When people think of Thailand, often what comes to mind includes elephants. I mean, King Rama IV did offer to send some elephant to Abraham Lincoln to help the Union fight the Civil War. However, the number of wild elephants in Thailand has dropped from around 100,000 at the turn of the century to between 3,000 and 4,000 today.
Many elephants in Thailand are domesticated, working elephants. In the 80’s, when legal restrictions were placed on logging in Thailand, many mahouts, or elephant caretakers, and their animals were put out of a job, and many turned to begging on the streets. The elephants that remain a part of the logging industry are often overworked and prevented from breeding, as an elephant’s pregnancy lasts nearly 2 years and the baby needs at least three months with the mother.
Seeing the plight of the elephants in Thailand, Sangduen Chailert, known as Lek, opened the Elephant Nature Park in 1996 as a sanctuary for elephants, and an extension of the Save Elephant Foundation.
