You really get a sense how big these beautiful creatures are from the photo. Asian elephants average 3-4 tons and are very tall, at least from my perch sitting on my elephant’s head.
What to me, is truly amazing, is the current research being done with
elephants. We don’t really know much about them since they are difficult to
study in the wild and with a dwindling population (it is estimated there are
about 40,000 elephants in the wild in SE Asia), it is all the more challenging.
And Asian elephants are smarter than African elephants attributed to their
larger brains.
But elephants are among a very elite group of animals who possess self
awareness. Meaning they recognize themselves in a mirror. They join humans/apes
(one can argue a lot of humans never progressed past the ape stage), dolphins
and orcas, and are you ready? Magpies. The same family of bird as the crow and
bluejay. Kinda of a weird group but all recognize themselves.
I was sorry we weren’t able to participate in the research at the elephant camp, as we only learned
the last night you could do a half day helping the researchers. Next time!