Elephant Hospital

Most of our time here in Thailand has been spent in hospitals, today's hospital visit proved to be a little different though! The elephant (or "Chang" in Thai) has so many meanings and variations in Thailand. Today we had the privilege of visiting the Thai national elephant hospital where elephants from sanctuaries, farmers, elephant shows, zoos and the wild come to get the highest quality of care. This center is vital to the retention of Thai tradition and for the survival of the species. Due to the extremely lucrative black market ivory trade in Asia, the number of wild elephants has dropped to under 3,000 in Thailand due to poaching... just a fraction of their former glorious population size.

At the hospital, nearly 90 elephants are full time residents and serve to the benefit of their wild counterparts by showing off their skills in elephant shows for tourists and elephant enthusiasts. In a much similar fashion to the use of work horses in the United States, elephants have been used for centuries to help loggers and farmers in Thailand move lumber and tools. At the show, we got to see the immense strength of the Changs and how they move lumber and are used by traditional Thai residents. We also got to see some of the more skillfully trained elephants do some artwork and take some of our colleagues for a ride in a river! Today's cultural experience was a lot of fun and heartwarming. The tale of elephant populations being decimated is a hard pill to swallow, but seeing how the Thai royal family is tackling the problem by funding a national hospital and using trained elephants to bring in income and donations to take care of all elephants in Thailand was an amazing experience.

-Justin R.