Are there elephants in Burma?

Are there elephants in Burma?

Myanmar (Burma) is home to the second largest total population of Asian elephants remaining worldwide (after India), including a captive population of approximately 5,000, the largest captive population in the world today.

Why are elephants captured in Myanmar?

The Myanmar government banned the wild capture of elephants in 1994. But the pachyderms continue to be captured throughout Southeast and South Asia to sustain populations in zoos, and for research and conservation programs. Most captured elephants are taken from the wild at a relatively young age.

What kind of work do the elephants do in Myanmar?

The main work of the elephants is to drag felled timber from the cutting area to roads or rivers from where it can be transported out of the jungle. Logging work is exceptionally hard, but strict regulations are designed to maintain the health of the animals.

What is a logging elephant?

Guided by their mahouts, the elephants drag the log through the forest — often up and down incredibly steep and muddy ridges — to a central clearing. Later, the loggers build a road to that location to load the logs onto a truck. A timber elephant transporting firewood through camp.

Are elephants still used for work?

They can be used for educational, entertainment, or work purposes. Since then, captive elephants have been used around the world in war, ceremony, and for manual labor and entertainment. Captive elephants have been kept in animal collections for at least 3,500 years.

Are there really white elephants?

A white elephant (also albino elephant) is a rare kind of elephant, but not a distinct species. In Hindu puranas, the god Indra has a white elephant. Although often depicted as snow white, their skin is normally a soft reddish-brown, turning a light pink when wet. White elephants are only nominally white.

How are the elephants doing?

In recent years, at least 20,000 elephants have been killed in Africa each year for their tusks. Today, the greatest threat to African elephants is wildlife crime, primarily poaching for the illegal ivory trade, while the greatest threat to Asian elephants is habitat loss, which results in human-elephant conflict.

Where are elephants used for logging?

The logging industry in Thailand has a long and storied history, which is inextricably entwined with the history of elephants in the country.

Can elephants pull wagons?

Elephants have been employed to do many kinds of tasks. They have been used in road building to pull wagons and bush boulders. Upkeep for working elephant is expensive.

Which country has a white elephant?

Thailand
White elephants, actually albinos, have for centuries been revered in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and other Asian nations.

Why is it called white elephant?

Today, the term ‘white elephant’ denotes any burdensome, expensive and useless possession that is much more trouble than it is worth. The origins of the phrase come from Siam (modern-day Thailand).

Myanmar is covered in more than 160,000 square miles of forest. Seventy years ago, about 10,000 elephants inhabited the region, but today Myanmar is only home to about 2,000 wild elephants. These animals often forage in the areas between intact, primary forest and human development.

The timber elephants live in forest camps, and are engaged in dragging and pushing logs and extracting timber once trees have been felled, without the need to carve large roads through the forest that jeopardise its integrity.

What do timber elephants eat?

Their main food source is grass, when it is available to them. Elephants will also happily eat tree bark, plant roots and even soil. Tree bark is a great source of roughage, which will aid an elephant’s digestion. Tusks are sometimes used to carve into a tree trunk, tearing off strips of bark before feeding.

Are elephants still used for logging?

Myanmar has the world’s largest captive elephant population, and the vast majority of them still work as timber elephants. Then both elephants and mahouts trek into the forest, where the loggers are felling teak, ironwood, and rosewood.

Elephants are still used extensively, particularly in more remote areas of the country. Whether performing in touristy elephant shows or working in tribal villages, the elephant is still being worked throughout Asia. Following a century of exploitation only 16% of Thailand’s original forests remain intact.

Do elephants work hard?

Though the elephants work hard, they’re still healthy. Regulations limit their labor to 5 to 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, with maternity leave and regular veterinary care. Studies show that timber elephants are healthier and live twice as long as elephants in European zoos.

How are elephants used in logging?

Work elephants used to hoist logs onto trucks that usually carry the logs to rovers, where the logs are float to mills. Men saw teak logs in the water and water buffalo, that kneel on command, pull the logs out of the water and push them onto carts. Elephants are still used in Burma to move teak logs.

Are there any wild elephants left in Burma?

Burma offers the best hope for the survival of large herds of wild elephants Despite being second in the population rankings, Burma’s wild elephant numbers have dropped dramatically over the past 50 years and appear to still be in decline.The major threats to the wild population are:

What kind of elephants live in South Asia?

Asian elephants live in South Asia and South-east Asia. There are three subspecies of Asian elephants: the Sri Lankan elephant ( Elephas maximus maximus ), the Indian elephant ( Elephas maximus indicus ), and the Sumatran elephant ( Elephas maximus sumatranus ).

What kind of elephants are in Serengeti National Park?

These wildlife species are of two species and they include the African bush elephant or African savannah elephant which can be seen in Serengeti national park. Another species of elephants is the Asian elephants. During safaris in Serengeti national park, elephants can be seen as they move in their groups which are usually led by the females.

Are there different types of elephants in the world?

Classification or Taxonomy of Elephants Two distinct types of species of elephants were recognized by most experts: the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Their habitat is separate in different continents, and they have many unique features with distinct physical differences.

Where do the elephants come from in Burma?

The calves are then smuggled in to Thailand for work in the tourist industry. Over the past 200 years, Burma has used elephants on a large scale in the timber industry; an activity that is still a vital part of the Burmese economy today.

What kind of animals live in Yangon Myanmar?

Some of its residents include brown bears, barking deer, clouded leopards, civets, elephants, and other mammals. The Hlawga Park in the southeast region of Yangon features a diverse array of deer, pangolins, pythons, storks, and other types of birds. It also has a mini-zoo to delight visitors with tigers, leopards, bears, and crocodiles.

What kind of habitat does an Asian elephant live in?

The Asian elephant is found in the hot, humid and grassy areas surrounding jungles. These fields have grass, trees and shrubs on which the elephants prefer to feed. Asian elephants also will eat various vines, roots and leaves. The amount of rainfall determines the grassy area where the elephants will live.

Is there an elephant tourism industry in Myanmar?

Tourism – both elephant shows and jungle trekking, although this industry is far less developed and widespread as in neighbouring Thailand. The government of Burma/Myanmar is an autocratic, military regime that has earned pariah status in the world.