Elephant Adventure Fun Facts and Videos Part 2

Here are 5 short videos interspersed with information culled from my several day adventure at Tiger Tops Lodge near Nepal's Chitwan Park. I hope that you enjoy!

Elephants have poor eyesight but they can smell and identify very small items. If requested, they will pick up items dropped by their handlers. Asian elephants, such as those that I saw, have only one moveable "finger" on the end of their trunk.  African elephants have two. In this video, one elephant picks up a penny and passes it to her handler called a "mahout". Click Here to View

Elephants can lift one third of their weight with their trunks. They have been used in logging and other labor intensive work for this reason. They have forty thousand muscles in their trunks! The elephants at Tiger Tops transport part of their daily rations each morning. Grass is cut at the riverside and the elephants bring loads "home".  

This video shows a fully loaded elephant coming home with grass. Without a mahout riding and directing them, the elephants would get into mischief - like raiding the villagers gardens en route to the river. Click Here to View

The mahout or handler is very important for the health and safety of his elephant. It takes a special person to qualify for the job of mahout. You must be brave and kind and forceful at the same time. If the elephant detects any weakness, he or she will not obey. 

The elephant and mahout have a strong bond of trust and love. The mahout walks up the elephants trunk to get on as the elephant slowly lifts his trunk and deposits him on his back. Yes, there are women mahouts but they are more rare. I understand the Indian Government has some women mahouts in their elephant teams.

Some work of the mahouts include: cleaning the elephants, feeding them, exercising them and keeping them out of trouble. They care for any wounds or illnesses. They know the distress signals of their elephant as well as the general meaning of their elephants' various calls, trumpets and rumblings. An elephant prefers just to have one or two handlers.

Here I am traveling in a jeep with the owner of the lodge and his kids. It is a great "up close and personal" video of an elephant. Click Here To View

The Narayani River is a favorite watery playground of the elephants and a relatively short walk from the elephant camp. In the current scorching heat, they enjoy their daily ablutions. Click Here To View

They enjoy the water so much, it can be a challenge for the mahouts to get them out of the water and on their way back home! Click Here to View

I will close with a few more elephant fun facts:

• The elephant's height is twice the size of the circumference of its foot. In other words the foot is quite large!
• An elephant's pregnancy lasts two year. Often the pregnancy is not detected until the elephant actually delivers her 200 pound baby.
• Elephants remember their friends (and enemies) for a LONG time.
• The elephant's life span is similar to a human's.
• Elephants communicate with each other over long distances by making a deep rumbling sound. 
• Elephants suck up as much as two gallons of water at a time in their trunk. 
• Elephants spend 12-18 hours a day eating. They eat between 200-600 pounds of food in a day. Thus they are very expensive to maintain.
• Elephants are usually kind to each other and often help their handicapped herd members. Two elephants at the lodge I visited took turns bringing food to their sister who has a hip injury.
• Elephants are used to patrol and control poaching in jungles and parks where access is impossible by jeep or vehicle.