Meena’s life is set to follow the same trajectory
as many of the roughly 3,800 captive elephants
in Thailand and thousands more throughout
Southeast Asia. She’ll perform in shows until
she’s about 10. After that, she’ll become a riding
elephant. Tourists will sit on a bench strapped
to her back, and she’ll give several rides a day.
When Meena is too old or sick to give rides—
maybe at 55, maybe at 75—she’ll die. If she’s
lucky, she’ll get a few years of retirement. She’ll
spend most of her life on a chain in a stall.
Wildlife attractions such as Maetaman lure
people from around the world to be with animalsPeople spill out of tour buses and clamber onto
the trunks of elephants that, at the prodding
of their mahouts’ bullhooks (long poles with a
sharp metal hook), hoist them in the air while
cameras snap. Visitors thrust bananas toward
elephants’ trunks. They watch as mahouts goad
their elephants—some of the most intelligent
animals on the planet—to throw darts or kick
oversize soccer balls while music blares.
Meena is one of Maetaman’s 10 show elephants.To be precise, she’s a painter. Twice a day, in front
of throngs of chattering tourists, Kongkhaw puts
a paintbrush in the tip of her trunk and presses
a steel nail to her face to direct her brushstrokes
as she drags primary colors across paper. Often
he guides her to paint a wild elephant in the
savanna. Her paintings are then sold to tourists.
The nonprofit National Geographic Society helped
fund this story. To read more reporting by Wildlife
Watch, visit natgeo.com/wildlife-watch.WILDLIFE TOURISM 55