Elephants

DOMESTIC ELEPHANTS IN THAILAND
 
There are still a lot of discussions regarding the visit to domestic elephants, so here is a back story of what happened in Thailand. 
Long time ago, after being used at war, elephants were used to work for logging in the jungle to pull big trunk of teak wood or were used in farms to carry big bags of rice or whatever the farmers grew. 
In 1989 the government introduced a ban to stop this work. 
The elephants owners were left without a solution to work, without money to feed their families and take care of their elephants. 
With the tourism growing fast they found out that a lot of people visiting the kingdom were interested to see elephants and so the first elephant camps opened, allowing the owners to get a salary again. 
The riding was the main option as the camps were showing how the mahouts worked with their elephants before. 
It became popular and everyone wanted to ride an elephant. 
In the last few years, after some campaigns that showed how elephants were trained, a lot of people decided to stop going in these camps. 
The majority of the riding camps are now closing in Thailand.
The problem is that there is not enough jungle left to release the domestic elephants. Deforestation and constructions destroyed their habitat and the small amount of wild elephants are already struggling to find food. The consequences is that they are crossing the limits where they are protected to the plantations, causing a big conflict with farmers.
The main chance for the domestic elephants is to find a good place where people can take care of them. That's why the "sanctuaries" opened. Some of them are new places and some others are former riding camps converted. 
These places need a lot of money to support the food, healthcare and facilities for the elephants. 

OUR ELEPHANT PROJECT

After working for 7 years to improve the life of the same Elephant family with whom Chi lived for 25 years, in May 2024 we moved to a new place to help another Elephants' owner to start a new life for his elephants with no more riding or bathing. We stayed there for a year and a half but we were still looking for a better space for the elephants.

We finally found it and officially opened our own Elephant Project in October 2025.

At Chi Jungle Man, we're giving you general information about Asian elephants and our specific elephant family. Our visitors are introduced to the elephants in our care by feeding them with bananas or sugarcane.

Elephants spend 12 to 18 hours eating per day, and they can eat up to 300 kilos of vegetation and drink up to 200 liters of water! This is one of the main tasks of the mahouts who need to feed their Elephant with different kind of grass, all day and night, as they only sleep around 4 hours.

We then follow them during the day in nature, through meadow, forest and river to observe them. During that time, they can find other kinds of food such as bamboo, different tree leaves, grass, bark or even banana trees. They also like this moment to scratch on trees or with a stick and roll in the dirt. They also communicate a lot while free and are very attentive to any sound. It’s a really good time to learn about the Elephant's behavior in the wild.

We prefer to watch them from a distance and limit interaction with them so they can feel relax and show us their personality. We want to give them back a semblance of wild life.

For the well being of the Elephants, we try not to take more than 15 guests per day.

We are convinced that all together, with more help, more support and more ideas we can evolve to a bigger, wilder place with enough food and good healthcare for the elephants in our care. . 
All together we can make a difference for all the elephants in Thailand.