My most embarrassing moment as a traveler happened in Thailand.
On my first backpacking trip when I was 20 years old, I wanted to see elephants up close, so I sought out an elephant sanctuary in the Golden Triangle region of northern Thailand. I thought the word “sanctuary” meant an elephant shelter, but when I was invited to climb on top of an elephant tied to a pole, I knew something was wrong.
Since then, every time I see an image of an elephant, I see not the national emblem of Thailand, but a symbol of failed tourism. Is it possible to interact in an ethical way with this gentle giant that has been a symbol of Thailand for centuries?Determined to find out, I returned to Thailand for the first time.
Dr. Nissa Muthuttanon is Anantara’s resident veterinarian and helps care for 20 elephants © Anna Haines / Lonely Planet
Find a reputable elephant sanctuary
I was planning on going back to the Golden Triangle, but this time I decided to check it out. While searching for a camp that is committed to meaningful elephant rehabilitation, Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort came up multiple times as a reputable sanctuary. Within 10 minutes of arriving at the resort, he spotted two elephants grazing freely near the Mekong River. I wanted to know how the elephants are cared for.
Many of Thailand’s estimated 3,800 captive elephants are not treated fairly. Despite being protected animals under the Wildlife Protection and Protection Act (WARPA) since 1975, many elephants living in tourist facilities are suffering. They often get nervous from anxiety, and that’s what I witnessed firsthand here. Veterinarian at the scene, Dr. Nissa Muthuttanon, explained that the elephant’s repeated figure-eight movements with its head are a self-soothing technique that it continues to display even after capture and when it is safe.
This lesson is one of many I learned from Dr. Muthutanon. She guided us through making elephant energy balls (giant mounds of hand-shaped bananas, tamarind, and nutritional pellets), walking with the elephants, and even showering them under warm water. Sun. I was relieved to know that I would not be riding an elephant. This elephant camp focuses on elephant rehabilitation rather than providing Instagrammable moments for guests. Elephant encounters here are less interactive and more educational, a welcome change in the nature of elephant tourism, which traditionally avoids harmful practices such as caging and beating elephants. The move comes in response to growing pressure from the travel industry and animal rights groups to protect elephants from natural disasters. Training elephants for tourism. Established in 2003, Anantara Camp works with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) to provide street rescues and comfortable homes for elephants, with Dr. Muthuttanon overseeing their nutrition and medical care. . To date, the camp has rescued more than 50 elephants and provided a new home for the gentle giants as well as their mahouts.
There is a deep connection between mahouts and elephants © Anna Haines / Lonely Planet
The importance of the relationship between elephant and mahout
Despite a 4,000-year tradition of handling elephants, mahoution is a dying profession. Unethical elephant camps should definitely be shut down, but little consideration is given to what happens to the elephants and their mahouts. When travel to Thailand stopped during the pandemic, the income to care for the elephants also dried up. “Keepers need to come up with about $20 a day just to feed the elephants and meet all their other needs, as well as their own families,” says Anantara Elephant Conservation. John Roberts, divisional group director, said: “An elephant consumes 6 to 10 percent of her body weight every day, and caring for one elephant costs about $18,000 a year.” Without the support of tourism funds, mahouts have a hard time taking proper care of.
The mahouts could easily let the elephants go, but they usually don’t because the elephants are not only their main source of income, but also the deep bonds they have with the gentle giants. I felt this connection when I saw the mahout holding the elephant’s trunk in a warm embrace. When you learn that his 70% of the mahouts here came with the elephants, it becomes clear that this is a lifelong relationship and plays a huge role in determining the well-being of the elephants.
Mahouts and elephants have their own dialect of commands, and once the elephant gets used to his mahout, he doesn’t even need to use it. Elephants have developed a very close relationship with their mahouts and have come to treat them like relatives, for example, instinctively providing shade when the mahout is sitting in the sun. The mahout and the elephant are more like a family than a domineering ownership relationship, with one needing the other to survive.
Anantara Golden Triangle’s sustainable approach to elephant tourism is to support not just the elephants, but also the mahouts and their families © Anna Haines / Lonely Planet
Supporting former mahouts
That’s why Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort takes mahout care as seriously as elephant rehabilitation. The mahouts live on-site and are provided three meals a day. GTAEF also supports mahout families and provides education to their children in the nearby villages where they live. As a result of providing English instruction, these local schools have gone from the lowest to the top 100 in the state in average English scores. Given that mahoution is a commonly inherited occupation, improving the literacy and education levels of the next generation has the potential to also secure the future of elephant care.
But it’s not just the mahouts’ children who receive education; the mahouts themselves also receive education and learn ethical elephant training techniques. One of his most successful free courses at GTAEF is “Target Training Positive Reinforcement Workshop.” In this workshop, you will learn how elephants can present body parts (for medical tests such as nail clippings and blood tests) by receiving their favorite treats as positive reinforcement. Now in its 12th year, the training is so effective that the Foundation is expanding its offering in neighboring countries: Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. “To date, he has over 400 mahouts,” says Dr. Muthutanon. “It’s very uplifting to see mahouts rapidly adopting new techniques.”
After an unethical elephant experience over a decade ago, I was desperate to find an elephant sanctuary, a true refuge in every sense of the word. I wasn’t surprised that it existed at Anantara’s Elephant Camp. But I was surprised to learn that ethical elephant tourism in Thailand is not just about supporting the elephants themselves, but also about supporting the people behind the elephants: the mahouts who care for them.
