Mutual Respect | Photography Book by Krittanun Tantraporn

MUTUAL RESPECT

Krittanun Tantraporn

Does the middle ground for humans and wildlife really exist?

Probably, the elephant and people need one thing to coexist on this land...

MUTUAL RESPECT

Krittanun Tantraporn

INTRODUCTION Throughout the history, Thai people and culture have deeply “connected” with elephants–probably to the essences of our existences.

The affection and afford to conserve and improve the welfare of these majestic animals which are known as the national symbol are firmly second to no country in the world.

From archeological perspective, the geographic areas where Thailand has currently located had –for very long time–inhabited and foraged by the elephant. Clear evidences to support are the discoveries of the Mastrodon (the ancient elephant) fossils in Ta Chang subdistrict, Nakhon Ratchasima Province–mostly alongside Mun River Basin. 10 out of 42 genera of Mastrodon known in the world were found in this single province of Thailand proving the abundance of elephants in this region of the world.

Derived from the vast generic varieties of ancestors in the past, currently only two existing group have been roaming around the earth. The first group is the African elephant (Loxodonta genera)–consisting of two surviving spices forest-dweller species (Loxodonta cyclotis) and savanna-dweller species (Loxodonta africana. The second group is the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)–subclassifying into 4 species From archeological perspective, the geographic areas where Thailand has currently located–for very long time–had inhabited and foraged by the elephant.

Clear evidences to support are the discoveries of the Mastrodon (the ancient elephant) fossils in Ta Chang subdistrict, Nakhon Ratchasima Province–mostly alongside

Mun River Basin. 10 out of 42 genera of Mastrodon known in the world were found in this single province of Thailand proving the abundance of elephants in this region of the world ¹.

Elephants in Thailand are not defined as the “wildlife”.

Approximately 45 percent of total Asian elephants population in Thailand are domestic ². Alike the horses in most Western cultures, Asian elephants have been indivisibly mingled in Thai culture closely since the beginning of civilisation. In the distant past, wild elephants were captured and trained by humans as a mean of transportation for such building construction, logging, distant transportation and warfare. Until, the recent era, with the growing popularity of machines and vehicles, the uses of elephants had dwindled and begun to convert for travelling and recreational purposes ³. Historically, in the time of war, elephants were trained and participated in the battlefields and helped Siam Kingdom (old name of Thailand) yielding many victories. The elephants have been appreciated and honoured as a main part contributed to the foundation of nation.

Conservation of Thai elephants–to settle a clear definition–are not only the practice of protecting the wild elephants and their habitats–as generally defined by “wildlife conservation”–, but also strictly included the practice of protecting welfare of domestic elephants in Thailand. In other words, the missions of Thai elephants conservation are to prevent the Asian elephants both the wild and domestic from being ‘extirpated’ from Thailand.

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CONTENTS An Elephant's physical characteristics ...................................................... 14

Human-elephant conflicts ........................................................................... 25

Household elephants .................................................................................... 35

Elephant school .............................................................................................. 54 Spiritual connection ...................................................................................... 64 Hospital for elephants ................................................................................... 72

Living together ............................................................................................... 86

Back to the wild ............................................................................................ 101

Born from the tube ...................................................................................... 110

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AN ELEPHANT’S PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Skin ...........................................................................

Elephant skins are thick and wrinkled. The thickness is approximately 2.5 to 5 centimetre. The research found that the level of wrinkles are an indicator of elephant health.

The healthier elephants tend to have more wrinkled skin.

The reasons behind this fact lied in microscopic level. The wrinkle skin have micro-level patterns of intricate crack which contribute to the cooling mechanism and parasitic protective advantage 4,5.

In appearance, Asian elephant skin is less wrinkled that the African relatives as they mainly dwell in the forest which naturally cooler than the savanna. Despite great thickness, elephant skin are surprisingly sensitive to touch and temperature. Hence, they can sharply sense the presence of small insects or quickly response to the changes of weather. Generally, elephant skins are grey. However, the patches of depigmentation causing a freckled appearance on the skin are commonly seen in Asian elephants–mostly on the trunk 4,5.

Ears ...........................................................................

Having huge ears are one of the most prominent appearances of elephants–the size is about one-sixth of the whole body. In fact, the ears play a crucial role in cooling down the body temperature. The ears, where thickness of skin is only 1 to 2 millimetre, have large amounts of tiny blood vessels network that are visible at outer margins. As the warm blood passes around the ears, thank to the thin layer of skin, the blood is cooled down from the outside air.

Once the cooler blood circulate back to the body it helps to lower the entire body temperature 4,5.

elephants are different from most mammal which happen in vertical–upper jaws from above and lower jaws from below.

It rather occurs horizontally. The new teeth develop at the inner part of the mouth then progress toward the outer part. Asian elephants have long-cylindrical ridges on their molars–which support grinding of vegetation 4,5.

Elephant’s tusks, especially top-third portion–functions as both a weapon for self-defence and shovel for uprooting vegetations and digging up the soil. The infant elephants have temporary incisors–until the age between six and thirteen months, they will be replaced with the permanent ones. The bottom part tusk where it attaches to the upper jaw bone is hollow and have only a single nerve 4,5.

In Thailand, there are specific calling words distinguish from elephant genders and presence of tusks. The male with tusks are called “chang plai”; the male without tusks are caller “chang sidor”; the female with or without tusk are called “chang pang”–however, the tusks on the female elephant are not called “nga” which means a tusk but rather “kanai”.

Eyes ...........................................................................

Despite very smaller in size when comparing to their gigantic body, elephants can clearly see within the length of around 22 to 28 metres. The efficiency of vision would greatly be reduced to the things further than 45 metres unless it is a moving object or living thing 4,5.

Tusks and Teeth ...........................................................................

Apart from the trunk, the tusks are another the wellknown appearance of the elephants. In fact, the 2 tusks are actually the upper incisors additional to 4 teeth. Throughout the life time, elephant boar teeth are newly replaced six times. The replacing process of new tooth found in

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POWER OF THE TRUNK Like human hands but even more versatile, elephants used trunk as a nose for smell reception, as a hand and finger for grasping and lifting objects.

The trunk is soft but extremely strong and highly flexible as it has no skeleton inside, but rather comprises of 100,000 sets of muscles. It can efficiently hold the weight to about several hundreds of kilograms and it is also capable of catching small objects with the hook-liked part at the tip of the trunk. Inside the tip contains numerous sensitive nerves enabling fine motor skills to be possible. One tip is found in Asian elephants, while African elephants have two.

Elephant’s trunk is powerful enough to dig up entire big tree or tear down heavy branches. Besides, the trunk is used for social interaction with other herd members, courtship for couple and caring for the young 6. With the capacity of around 8.5 to 10 litre, the trunk can also be used as a pumping water tube and a water spray for both drinking and bathing. Not only water, sometimes, elephants also pump the mud and dusty soil to repel insects.

Elephant may raise and wave their trunk to gather scent floating in the air through their keen sense of smell.

The scent particles are transmitted through the trunk to the Jacobson’s organ, the specialised gland located under the mouth roof. Through the process of gathering and analysing scent molecules, it allows the elephant to find distant water source (to around 19.2 km away) or track down other fellow elephants–especially those ready for reproduction 4,5.

For elephants, the trunk is one of the most crucial but sensitive parts; therefore, although sometimes it is used as a battle weapons, in life-and-death situations, elephants tend to intertwine and hide their trunk to prevent from serious damages.

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MUSTH GLAND The musth gland is a special tiny gland found just under the skin surface between the eye and the ear on both side of elephant head. Every year, the oily, musky substance is secreted from this gland. During the period, the behaviour of elephants drastically change–the male becomes more violent as the musth is associated with fertility and sexual activity 4,5.

It is normal for fertile male elephants to undergo the musth period. In domesticate elephants during the period, the elephants would behave more aggressive and are losing control. It is very dangerous to both the people and other elephants living nearby. Therefore, the isolation of musth elephants to the forest area far from the community and other elephant homes are crucial for safety. Still, the water sources and food supplies have to be sufficiently provided and refilled.

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HUMAN-ELEPHANT CONFLICTS Due to the population census in the past, it stunningly found out the continuous decline in numbers of wild elephants as the result of the loss of habitats from human community area and agricultural fields expansion–,the reduction in amount of natural food sources. Nevertheless, thank to improved recognition by people, better forest area management and law enforcement on elephant protection, the crisis of wild elephant population decline had been alleviated. In some areas, particularly the Eastern region where natural resources are abundant, the steadily rising of population has been observed. Nowadays, the status of wild elephants is no longer listed among the species on the verge of extinction.

Plantation owners may not be too worried if some lower-price crops such sugar cane and cassava were eaten up. But when it comes to the high-priced product like durian or mango which one tree worth several ten thousand Thai bath, it is a different story.

However, the deforestation, both legal and illegal, in the past had left Thailand with less natural habitats for elephants than before–insufficient to support the population recovery of wild elephants. The harmful situations for wild elephants encountered currently, hence, have been caused due to human-wildlife conflict. Insufficient natural resources have brought some wild elephants to approach agricultural areas for consuming farmer crops 7. Some elephants advanced further to the main roads or even crossed the road for reaching the agricultural land on the other side.

Despite some farmers who have learnt to live peacefully with these wild gigantic visitors by granting them some crops, some have adopted more serious countermeasures to ward off the elephants. The methods range from burning tires, electric fencing or wire, firecrackers, raising bees, sirens noise, tress barriers or infused vinegar-chill fencing 8.

1. The insufficient resources in the forest distant from human communities have driven wild elephants to commute further to find food. According to the reports from Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary, the number of wild elephants found close to the agricultural fields and highway roads (which people usually used for transporting crops) are much greater during the dry, colder season (November to February) when food sources are scarce.

Moreover,

As the conflict rises, it has resulted in both human and elephant casualties–more hundreds of lives lost within the period from 2012 to 2018. On one side, without clearly defined boundaries between the protected forest areas and human communities, people expanded their agricultural lands into the overlapping areas 9.

Providing greater energy and better taste, the crops– such as sugar cane, cassava, sweet potato and also banana, durian, jackfruit, longan and mango–have drawn more wild elephants out from the deep forest to the new lands of abundant food sources. Just like humans, it is natural for wild animals to seek for the areas where resources are plenty. Not to mention the gigantic animal such an elephant, an average individual needs to consume 100 to 200 kilograms per day and requires 140 to 200 litre of water ¹0 ¹4.

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The most awful concern about the issue is the perception toward the wild elephants of local plantation owners. If they begin to see the elephants as a “pest animal” then the conflict will become even more severe.

There are two hypothesis resulted in the origin of elephant-human conflicts:

2. During the low seasons when agricultural product oversupply, the farmers usually gave away to the wild animals. At some particular point of time, there were certain elephants that came to the farm and consumed the crops.

Like people who enjoy the taste of delicious food, they have been keeping on coming back and forth. We have known that in the animal kingdom, elephant is among the most intelligent species. One prominent behaviour they possess is “social communication”. The commutation between member of the herds with variety of senses–smell, touch, voice or even hormone–is essential to maintain fluid group dynamic when come to long distance journeys. The social commutation allows the herd to keep tracking their relatives, warn the dangers, defend territory and importantly convey information. Once one elephant tasted the vast sources of high energy food, they came others.

A GLMPSE OF HOPE To combat the continuous conflict, the cooperation between the community members, plantation owners and local ranger officers to identify and enact potential strategies. Forest restoration, patrol team surveillance, renewal of water sources in wild habitats have been practiced together with educating member of local communities the right action to perform with the wildlife.

Usually within the conflict areas, the majority of elephants still dwelled in the deeper forest and have barely appeared or interacted with humans. Yet, there are some individuals who gained familiarised to the humans and kept visiting farmers’ crops field. One of the most promising methods to resolve the conflict between humans and wild elephants is the attachment of “GPS signaling collar” to

certain elephants which when they approach plantation areas 9. The project was adopted and instrumented by the researcher group from Dong Phaya Yen National Park. With real-time monitoring and information tethering, the exact location–in latitude and longitude–of the wild elephants approaching the crops field or main road can be anticipated. Then the warding off operation can be done in time.

Besides, it is much safer for patrol team and local people living in the overlapping area who are at risk of surprisingly encountering with the wild elephants.

The more people understand how to coexist with the wild elephants, the less severity of human-wildlife conflicts will become. There are some areas that local communities learn live peacefully with the wild elephants.

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HOUSEHOLD ELEPHANTS Back in ancient times, the local tribe named "Guay" or “Kuy” was the master of elephant breeding ¹².

They originally lived in Indo China, migrating as a caravan along Lao, Cambodia and eventually Thailand where they settled down on the plateau of Lower Northeast. Due to the variety of forest ecosystem such as sparse forest, deciduous forest, grove wood together with fertile farmland, the vast flood plain due to the convergence of two main river–Chi River and Mun River–the plateau had provided plentiful resources for elephant raising. The Guay people had expertises and seasoned experiences in catching wild elephants from the evergreen forest and tamed wild elephants to domesticated elephants for daily life usage and selling. During the wartimes, their reputation grew tremendously when they offered the trained elephants to participate the battle fields. Since then, the elephant taming and breeding techniques had become widespread throughout the country. The plateau where Guay ancestors settled was now Buriram and Surin–the province of Thailand ¹².

Elephant welfare closely associate with the elephant conservation. It applies to both wild and domestic elephants living in Thailand. However, the welfare in domestic population has been encountering ethical questions as a result of the uses of traditional ways for caring elephants.

For the domestic elephants in Thailand, we have to currently accept that the clear and proper standards for elephant welfare have not yet reached nationwide implementation nor is strictly monitored. Many elephant corals and tourist attractions employing elephants for attracting or entertaining visitors are not fully understand and aware of the right practices to respect elephants welfare. Still, there are many new-wave, understanding research teams, conservation centres and even some elephant corals who have been trying to improve elephants welfare by performing the researches and studies on elephant physical and mental needs and natural behaviours in order to provide these giant fellows with closely equitable living standard to humans ¹³.

It is known as “elephant-human mutual respect”.

In Thailand, the strong point that may potentially shine the light on better welfare for elephants is the concept of “one elephant, one mahout” (sometimes two mahouts).

To practically develop mutual respect and understanding, it is essential for someone to dedicate most of their time to learn everything about your buddy–like close friend, like mutual couple. The particular mahout is to attach and care

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for his/her only particular elephant in every part of daily activity everyday–only by doing this, the bonding is formed.

There are internationally accepted standard principle of animal welfare known as 5 freedoms ²6 to be truly care and responsible toward the animal under supervision.

Freedom from hunger and thirsty ...........................................................................

In natural living, elephants are a roaming animal with enormous territories. With this behaviour, they can forage various types of wild vegetations alone the way– maintaining all essential nutrients needed. In domestication, the varieties of food are limited to common crops in the regions. For example, the Northern region the main course for domesticated elephants are Napier grass–the fast-growing grass family wheres the Eastern region, pineapple plants are main diet. Seasonal fruits such as banana or watermelon and sugar cane are provided as a supplementary diet ¹4.

Although, most elephant keepers do realise that elephants crucially require a lots of food per day, their acknowledgements in nutritional wholeness are limited. In the elephant centre is aware of this issue, the diversity of food provided to the elephants vary on the ages and types of work.

Freedom from discomfort ...........................................................................

It is necessary for elephants to rest after hardworking.

The shelters from sunlight with proper ventilation is essential to be provided as the elephants can possibly develop illness from hyperthermia if staying for under the direct sunlight for long period. Moreover to prevent material infection, the cleanliness of shelter is carefully monitored.

To help elephants reducing the body temperature together with relieving from the stress, providing bath taking care or swimming time is curial important to maintain healthiness for the elephants. This is to follow the natural behaviour of wild elephants which regularly spend sometime in the water for cooling down.

Freedom from pain, injury and disease (at home) ...........................................................................

Additionally, some camps keep elephant healthy and not overweight ²³ by arranging the programmes for the morning walking exercise, swimming and/or stretching on a daily basis.

WORK AND REST Almost half of entire population of the elephants in Thailand are domestic. In the past, where forestry industry was blooming and flourished, domesticated elephants were the main force in hauling timbers for lumber mills. With growing awareness to the severe consequences of deforestation, in 1989, the government of Thailand cancelled forestry concession and have executed the closure of natural forests ¹³. Since then, employing lumber mill’s elephants for private organisations, has become illegal. Despite the ban of natural forestry, still, the domesticated elephants are allowed to work in legally the forestry plantation for economic wood and Para rubber timbers.

While the lumber industry had become less active, the popularity of elephants in tourism business have been growing tremendously. Elephants and their mahouts have been employed many elephants camps and tourist attractions throughout the country. After being trained, elephants are to perform the show to attract both Thai and foreign tourists.

Nowadays, it is common for most of tourist attractions in Thailand. The common, classic services are including elephant feeding, elephant riding and performance by elephants. Meanwhile, the growing popularity of “experience tourism” together with more awareness in conservation, the “learning-from-doing” programs (such as elephant bathing, elephant caring program or mahout training program) are the oncoming trend attracting many tourists ¹4.

In working and daily living aspect, the uses of domesticate elephants for working (e.g., timber hauling) and entertaining show have to consider the limitation in workload. Despite huge and strong appearance, elephants need periodically breaks between the work. Furthermore, physical fitness to perform particular tasks of elephants is another thing to be carefully considered. Walking too much on the paved road may make them suffer in the long term.

Therefore, it is crucial to have medical supports before performing any actions on the elephants.

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ELEPHANT SCHOOL The practice of “klong chang” (literally means lacing elephants) or capturing wild elephants is currently prohibited in Thailand–still, the practice of breeding and training elephants have persisted. Techniques for taming elephants have been passed down from generation to generation–it is an essential part of the culture.

The technique itself comprises of many processes and varies on the regions, but the essence is very similar. Also, the practice of raising and training elephants involve the rituals fundamentally based from the local beliefs about ancestral spirits. Dealing with the elephant is risky, the failure is lethal; therefore it is crucial for the practitioners to not only have experience and skill but also mental strength and will.

Therefore, “Is the elephant taming cruel?” may be the question that sparks in everyone’s thoughts. It is the question that cannot be answered with a single word, but to require an understanding of the underlying reasons. Not all domestic elephants can be reintroduced to the wild as they have grown familiar to human communities, to the care by humans and to the humans ourselves. Reintroduction all of the domestic elephants without thoroughly understanding the physical and behavioural factors of elephants themselves as well as the socio-economic conditions of elephant raisers are very risky in the big picture. The consequences may backfire on original conservation intention. In Thai culture, domesticated elephants are similar to a domesticated horse in most Western countries–throughout the history, they have associated with human culture for work. Therefore, it is necessary–for most domesticated animal–to be trained to live and work together with humans.

The modernised training technique may still include mild hitting for warning and chaining for safety of the trainers; however, rather than making elephant coerce by fear, the main incentives to persuade become food, mild touch and oral praise. The basic command includes: “stop,” “moving,” “catching thing on the ground,” “dragging thing” and “raising front leg” (to send mahout up for riding).

Interestingly, in modernised method is more supplement skills for medical examination such as “raising every leg,” “crouching,” “laying down,” and “opening the mouth”. After completion of all basic and supplement skills, then some elephants with potentials will be trained specialised skills for a show such as drawing or throwing the ball.

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CHANGING THE ATTITUDE Many people have still been depending their lives and families on elephant-relating business.

It may be difficult to instantly introduce and implant the awareness of animal welfare to every elephant raiser or trainer throughout the country, or even in the global level. It is not impossible, but it takes time. For example, raising in the concern for animal welfare has tremendously shaped modern technique for training the elephants in much softer ways than the past when fear was the main reinforcement.

Currently, they trained them with rewards and praising.

We can be promisingly positive about the future that the spread of animal welfare awareness will bring us toward.

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SPIRITUAL CONNECTION In many Thai arts, mythology, religion and history, elephants were thoroughly represented showing the longstanding relationship with Thai people. Many beliefs related to an elephant have been inherited from the ancestors until the present day. Thailand has regarded 13 of March as “Thai Elephant Day” when most elephant camps and conservation centres throughout the country will be arranging the ceremonies for the elephants. Thai people believe in the spirits inside a living things’ body–this includes humans, animals or even plants. The body and mind (spirit) are inseparable–the healthy body will have mental wellness and vice versa. Therefore, many traditional ceremonies are related more or less to the spirit treatment by blessing the good things. To show respect and thankfulness toward the elephants, sometimes the ceremonies held for a human are also done for an elephant. This is the beautiful and charming aspect of the culture.

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WITHIN THE SOUL We worship God, there is the God with elephant's head.

We worship the ancestral spirit, there is the elephant spirit.

We worship the King, we bridge the elephant to the King.

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HOSPITAL FOR ELEPHANTS Freedom from pain, injury and disease (at hospital) ...........................................................................

From a healthcare perspective, any ill or wounded elephants should be treated to medical care by professional veterinarians immediately at the time of need. Mahouts who living closely with the elephants have to carefully and thoroughly monitor and inspect elephant for changes in behaviour and physical injuries ¹7. The preliminary cares have to be performed and report the abnormality to veterinary without delay as minor health problems can be developed into chronic issues in the future. The elephants are to be, at least twice a year, receiving health examination by professional veterinarian ¹4. For the elephants, the mostly found diseases are injuries, parasitism and gastrointestinal diseases. The injuries and infectious disease either from contaminated food sources were commonly reported causing mortality in domesticated elephants ¹6. Feeding is one of the most vital factors for elephant’s life. In the wild setting, the elephants are roaming around the forest and spend 12 to 18 hours eating as they require up to 200 kg of food per day. After consuming, the elephants use around 2 days before excreting that set of food. The symptoms which impede gastrointestinal function, thus, seriously considered as lethal for elephants. Elephant’s faeces investigation is the best friend of mahouts. The physical appearances of faeces can roughly inform the raisers elephant’s physical and mental health status.

In Thailand, the elephant hospital under administration of Thai Elephant Conservation Center which funds by the Government of Thailand are offering free of charge and 24/7 medical care services for the elephants. Currently, there are two branches of elephant hospital under the centre: The Northern branch in Lumpang Province and the Southern branch in Krabi Province. Additional to the hospitals, the mobile elephant clinic is also another great solution to treat elephants in remote areas away from the hospital in time of emergency ¹5.

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FOOD TO THE ELDER “Care the elephant like family members�

This may be the easier way to imagine about the concept of animal welfare for Thai people which give considerable respect and bonding to the family institution.

How we think about taking care the elder in our home may be able to apply when treating the old-ages elephants.

In the elder elephants, the dental degeneration are commonly found and casue reduction in their chewing performance. As mentioned before, an elephant eats all day long as they can only make use of only around 40 percents of the food consumed due to not very well digesting

system. When the food is not thoroughly chewed, the oversized intake can disturb the gastrointestinal function and become lethal for the elephants.

At the elephant hospital of Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang, ground napier grass and sugar cane were mixing with supplementary bar nutrients made from beans, sesame and brown sugar for elder elephants. It allows the elder elephant to easily swallow the food with little crunching effort and gain sufficient amount of nutrient for living.

This can be one of the example how the people who truly care about the elephants may consider.

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LIVING TOGETHER Freedom from fear and distress ...........................................................................

One of the most controversial issues concerning domesticated elephants from the many conservationist viewpoint is the infamous uses of “hook” and “chain” to control the elephants.

On one hand, the use of sharped edge hook will definitely make the elephants feel the pain or fearful as a mean for controlling them through “negative reinforcement”.

Despite traditionally efficient practice, hitting or striking elephants can inevitably render not only physical wound but also mental trauma; accumulated fear which could develop onto chronic stress and, as a result, make the elephant become more aggressive toward humans.

On the other hand, the hooks are perceived as a protective equipment for mahouts who have to live with such gigantic animal. Many mahouts view a hook and chain as communicating tools and “deterring" equipment. Hooks are intended not to cause the pain, but apply pressure to some certain points to guide the directions to trained elephants 17. One researches suggested that more than 70 percents of observing mahouts carrying a hook, the elephants had no wound associated 13. However we cannot deny the fact that the inappropriate and forceful uses a hook can cause puncture wound to the elephants.

Additionally, some mahouts may be noticed carrying a knife, but in fact it is mainly used for pathway clearing and cutting the firewood or in the worst case when their lives are on the line 17. Living with elephants are risky. The death or handicap of mahouts or veterinaries may happen anytime in contact with elephants, especially during the musth period, once the elephants became more aggressive. With elephants brute strength, chains and hooks are relatively nothing but a warning for “peace treaty”. The use of chain originally used for logging during the working time and for tethering elephants with the big trees in the forest during the night-time. Sometimes, when elephants are out of control from being frightened by internal stimulus, hurt from medical practices or in musth period, the chains are the mean of delaying movement and detaining them.

The best and safest protective measure for the tiny animal like us to live together with the huge creature like elephant is probably “to gain their trust”.

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SOCIAL BONDING Freedom to express normal behaviour ...........................................................................

Elephants are basically social animals. With complex group dynamic, the experiences of wild elephants have been taught by older generations to the younger generation.

Similarly to humans, the mother generation elephants are “guiding” and “teaching?” the children generation about the right and wrong practices for survival in the wild. In the domesticated environment, it is crucial to allow elephants to perform natural behaviours. Just like children, young elephants should be raised together for group activity.

Besides, raising as a group is essentially important for domesticated elephants–the young elephants can learn from other senior elephants living nearby. For adult or elder elephants, the “talking” by voice and “touching” by trunk are natural pro-social behaviours to develop intimacy between herd members 6. By allowing some periods for herding as group can relieve stress in domesticated elephants.

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Among the land animal, elephants have the largest brain–with highly developed cerebrum and cerebellum.

These parts give elephants greater learning abilities and muscle coordination respectively. Besides, elephants have large portion of memory-associating part of the brain– the temporal lobes. Therefore, the long-term memory of elephants are well-developed. According to the research, they still react to the similar experiences happened in the distant past–the memories lasting for decades. Elephants are relatively intelligent and social, similarly to humans. The great strength of bonding between the raiser and elephant as well as good attitude of raisers toward the elephant are very influential to happiness of both ²5.

BACK TO THE WILD The efforts to reintroduce the elephants back into the wild has been studied and operated for more than 20 years since 1997. The releases of domestic elephants under management and monitoring by Elephant Reintroduction Foundation to the Sup Langka National Park, Lopburi province have proven successful. At first ยน8, the reintroduction efforts were facing several questions in biological concerns of animals survival, genetic diversity and transmissible diseases and also ecological concerns of impact to previous inhabitant and food chain.

However, after many years, the original first groups of 21 elephants has been growing up to more than 50 with new fertile generation of elephants roaming in the wild. In the recent research, reintroduced elephants have formed non-genetic related association as a group and the presence of elephant calfs have been observed ยน9. Despite being domestic elephants in the first generation, the further generations born have become less familiar to humans and more adaptive to wild living.

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FROM HOUSE TO JUNGLE The continuation in behavioural and monitoring study have been performing until nowadays by the local ranger officers and researcher teams. The aims are for monitoring elephants’ health, behavioural changes in both individual and inter/intra group member interactions well as evaluating the impact to local communities concerning the human-elephant conflicts. Essentially, the knowledge and success we receive from the operation connect the potential thread between the domestic and wild elephants.

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BORN FROM THE TUBE The goals of wildlife conservation are not limited to not only maintaining the living animals but also cataloguing their genes. There are many possibilities that may cause the reduction in genetic variation in the wild population of certain species. The natural causes such as disease outbreak or natural disasters may, by chance, dramatically reduce the fertile population of the species.

Also, anthropogenic causes such as cutting the new roads or dam construction may completely hinder the commutes between wild species from one side of the forest to the other. Both incidents could result in the reduction of chance for fertile individuals of certain species to meet the partners which do share less similar ancestral linage. Generation after generation within the limited spaces, they may end up mating with close siblings–or known as inbreeding.

Inbreeding depression affects the survival of species by increasing recessive traits as well as decreasing biological fitness–ability to survive and have an offspring. With weaker and weaker offsprings ²0, the species is heading toward the edge.

Fortunately, with innovations deriving from the growing in biotechnological knowledge from male fertility preservation in human and domesticated species, the light has shone for the inbreeding problems in both endangered domestic and wild species.

The practices of collecting gene diversity for the next century are also the essential role to be performed in order to ensure adaptiveness, disease resistance, reproductive fitness and species integrity for the future generations.

Therefore, the collection of biomaterials in rare, endangered species are actually invaluable tools for learning and conserving genetic diversity of the animals ²¹.

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EFFORTS CRYSTALISED With artificial insemination using frozen-thawed semens technique, Thailand the first AI elephant calf was born in 2007 ²². The collection of semens and trials to produce have been continued. The second elephant calf born from AI technique was delivered in October 2018.

They were born from the efforts of people to conserve the elephants.

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The bond between the elephants and people will not be lost.

As long as, on this land, there are people who try to make it better.

CONCLUSION The relationships between people in Thailand and elephants have been rooted for more than 400 hundred year. The long-standing cultural depth and mutual interaction within Thai society have brought the elephant-human relationship to the complex and delicate situations in the modern world perspective.

Intense debates among animal conservationists, animal welfare group, general public, scientists and elephant camp managers have lingered and continued for many years. On one side, people want all the elephants to be released into the wild or, at least, quit using them for working as a tourist attractor–forbidden of a bull-hook and chain and elephants feeding and riding. On the other side, many people–and also elephants–are depending their life on elephant tourism. They do still need “equipment” to keep safety for both people and elephants in the bigger picture.

In the meantime, in many areas, the issues of human-elephant conflict (HEC) have not completely resolved yet. The practice of releasing all the elephants to the wild, thus, are currently unpractical with the limitation of the habitats areas and food source. While we satisfy with the success of previous reintroduction efforts, it cannot be applied to every location without preparing the restoration of forest and implanting understanding of coexisting with wildlife to the local communities. Reintroduction without careful environmental preparation and scientific evaluation of action dependability may have an adverse effect. The solutions are progressively growing, but success is not coming in the future–however, what we need to mitigate the current situation of domestic elephants is realistic solutions to balance economical, ethical and sustainable

management. Rising and monitoring the standards of elephant camps and foundations throughout the country with high priority concerns on optimising welfare.

In addition, by appropriately limiting the working time for elephants on the activities such as feeding, riding and show with tourists and encouraging educational/experience activities such as mahout experiences and learning elephant’s life–essentially with scientific investigations prioritising soundness of elephant’s physical and mental health.

The rising in elephant conservation efforts in Thailand have greatly influenced the better welfare of Thai elephants, despite no firm, active operations to enforcing elephant welfare in tourist attractions or elephant camps to achieve the standard. However, it is not like the people who truly have "mutual respect" toward the elephant would stop their efforts. In Thailand, there are many role model conservation centres and elephant corals which can survive in business world together with carrying on conservation mind. We also have the softer, more modernised techniques to train and raise the elephants. A number of researches and practical actions to improve quality of life in both wild and domestic elephants are on progressive pace. Currently, we have the new generation of “wild” young elephants that born from the “reintroduced” mothers. We also have the new elephant member born from efforts and hardworking of scientists.

As long as, the people who really love this big, gentle creature exist, the elephants will never be extinct and have better and better welfare in the future.

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The group of ranger team from Elephant Reintroduction Fondation who were responsible on regularly tracking the herds of reintroduced elephants for recording and updating their behaviours, numbers and well-being.

Close-up on the texture on the face of the elder elephant in elephant caring centre at Pangla, Lampang province.

The wild male elephant was approaching the road in Khao Yai National Park. Outside the mating season, the fertile male elephant is mostly roaming and foraging independently.

The female elephant of The Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang was eating sugar cane provided by her mahout.

The male elephant with musth fluid secreted from the glands located between the eyes and the ears.

The domestic male elephant during the musth.was seperated from other elephants due to more aggressive behaviours

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Two elephants were communicating by the trunk.

The wild male elephant at Khao Yai National Park comforted and cooled down himself with the muddy water.

The group of ranger team from Elephant Reintroduction Fondation who were responsible on regularly tracking the herds of reintroduced elephants for recording and updating their behaviours, numbers and well-being.

Encountering with the reintroduced wild female elephant in Sup Langka Wildlife Sanctuary.

The wild elephant which was roaming around the edge between forest and local community in Chanthaburi province.

The wild male elephant found in the forest adjacent to the farm-owner field in Chanthaburi province where the electricity poles were established to deter the crop-raiding elephants.

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The close-up picture of elephant skin

The texture of the ear of elder elephant in elephant caring centre at Pangla, Lampang province.

Couple of the male (right) and female (left) domestic elephants under the Elephant Kingdom Project of Surin Province. The female body was covered with the Chum Phuang red-colored soil.

The previous crop-raiding elephant which was taken into custody in Khao Ang Ruenai Wildlife Sanctuary behind the electric fences and the officer who is responsible for care taking the elephant.

The wild male equipped with a tracking collar elephant found approaching the plantation field with real-time satellite tracking system to mitigate intense human-elephants conflict in Chanthaburi province.

The tracking system would theater the exact location to the registered device. The method has been operated to resolved human-elephant conflict and study the journey route of wild elephant.

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Dr. Supagit Vinitpornsawan The Head of Dong Phra Ya Yen - Khao Yai Wildlife Researcher was demonstrating the satellite system used for tracking the collar equipped elephants.

As animal with relatively high intelligent, the elephant opened in the water tap with the trunk.

The household elephants under Elephant Kingdom Project of Surin Province were raised close to the villager’s houses under extended shelter.

The domestic elephant at Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang relaxed herself in the pool after work time.

The group of mahouts provided bathing for the elephants on daily basis both as regular caring routine and performing as a show to the audiences.

The long pole with the one side wrapped with fabrics together with hand touching to guide trained elephant to follow the command.

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The above 80 years-old elder elephant and her current mahout.

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The mahout was cleaning his elephant dwelling area to keep hygiene and prevent diseases.

The mahout was bathing the domestic elephant under his care with the tap water for keeping hygiene, cooling down the body temperature and relieving stress.

Historical photograph which showed how Guay people captured elephant in the past placed presented together with the rope were demonstrated at the museum of Ban Taklang Elephant Village.

Elephants from the show at Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang demonstrated how logging elephants worked in the past.

The elephant was training to raise the right leg for sending mahout to the ride.

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At Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang, the mahouts would guided their domestic elephants in the morning regularly for exercising, stretching and “socialising”.

The domestic elephant was swimming at Khao Kheow Open Zoo for relaxing. It was the part of daily performance that audiences can watch the natural movement of elephant under the water for 15 minutes from.

The mahout from Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang was playing with the domestic elephant calf. The young elephant was not wean or trained yet.

On daily basis, the elephants at Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang would exercise and practice the basic commands in the morning.

Asking elephants to “lay down” is very crucial for medical examination by the veterinary.

The mahout gave the corn to the elephant as an incentive for elephant to practice the command “holding and delivering item”.

After a while of training, the trainers would give breaking time and bath the elephant to relieve stress.

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The elephant painted on the face with coloured chalks for entering the Shrine of Household God Worship Ceremony.

The parade of dressed elephants were celebrated with the traditional dancing. The raider on the elephant carried the photograph of the current king of Thailand.

Many local and foreign tourists were allowed to participate the Shrine of Household God Worship Ceremony.

The elephant mobile clinic and the elephant which was going back to the camp after the treatment.

Treatment with laser beam with altering wave length was applied to activate cell regeneration in the elephant patient with myositis.

The elephant with muscle symptoms was treating with ultra sound massaging instrument and pain relieving cream.

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The elephant’s tusks and body were tied with sacred cords by the village elders. The ritual is believed bringing the wellbeing to the spirit which traditionally believed possess in the living things.

Some people might tied a banknote with scared cords to the tusk based on personal beliefs.

Accumulation of elephants’ defecates collected from the elephants participated in the semen collecting operation

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Ground napier grass and sugar cane were mixing with supplementary food for elder elephants with dental degeneration that are unable to chew the plant.

The elder elephant with dental problem under the care of elephant hospital at Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang was chewing the mixture of ground vegetation and supplementary food.

The mahout was giving his tamarin to his elephants.

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The elephant gotten sick from gastrointestinal infection and suffered from diarrhoea. During the period of medical treatment, the elephant needed large amount of intravenous fluid administration.

The veterinary team of elephant hospital at Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang were busy perform treatment for the urgent case coming at the midnight. The patient was the young elephant suffered from gastrointestinal disease.

Blood drawing from the female elephant which suspected being pregnant to examine the hormonal level in a specialised laboratory.

Group of mahouts were guiding the elephants to the forest the forest within the areas of Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang to raise in the natural setting.

During the day time, the mahouts might remain in the forest to take care of the elephants. Sometimes the mahouts tied a hammock and rest while allowing the elephants to roam freely around the nearby area for feeding.

The mahouts burned the fragrant woods which the smoke can repel off the insects disturbing both themselves and their elephant while living in the forest.

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The female domestic elephant was roaming and looking for bamboo for feeding.

It was a natural behavior for the elephant calf to stick around with his/ her mother in the herd. This is when the young learn how to live from the mother as well as other elephants in the herd as an animal with complex social structure and learning.

Elephants usually use their trunk as a mean for social commutation to develop intimacy toward another herd member.

The group of rangers team from Elephant Reintroduction Foundation who were responsible on regularly tracking the herds of reintroduced elephants for recording and updating their behaviour, numbers and well-being.

The frozen semens from elephants and other animals in the Khao Kheow Open Zoo laboratory kept in the liquid nitrogen tank.

The operation of semens collection from the mature male elephant at Elephant Kingdom Project of Surin Province by from Dr. Nikorn Thongthip and Khao Kheow Open Zoo researcher team who have been working on artificial insemination in an elephant.

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Group of the mahouts working under Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang who were resposibible for raising the elephants in the forest.

The herd of domestic elephants grouped together in the wild during the time they were allowing to roam freely.

Tracked and followed the herd of wild elephants roaming around Sup Langka Wildlife Sanctuary under Elephant Reintroduction Foundation. This sub-group comprised of two female elephants and one elephant calf.

San Rak, the third successfully fertilized elephant from artificial insermination, with her surrogate mother at Khao Kheow Open Zoo.

The researcher team were checking the pregnency of the female elephant by the ultrasound.

San Rak, the second living elephant calf born artificial insemination, was drinking the milk from her surrogate mother.

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The female elephant recognised the followers and turned around for evaluating the threat and warning the following team.

One of elephant reintroduction project successes is the birth of young calf in the forest. It marked as the promising hope to reintroduce a domestic elephant back to the wild.

One of the main responsibilities of the ranger team is to record and update behaviours of the reintroduced elephants in the wild.

The domestic elephants was trained to wear the hat to her mahout at Thai Elephant Conservation Center Lampang

The wild male elephant was wandering around the grassland during the evening looking for water source at the Khao Yai National Park.

The mahout from Patara Farm was hugging with the elephant under his care.

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3. Wootvatansa, N., Kanjanapimai, K., Ariyatugun, K. and Pantakod, P., 2018. White Elephant” the King’s Auspicious Animal. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Surin Rajabhat University, 20(2), pp.361-372.

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9. Shaffer, L.J., Khadka, K.K., Van Den Hoek, J. and Naithani, K.J., 2018.

Human-Elephant Conflict: A Review of Current Management Strategies and Future Directions. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 6, p.235.

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24. Ensley, P.K., 2012. Report to Determine Physical Condition and Suitability to Perform Following Inspection of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (RBBBC) at the Los Angeles Staples Center the Week of July 11–17, 2012. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The book "Mutual Respect" is not the work that can be completed with myself alone.

It is the work from the helps from many people.

Book layout and photo editing support ...........................................................................

Nichagorn Srisunon

Researches and permission support ...........................................................................

Dr. Nikorn Thongtip Kasetsart

Associate Professor at Kasetsart University Faculty of Veterinary Science the Specialist on Wildlife Advisors from the University of Nottingham ...........................................................................

Dr. Taweepoke Angkawanish

Thomas Hartman

Dr. Ampika Thongpakdee

Steven Galloway

The Head Researcher of Bureau of Conservation and Research under The Zoological Park Organization Under The Royal Patronage of H.M. The King

David McMahon

Institutions providing supports and locations for photography ...........................................................................

Elephant Kingdom by ZPO

The Head of Elephant National Institute

Dr. Supagit Vinitpornsawan The Head of Dong Phra Yayen - Khao Yai Wildlife Researcher under Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation

Surin Province

Nakhon Pathom Province

Also, I truly appreciate the warm supports from mahouts, officers, personnels, rangers, researchers and veterinarians for helping me throughout the time of making this book.

Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary

I am so thankful.

Kasetsart University Kamphaengsaen Campus

Chachoengsao Province

Khao Kheow Open Zoo Chonburi Province

Khao Yai National Park Nakhon Nayok Province

Patara Elephant Farm Chiang Mai Province

Sap Langka Wildlife Sanctuary Lopburi Province

Thai Elephant Conservation Centre

25. Carlstead, K., Paris, S. and Brown, J.L., 2019. Good keeper-elephant relationships in North American zoos are mutually beneficial to welfare. Applied animal behaviour science, 211, pp.103-111.

26. Webster, J., 2016. Animal welfare: Freedoms, dominions and “a life worth living”. Animals, 6(6), p.35.

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