The Asian Elephant

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Looking at ecology and conservation in Thailand means looking at a huge variety of species and ecosystems, which you’ll have a chance to do.

The history and fate of elephants in Thailand serves as a case study to help explain the factors that determine success or failure for a conservation undertaking, or any kind of global change. And once you spend a few weeks with these enormous creatures, you'll understand why the quest to save them is so urgent.

Elephants are among the world’s most intelligent species. In fact the elephant’s brain is similar to that of humans in terms of structure and complexity. Research has shown elephants to exhibit behaviors associated with grief, compassion, self-awareness, and altruism. Elephants experience a range of emotions very similar to ours.

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Also like us, elephants are social beings. Families of elephants in the wild stay together through generations. Only death or human intervention can break the familial bond. Female elephants even serve as nannies, helping new mothers in the family care for their young year after year.

Elephants have also come to the aid of other species in need, particularly other mammals. There are endless stories of elephants watching over injured hikers for days until help arrives, even bringing water and covering them with branches for shade. Elephants bond easily with dogs and chase off would be predators in the wild. We must protect elephants as they do our friends and us.

The Asian elephant is Thailand's national animal, but one wouldn't know it to look at their future within the country. Asian elephant populations are endangered and continue to diminish quickly at the hands of poachers, loggers, and developers.

There are estimated to be as few as 28,000 Asian elephants remaining in the wild. Domestic elephant populations unprotected and no longer as monetarily valuable to their owners since logging was outlawed, are particularly at risk of danger from owners who longer want them.

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Many people all over the world want to protect wild animals like elephants, but elephant conservation can't occur in a vacuum. Issues of free speech, economic development, and politics continue to be serious hurdles, as they are for any change movement.

Elephant populations are also declining because of lost habitat, which means that their conservation requires conserving wild lands and the thousands of other species that live therein.

The quest to save Asian elephants is but one example of the fact that bringing about change in any area, from elephants to armaments, from clean energy to clean oceans, requires understanding the issue from all sides.