephant Conservation Center, Km.28-29, Lampang-Hang Chat, Lampang
52190
Phone: 01-3872344
www.elephantdungpaper.com
Emal: info@changthai.com
Webmaster@elephantdungpaper.com
Elephant Facts:
Capable of seeing clearly only at very short distances of up to about
20 feet. Sight improves when in jungle areas or shade.
Excellent hearing. Large ears act as amplifiers. Ears are also used to
keep them cool.
Highly developed sense of smell. May be superior to that of any other
land mammal.
The trunk, a versatile organ, contributes greatly to their balance and
agility.
Sense of taste is comparable to all higher animals and can easily distinguish
between unsuitable, suitable and flavored fodder.
Breeding Patterns and Birth
Males are highly individualistic and only join the herd for mating seasons.
Males duel each other with the winner claiming steed rights for the whole
herd. Deaths sometimes occur from wounds inflicted in these duels.
The female runs away coyly for a short while, as part of a ritual, before
submitting to her mate. The bull then mounts the female from behind gripping
her body with his fore feet upon her pelvis and assumes a standing posture.
Copulation takes around 20 seconds with very little movement or noise.
Mating continues promiscuously (with other herd males), for two days after
which the most powerful bull drives off the others. He then remains with
the cow for around three weeks.
The female, when pregnant, carries the calf for 22 months and when parturition
(birth) occurs other herd cows form a circle around the pregnant cow.
She assumes a squatting position while giving birth and the birth takes
around 2 hours.
Just two hours after birth the calf can stand up and begins to suckle
the mother.
Lifecycle
The life cycle of the elephant is remarkably similar to that of an average
human being.
They suckle using the mouth, not trunk.
They are weaned on mother's milk between two and four years. Although
the elephant will naturally be attracted to its mother. Other cows in
the herd often take turns to look after the baby.
If the mother dies then the other cows look after the orphaned baby.
Cows can bear young at age 16.
In a domesticated setting, they can begin work at 16.
They are fully grown at 20 years old.
They are in their physical prime between 20 and 40 years old.
They start going bald around 30 years old.
An elephant lives for around 70 years.
When they are working, they are put on on light duties only when they
reach 50.
When an elephant dies, other elephants will be able to tell if the body
is from the same herd. If so, then the herd will avoid that area, apparently
out of respect. This is so even when the bones are buried. The reason
for this phenomena is unknown but may be attributed to their acute sense
of smell.
Size
They are the largest of all land creatures.
A male (bull) can stand 9ft high and weigh between 3 - 5 tons.
Females (cows) stand 7.5 ft high and weigh between 2.3 - 4.5 tons.
Newly born baby elephants (calves) stand 3ft high and weigh 200 lbs.
The brain of the elephant weighs about 11 lbs. (4 times the weight of
a human brain).
Their skin is around 1" thick.
Diet
Elephants are purely vegetarians. Their favorite foods include: Bananas,
bamboo, berries, mangoes, coconuts, corn, jungle shrubs, palm fruits,
sugar cane, wood apples and wild rice. Salt is an essential part of their
diet.
The elephant’s digestive system is quite inefficient and only around
50% of the fodder eaten is utilized.
Cold climates cause stomach aches.
Some elephants will even peel fruit before eating. The revered holy Thai
white elephant is very particular about eating and will not consume any
food that has fallen on the ground and will not eat with the rest of the
herd.
Trunks
Trunks may be the most versatile of all animal organs. The trunk can be
used to move a 1,500 pound tree or to pick up a coin. It is a boneless
mass of flesh containing up to 100,000 muscles that can bend easily. It
is 6 feet long and weighs around 300 pounds. The trunk has a small finger
like lip at the end which can distinguish between size, shape, texture,
hot and cold. The animal uses its trunk to feed and drink by bringing
food and water to the mouth. It also uses the trunk to breathe, make noises,
caress its young and sometimes even fight. When totally submerged in water
the trunk can also be used as a snorkel. Trunks can hold 1 ½ gallons
of water and are often used as a flexible shower hose pipe. It is a superb
organ of smell, and can be directed easily toward the source.
An elephant may beat the ground violently with the trunk to signal its
anger or displeasure.
When an elephant is on unsteady or unfamiliar ground it will use the outside
of the trunk to beat the earth, determining if the ground is firm enough
to walk on. Once safety is substantiated the front foot is moved forward
onto the tested area. The rear foot follows and is carefully placed in
exactly the same footprint.
Tusks & Teeth
Males have larger tusks of up to 5 feet in length. Females do not have
tusks
Baby tusks, or milk tusks are fully grown at just 2 inches long and are
shed before the calf reaches its second birthday. Permanent tusks then
begin to grow.
Tusks are teeth (incisors) and are classified as ivory. The only other
creature to have ivory teeth is the walrus.
The purpose of the tusk is to dig for food, clear debris, fight and to
carry heavy loads of up to 1 ton such as logs.
Molars (grinding teeth) are at least 1 ft long and weigh about 9 lbs.
each. The animal has only four of these teeth at any one time. New molars
form in the back of the mouth and push the old ones forward and out completely.
An elephant usually grows six sets of these molars in a lifetime, the
final set grows when it is about 40 years of age. When the last set decays,
around 70 years, the elephant finds it hard to eat and dies of starvation.
This is a ‘natural’ death for an elephant.
Tusks never stop growing.
The eye is small in comparison
with the head and there is only a vestigial tear gland. Elephants do not
have a tear duct and 'tears' simply evaporate or run down the cheek.
Copyright Mark Robinson 2003,
All rights reserved
|
