We’ve told you all about riding elephants in Thailand. What we didn’t tell you about are the conservation efforts that are being done to preserve these magnificent animals. These efforts are very important as there are only a few thousand elephants left in Thailand and very few of them live in the wild.

In parts of the jungle that are too difficult to reach by motor vehicles, elephants are used by loggers (some legal but many illegal), to move logs from the forest to a river. In some cases the elephants are not well-cared for and are injured while moving logs that are too heavy for them.

That is where some elephant camps step in - they take in injured or abused elephants and nurse them back to health. Many of the camps also provide a large enough space for the elephants to roam “wild”.

Some elephant camps, like the one in this video, seem more for tourist entertainment rather than to help elephants. They do care for their elephants, but the elephants are still required to take tourists around. Another thing about these camps is that many of the mahouts (elephant masters), seem to be children! This shows that a lot of child labor still goes on in Thailand.

This mahout is a young boy!

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