Mae Moon and Kham Jan no longer give rides to tourist and do not have to live in fear of their caretaker mahout.

Elephant Conservation was a personal long-term photo project about Asian elephants living in captivity. They are mostly used for profit in the tourist and entertainment industry where there are public concerns of mistreatment and a harsh environment for living. As a thriving business, it leads to the poaching of young elephants from the wild, reducing the population. Their risk of extinction though is primarily from habitat loss due to deforestation and human activity. Ironically domesticated elephants are currently the only guarantee that can prevent extinction and this is mainly funded by tourism. Over time I visited elephant camps and sanctuaries to get a good understanding of the industry and see what the future holds for more ethical and sustainable methods that everyone can be happy with, including the elephants. 

In my last blog, Miguel Tenorio was on a mission to create a sanctuary for elephants previously used for rides and shows. The intention is for the elephants to reproduce and later on introduce to the wild. Miguel is a lawyer turned conservationist and founder of the non-governmental organisation Conserve Natural Forests and earlier in 2016 he obtained two female elephants that were also pregnant. They are now under his care and are allowed to live freely in a semi-natural environment that includes a stream running through it which is essential for the elephant’s care.

Mae Moon and Kham Jan enjoying the freedom they now have under the care of NGO Conserve Natural Forests.

For elephants camps, those that use elephants for rides and shows, there is a loss of income not being able to work an elephant in the late stages of pregnancy. This loss continues after giving birth for up to two years of nursing and more until the calf is weaned and can feed on its own. For this reason, sometimes owners will not allow breeding due to a loss of income for that period.  This causes a decrease in the population of domesticated elephants due to more deaths per year than births. This also leads to the poaching of young elephants from the wild to keep up with the demand for elephants needed for rides and shows. While this may not be the practice of the larger established elephant camps of which there are only a few, it certainly is for the majority of the smaller ones. 

The tip of an Asian elephant’s trunk has a prehensile finger that can grab hold of objects.

Elephants have a poor digestive system which only retains about 40% of what they eat. Because of this and adult Asian elephant needs to eat 150kg to 200kg of food per day to compensate. To eat that amount they need to feed constantly throughout the day, nearly 80% of the time they are awake. So while the anatomy of an elephant is physically capable of giving rides to people it is plausible to say that tourist rides are disruptive to its natural eating cycle falling below the required daily intake of food. Elephants also supplement their diet by eating dirt from the ground to obtain needed salts and minerals so being able to roam around in open natural space and ingest dirt as needed is important. 

A visitor feeding Mae Moon and Kham Jan pieces of pumpkin.

Many tourists are conscious of the ethics involved with riding elephants due to the number of articles written about it and are unable to determine if they should or should not. Most faced with this dilemma choose not to ride elephants. So when word got out about the two elephants Mae Moon and Kham Jan that were on the grounds of Conserve Natural Forests, many were eager to visit. Conserve Natural Forests responded by hosting a trial open day and being successful this went to hosting weekly and now daily. Visitors would meet at a certain time in the afternoon in a peaceful relaxing atmosphere alongside a river. There they will get to meet and interact with the elephants, feed them and bathe them in the river. The visitors feed them with pumpkin, bananas or whatever is available at the time in order to build trust and get close to the elephants. If you run out of treats and have nothing to give them, then the elephants go back to doing their own thing grazing around on the land which is also fascinating to see them do.  I meet with some of the visitors, one is Danique Franck from Holland who had experience riding elephants before but did not feel good about it so learning of this opportunity she decided to see how different it was; “I came here to experience if this would feel better and I can say it does. The elephants are more calm and can follow their own way.” Another person was Romina Arzt from Austria who also visited a place that offered elephants rides; “In (omitted) I saw them with really sad eyes but here they look so happy, they seem to be so happy.” 

Mae Moon and Kham Jan sharing a moment as they feed on freshly cut grass.

An Asian elephant pregnancy ranges between 18 to 22 months and Mae Moon is now due to giving birth. My next visit will be to meet the newborn and see how Mae Moon adapts to being a mother. Mae Moon was born in captivity and would have likely been separated early from her mother. This happens because the mother elephant is normally sent back to working again in order to generate income. A calf growing up without their mother’s care and not learning from this experience sometimes do not know how to bond and care for their own baby.  

It is important to note that my intention is not to blame or point fingers at mahouts or business that use elephants for profit. These are traditions that are centuries old and it will take some time before things change to more ethical and sustainable means. It can be achieved if awareness is raised and everyone does their part.  To learn more about elephants held in captivity and the early beginnings of Conserve Natural Forests you can read Part One of this blog thread.