Thailand
Decline in population threatens "Greatest elephant show on earth"
Thailand's Great Elephant Show - Thai elephants paint, dance, play soccer and harmonicas but are in danger of becoming an endangered species.
By Alan Hoskins
Click on Thumbnail to View full Size Image
CHIANG MAI CITY, Thailand - Having been to Bangkok more years ago than I care to admit, I had seen elephants at work - pulling and stacking logs and doing all the other things one would expect elephants to do.
What I did not expect was to see some of the most talented animals in the world in what could easily be billed as the "Greatest Elephant Show on Earth." The world's largest mammal played soccer and harmonicas, ran races, danced, gently put one foot on a mahout and most incredible of all, painted pictures that were quickly snatched up by amazed tourists.
Located in Ta Yaak Village about 35 miles north of Chiang Mai City, the Maeso Elephant Training Center not only offers its "show of shows" but also an opportunity to ride an elephant. Unlike a carnival ride in which one might circle for two or three minutes and have a photo taken, it's is an hour-long ride into the high rocky hills on the banks of the Mae Ping River.
Seated two to an elephant in a wooden box, it took but a few steps for me to realize I was off on a rock and roll trip into the jungle. With each step, I and my favorite traveling companion were bounced up and down and back and forth as we headed into the hills.
I also quickly learned that while each elephant comes with a mahout, elephants have a mind of their own and they go pretty well where they darn please and it's not unusual for them to stop for a few moments whenever it might strike their fancy.
Our mahout quickly earned his tip by jumping down and letting the elephant plod along while took our photo, first with a still camera and then with a camcorder.
Despite the bumps, I found it a marvelous way my first up close look at a Thai jungle. No way would I have trudged up and down those mountains paths on foot so to be chauffeured the only way possible was a highlight. Lumbering at a slow pace also gave me a chance to enjoy the flowers and the fauna and nature's other gems I would never ever see.
Incidentally, the feel of an elephant is almost exactly what I would have expected, tough and rough.
Heading back down the hillsides does not lessen the bumps. In fact, it's a little more bumpy but there's also a stop in the river for the elephants to get a long, well-earned drink.
Their reward at the end of a ride is a large bundle of grass. Sugar cane is the favorite food of the elephants and we were offered countless chances to buy the cane and bananas to hand feed the elephants.
The end of the ride came all too soon - all that I had expected and a lot more. Little did I know the best was still to come.
After a trunk to tail parade into a circular arena to open the show, the elephants bowed and curtsied, laid down and re-mounted their mahouts in something of a warm-up before the real good stuff. Playing harmonicas in their trunks, a trio of the mammoth mammals danced, swirled their trunks and bobbed heads in gyrations that would make Elvis proud and had an appreciative crowd roaring in laughter.
Soccer came next. Huge balls were rolled to a pair of elephants who took turns kicking towards an open net. When a goalie was added, they were given the luxury of kicking the ball from a stationary position.
Imagine if you will a bull waiting to charge a red blanket, pawing and stomping the ground read to make the mad rush. So it was with the elephants who built their kicks to a crescendo by lining up like a field goal kicker and pawing and beating their trunks on the ground before launching left-footed kicks that were amazingly accurate. Three goals were scored, the other three or four shots barely missed.
The piece de resistance, however, came when the mahouts came out with painting kits and easels. I could get a good look at only one of five elephant painters but what I saw left me fascinated beyond description.
First, a simple stroke down a large piece of paper followed by two more strokes, one on each side that angled at the bottom and would soon become stems. After each stroke, the elephant would return the brush to his mahout for more paint or a change of colors. Brush two produced green leafs atop each stem and grass at the bottom and finally, three red tulips were deftly stroked atop the leafs that brought oohs and ahs from an adoring crowd .
Another of the elephants actually painted six tulips in a 10-minute span, others painted abstracts featuring lines or circles that produced finished works that sold for as little as $25 and as much as $125. I didn't buy one but looking back I kind of wished I had, they were that good and certain a happy reminder of a fascinating day, the best of my 12 days in Thailand.
Not all elephants paint (just five at the Maesa) nor do all elephants play soccer or harmonicas or lightly tap gently with one foot on the back of a prone mahout.
"They invited an artist from China to teach them to paint," said our guide Boeing, so named because a Boeing jet flew over his home when he was born. "Each elephant has its own style using dots and lines and flowers. They begin training them at age three. The first month they're very uncomfortable with a pen in their trunk."
Boasting a high order of intelligence and quite amenable to learning, the elephants are enrolled in the training center at the age of three to five and courses last five to six years. During the early training, they meet their future master, the mahout, and learn to understand such simple commands as "song," which orders the elephant to lower its front leg and let the mahout climb up," and "how," which is the order to stop.
Very sensitive animals, Boeing tells the story of one mother elephant seen standing in vigilance for three days, crying and disconsolate, at the site of her young's grave.
While a few learn to paint or play harmonicas or soccer, most are trained to give rides to tourists or haul logs from timber sites through the jungle to the log yard. Leave it to the ingenuity of the Thai for making the most of everything. The dung from the elephants is actually made into paper and sold in various forms.
Unfortunately, not all Boeing could tell us was good. The hard and cold fact is that elephants could soon become an endangered species if they're not already.
A few centuries ago, 150,000 elephants roamed Thailand. As of 1976, that number had dwindled to 12,000 and it's estimated that there's now less than 5,000 elephants in the country, about 2,000 of which live in the wild.
For those living in the wild, starvation is a problem, particularly in the dry season. Totally vegetarian, a big elephant can consume as much as 500 pounds of grass and 60 gallons of water a days. A newborn calf, which stands about two feet in height and weighs about 200 pounds at birth, needs breast feeding for about two years although it begins to graze on soft grass and young leaves after a year.
Normally very dorsal animals, elephants can be dangerous when aroused or hungry. "When the wild elephants can't find enough food in the jungle, they will come to seek food," said Boeing. Usually running in groups of 10 to 15, the hungry elephants will often zero in on a sugar cane plantation or a grove of bananas trees.
"In one day, they can wipe out a whole plantation," said Boeing. "The people try to scare them away but you can't stop them. They come in, destroy the sugar cane plantation and then vanish."
Protected by Thailand law, the elephants can not be harmed. However, there's always the additional threat of illegal poachers who kill male elephants for their tusks. Female Asian elephants do not have tusks.
A lack of a hospital for elephants and sufficient veterinarians trained in their care is yet another problem, especially in the northeast sector near the border with Cambodia where in a war 16 years ago, the Burmese government laid an estimated 100,000 land mines, most of which still remain. "The elephants step on them and are badly injured or killed," said Boeing.
At a training center such as Maesa, young elephants are protected from such dangers as snake bites, given the care of a veterinarian and have the freedom to bathe and romp before and after their lessons. The life span is about 80 years but they're retired at the age of 60.
Fortunately, the plight and the future of the elephants has not gone unnoticed. There are at least five organizations working to halt the decline in the elephant population and making life better. To let the current decline continue would be a tragedy.
Copyright © 2004