The Asian elephant.
The Lanna Thai kingdom of Thailand.

The Asian elephant is along with its cousin, the African elephant, one of the last two surivors of a zoologial Order, the proboscidea, which has some 350 species throughout its evolution. In Thailand, Asian elephants once probably munbered in the hundreds of thousand, and Lanna Thai, "The Land of a million ricefields", might just as well have the name of neighbouring Laos: "The land of a million elephants". To day there are only 2,000 to 3,000 wild elephants remaining in Thailand. (In all of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent there are probably about 35,000 to 45,000 wild elephant surviving in 13 countries.).

The Asian elephant has been officially declared an endangered species and the animal receieves full legal protection in Thailand, but number are plummeting nonetheless, Though more from destruction of the elephant's forest habitat than from the direct pressure of poaching. Shy and secretive in spite of their immense size and strength it is very difficult to see Asian elephants in the wild, even in places where they are found in good numbers.

Northern Thailand has always been a bountiful home for domesticated elephants. Surprisingly, the superficially clumsy-looking beasts are wonderfully agile slower, but far more sure-footed than either horses or mules even on the most precipitous mountain trails. Posing other advantages suchas having super night vision and being able perfectly remember trails. They were the favoured pack animal in the North.

In fact, a hundred years ago far more elephants were employed to carry goods than to drag logs, the more glamorous job for which they are best know. Elephants employed as draught animals are able to carry about 300 kilograms(660 Pounds), a large amount but only a small proportion of their body weight.

As late as the turn of the century there were over 100,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand. A great many of them were in the North; in the 1880s there were 20,000 elephants employed in regular caravan routes around Chiang mai alone. Today there only about 2,500 domestcated elephants living in northern Thailand.

Today most Thai elephants working at dragging log in the forest, a task for which they are ideally suited since they can drag carefully selected logs, particularly teak and other valuable hardwoods, through thick forest without the necessity of building roads which unnecessarily destroy the environment.

The best place to observe elephants at work and undergoing training is at the Elephant Training Center.