Chiang Mai is all about elephants. They are highly
revered and a source of pride. There is quite a lot
of controversy over they fact that since they are
no longer needed in the obsolete logging industry,
their livelihood has turned to entertaining -- it's
not the best of all possible worlds, but there seems
a sincere effort to provide many with a good and
healthy place to live as well as a means of self-support.
Ok, so teaching an elephant to paint for tourists may
be a bit of a stretch, but it could be a LOT worse. And
this guy has some talent.
They seem affectionate and it's hard not to anthropomorphize
that that is really a smile when their mouth corners turn upwards.
Each elephant gets his own lifelong mahout, who in
turn is truly proud of his charge. I've never seen
a female mahout . hmmmmm.?
Here is a very female and very pregnant female.
Gestation is some 22 months. Yes, the babies are cute!
They had better be after 22 months.
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