A tourist feeds elephants at the Anantara Golden Triangle...

CHIANG SAEN, CHIANG RAI, THAILAND - 2006/12/01: A tourist feeds elephants at the Anantara Golden Triangle Resort. Together with the nearby Four Seasons Tented Camp, the resort raises money through a three-day mahout course - during which guest learn to care for, wash, feed and exercise pachyderms - and use it to rescue baby and injured elephants off the streets of Thailand's big cities. Two years ago, the World Conservation Union declared the Asian elephant on the verge of extinction. In Thailand alone - a country where elephants have long being revered for their brawn and loyalty, as the Kings divine right to rule and as the spiritual mentor Airavata - elephant numbers have fallen from approximately 400,000 at the turn of the 20th century, to 2500 today. Mechanisation, a ban on commercial logging in the early 1990s, a severe loss in natural habitat and increase in poaching have all led to the elephants precarious status. It is illegal to use elephants to beg, but despite this, figures estimate up to 300 working elephants on the streets of the capital alone. A begging elephant - the younger the better- earns approximately $120 a day in tips, roughly the same as a labourer could expect to earn in a month. (Photo by Leisa Tyler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
CHIANG SAEN, CHIANG RAI, THAILAND - 2006/12/01: A tourist feeds elephants at the Anantara Golden Triangle Resort. Together with the nearby Four Seasons Tented Camp, the resort raises money through a three-day mahout course - during which guest learn to care for, wash, feed and exercise pachyderms - and use it to rescue baby and injured elephants off the streets of Thailand's big cities. Two years ago, the World Conservation Union declared the Asian elephant on the verge of extinction. In Thailand alone - a country where elephants have long being revered for their brawn and loyalty, as the Kings divine right to rule and as the spiritual mentor Airavata - elephant numbers have fallen from approximately 400,000 at the turn of the 20th century, to 2500 today. Mechanisation, a ban on commercial logging in the early 1990s, a severe loss in natural habitat and increase in poaching have all led to the elephants precarious status. It is illegal to use elephants to beg, but despite this, figures estimate up to 300 working elephants on the streets of the capital alone. A begging elephant - the younger the better- earns approximately $120 a day in tips, roughly the same as a labourer could expect to earn in a month. (Photo by Leisa Tyler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A tourist feeds elephants at the Anantara Golden Triangle...
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Credit:
Leisa Tyler / Contributor
Editorial #:
461702728
Collection:
LightRocket
Date created:
December 01, 2006
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Source:
LightRocket
Object name:
lty02540
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