Elephant ‘Owner’ For A Day

Today we had the incredible opportunity to be elephant ‘owners’ for the day!  There are several different tour companies in Thailand, particularly Chiang Mai, that offer elephant rides, bathing, and shows among other things.  Feeling a bit uneasy about the way elephants may be treated, we wanted to find an elephant experience that was more natural and meaningful not only for us, but also for the elephants.  We chose Patara Elephant Farm because of their excellent reputation and their focus on quality elephant care rather than on the entertainment of tourists.

The population of elephants in Thailand has been steadily decreasing due to poaching, human development, mistreatment, etc.  Elephants have historically been considered sacred animals in Thailand so their population is now strictly protected by the Thai Government such that every existing domestic elephant in Thailand is implanted with a microchip and monitored throughout its lifetime.

Patara’s #1 mission is to combat the declining numbers of elephants in Thailand through a breeding program and to develop a safe tourism model.  Patara also adopts/rescues elephants from unsuitable living conditions such as circuses and illegal logging camps.  They have even successfully reintroduced 8 elephants into their natural habitat.

Patara’s #2 mission is to optimize the longevity and quality of life of the elephants through proper elephant care.  This includes the prevention of malnutrition, skin infections, and mental issues.

The family that runs the farm stressed to us that no one truly ‘owns’ an elephant, but rather humans may share the responsibility of caring for elephants.  Each elephant at Patara has its own caregiver, or keeper – also known as ‘Mahout’.  They take on the tough job of feeding, exercising, bathing, and providing daily health checks for their individual elephants; just like we were able to do today!

We had such an amazing time today learning about elephants and making new elephant friends!  And as an added bonus, we were able to coordinate our day to meet up with Justin Lui (our Western Physio classmate), his brother Jonathan (Queen’s Physio grad), and their friend Boris (U of T Physio grad) which made our awesome elephant experience even better (and PT-packed)! 🙂

Just Another Day on the Elephant Farm…

Before our first encounters with the elephants, we were taught how to properly approach an elephant. First, you want to observe him to see what kind of mood he’s in. If he is flapping his ears and swinging his tail, he is in a good mood. If his ears are perked open and still, this is defensive posturing and you should not approach him. Second, you want to call the elephant’s name to let them know you are approaching them.

In order to build a rapport and become friends with an elephant, it is best to feed them first (especially tasty sugar cane which is like candy for elephants). If they lift their trunks to accept food when you say “Bon!”, then you’ve made yourself a new elephant friend. To acknowledge their acceptance, you pat them on the trunk and say “Deedee” (kind of like “good boy”). By the looks of Manoi’s grin, Adam seems to have made a new friend today!

To begin the health inspection, (after assessing their mood), you look at their eyes. Elephants do not have tear ducts so they always have tears running down – you need to make sure the amount of tears is equal from both eyes. Next, you inspect the dirt marks on their heads and bodies – this will tell you how well they have been tossing and turning in their sleep.

An important part of the health inspection is to assess how much the elephant is sweating. Oddly enough, this is achieved by assessing the moisture of the elephant’s cuticles.

Another part of the daily health inspection is assessing the quantity and quality of the elephant’s poop. You need to look at how many clumps (healthy=6-10), the colour (healthy=lightly coloured), the size of the fibres (depends on the age of the elephant), the smell (healthy=smells like wet grass), and the water content (by squishing it in your hands). The poop can tell you a lot about the health of your elephant – even the age and sex!

Justin getting a nice big whiff of Pooh’s poop!

Elephants cover their backs with dirt to keep the bugs away from them. It is important to brush this dirt off before riding an elephant in order to preserve their skin integrity.

Pooh loves being brushed 🙂

Amanda rinsing Pooh.

Adam rinsing Manoi.

There are 3 ways to mount an elephant; in this photo, Amanda is mounting Pooh by stepping on his foot and knee so that Pooh can help lift her up. You can also mount them from the front or from the back by having them bow or crouch for you.

To make riding as gentle and comfortable as possible for the elephants, we learned to ride them bareback like the Mahouts. Hiking with the Mahouts is excellent exercise for the elephants – this helps keep them healthy in many ways and keeps their toe nails trimmed naturally! Fun fact: elephants can carry up to 50% of their body weight on their backs!

This adorable little baby elephant tagged along with us on our ride to the waterfall and caused quite the ruckus on the trek. Apparently baby elephants are similar to baby humans in that they like to explore their environment quite candidly – the difference is that these guys weigh about 1-2 tonnes and ‘exploring their environment’ can sometimes mean knocking down trees!

Bathing is important for the elephant’s skin health. In the wild, the elephants would scrub their own backs on rocks and trees but sometimes this can lead to cuts and scrapes so domestic elephants are pampered by their keepers by the use of scrub brushes.

Amanda scrubbing down Pooh while he played with the baby.

We stood in a line and splashed them with water, then the elephants lined us up and splashed us with water!

Rinsing off in the waterfall.

Hanging out at the waterfall.

Lunch time!!

We payed a visit to the Elephant Nursery where the small baby elephants and their mothers live for the first 3-4 years of the baby’s life (this one is 7 months old). After 3-4 years, the baby is old enough to be trained to live under the care of humans in order to protect them from humans, ironically.

Amanda & Adam