Mahouts for the Day With Our Elephant Friends

Although it has been a few days since we spent the day with our elephant friends in Thailand, it has taken me that long to really process our elephant (chang in Thai) adventure and put it all in to words.  To say this was the experience of a lifetime is an understatement.

 We had the privilege of going to Patara Elephant Farm for our elephant encounter.  This facility is over 10 years old and has positively impacted over 50 elephants in that time with no deaths. The focus of Patara is education, not entertainment.  

They are proud to be a free-roaming facility that allows the elephants to move into the forest to sleep and move as needed.  Each elephant has a personal Mahout (caretaker) who tracks them and cares for them daily.  The Mahouts are from the long-neck Karen hill tribe. The women of the tribe make the riding pants and shirts that we wore. 

The four tenants of Patara are rescue, rehabilitation, reproduction and reintroduction of Asian elephants.  We were each given our own elephant to care for by feeding, brushing, washing and riding bare back.  My elephant, MaeMon, is a 28 year old female who had one baby 10 years ago. She is very loving and gentle. We were given an orientation on elephant personality, care and feeding.

Here are the top 10 facts that we learned about elephants. 

1. Waving ears and tails means happy elephant.

2. Proper diet of an Asian elephant results in poop that doesn't smell bad!

3. Elephants sweat glands are by their toenails.

4. Squeeze elephant poop to make sure they are well hydrated.

5. Healthy elephants should have dirt on both sides of body when they wake up.

6. A sick elephant will sleep standing up.

7. Elephants eat equivalent to 10% of their body weight each day.

8. Elephant tears wash down their face because they don't have tear ducts.

9. Mothers nurse their young for four years.

10. Elephant gestation is from 18-23 months. The elephants born earlier are usually females, and the elephants born in the 21-23 month are usually male.








All of us felt personally connected to our elephants and we didn't want to leave.  Saying goodbye was tearful and beautiful as we watched them walk back into their forest home. If you ever get the chance to be in Chiang Mai, Thailand, you must visit Patara. We all left with a sense of global responsibility that has precipitated into some continued conversations and questions about animal care of our pachyderm friends.