Again, its a less than an hour from the city here, and again the business is ostensibly about "saving the elephants".. or at least the culture of working elephants...
You see, humans have been training and using elephants for thousands of years. They were effectively the "super-weapon" of pre-industrial armies, but I think they were mostly useful in the peaceful work of "heavy lifting" in activities like tree harvesting. The elephant has an especially important part in Thai culture. And even with the advent of industrialisation, the working elephant still retained its vital role in the North of Thailand where selective logging in this steep mountainous country with big expensive machines is far more destructive, expensive, and difficult than with elephants...
And so the tradition of training elephants has continued till the modern day...
And its an involved process to train an elephant...
The un-born babies gestate for about two years and then are allowed to "do their thing" more or less after they are born till about the age of five... At which time they start their "training" and it takes another five years or so before they are at all useful at work (I think). Then they go on to live till about 80 years of age! and thats a long time... Its longer in fact than a persons normal "working career", and so one elephant usually has two mahouts (trainer/driver/carer... its a very personal relationship); One older "experienced" trainer and one younger "junior" trainer (often a father-son pair)... One other point to note is that there is a long-standing imperial decree/law, that all working elephants must be released back into the wild at the age of 60 to live out their remaining time naturally... Clearly the Thai people have a deep seated respect for these animals!
And all that is just dandy but for the fact that modern Thailand has become pretty much deforested (especially in the South)... And so,about 10 years ago, the Thai government passed a law to try to preserve the little remaining natural forest in the North that all logging was outright banned!... And that left the bulk of the remaining trained elephants (and their mahouts) "unemployed" !
And elephants take a great deal of effort to "keep" as they need lots of attention and lots of expense to feed etc. So, the end result of the new law was that there was no-longer any "functional" role for these people and animals that were such a valued and long-standing part of Thai heritage and culture... And many of the animals were becoming neglected/ malnourished and maltreated... Very sad...
And these "elephant shows/zoos/parks" that have come into being around the Northern cities are an attempt to preserve that culture and protect the elephants.
At this particular park there were about 200 elephants of assorted ages and the tourism activities ranged from simply watching a "show" of assorted elephant skills/tricks, to buying elephant paintings (really!) to going for half/hour long rides, to spending days or even weeks learning some of the skills of a mahout and how to "drive" and care for your elephant.
I opted for seeing the show and going for a bit of a ride. I didnt feel the need to learn how to "drive" one since I didnt think that an elephant would likely be my "choice of transport" for commuting and running errands in the Canadian city of Vancouver.... and I really dont know how well they corner or break in snowy conditions either! :)
Anyway, here are some pictures:
First off they had a bit of a bath show... elephants really seem to like being in the water :)
Then all the tourists walked up to an "arena" and the elephant show began!
And then there were the "stupid elephant tricks" from using hula hoops on their trunks, to playing socker, and "darts" and hide the mahouts hat etc... Good old circus stuff! :)
And then there was the painting...
Five elephants simultaneously painting their own "art" for about 10 minutes...
The mahoute dips the paint brushes in paints of their chosen colours and then puts the brush in the elephants trunk... And the elephant then paints a few strokes with it...and then the mahout takes the brush back and dips it in the paint again... repeat till done!
You are watch while they do this and you can definitely see the precision and delicacy of the elephants work and you can equally see the different "styles" and preferences of each elephant too!
... But, the mahout always has their hand behind the elephants ear and Im not sure what sort of signalling is going on and so Im not sure how much of the painting is fully the "creative output" of the elephant alone... A considerable amount of it may be being "suggested" by the mahout too!
... But, it definitely left me believing that elephants are at least as smart as dogs and probably smarter... though in a definitely "ponderous" way :))
And finally, there was a demonstration of the old log moving skills that required three elephants to work in a very coordinated "team"... good stuff :)
Again, I found the "textures" of the elehants skin and hair very interesting... Very bristly creatures and their skin was most definitely very "leathery" (of course I guess!).
And then, I went for a half hour ride around the local area... actually, half an hour doesnt get you very far at all... they are a very slow mode of transportation!
And it has to be said, not that comfortable either!... A very "lurchy" experience.. (far more-so than a horse or even a camel) and particularly so when going "down hill".
... So, lurching, I went several hundred metres around the park buildings and up a hillside, down through the forest, up a short stream, and back to where Id started.
... So, that was the experience, and now the "eco-assessment"
Well, as I said its not just about saving the elephants,its more about saving the "culture" of people working with elephants, although, given the demise of so much native elephant habitat, saving the "wild" elephants is also a closely interrelated issue. And so I was not at all perturbed by pretty much complete lack of "natural" about anything. Likewise, its all run in a distinctly "Thai" style with an almost complete absence of any "modern" developed world type facilities ... Again I found this entirely appropriate.
The "show" option aspect of the park is relatively cheap at $10 or less, but going for a ride cost me about $28 which was more than "cuddling a tiger"!, so I consider that quite expensive by local standards... But, there were still "hordes" of tourists there so I guess they know what they are doing business wise :)
So, given their goals and the historical/political/environmental circumstance that have precipitated the pachyderms predicament ...(sorry, I couldnt help myself :) ), I find that I am entirely in favour of this eco-enterprise. The elephants have always been "performing" tricks for people, and so this is just a new set of "relevant" tricks that are replacing an old set of no longer relevant ones... A more or less natural evolution.
... That said, I have to say that I didnt find it that entertaining or exciting and I would not myself go and do it again...
On to the next "eco-attraction"...
