Elephant Ownership and Training

Thailand use to have over 100,000 elephants, however, the number has dwindled to 13,000 and they now are on the endangered list. Elephants were used in the logging industry but due to destruction of many forests (rice farming), Thailand has preserved the remaining forests. Depletion of their natural habitat has led to the dwindling numbers. It takes four years to train an elephant and trainers are allowed to keep their elephant until it reaches sixty. During that time the elephant will often out live its first owner and a younger family owner takes care of the elephant. At the age of sixty, the trainer must give the elephant to Thailand's Elephant Conservancy.