Taming elephants. Elephant Foundation Method to combat cruel torture

2. A war elephant from the English “bestiary” of the 15th century - a kind of medieval encyclopedia of the animal world. Interestingly, the artist depicted an elephant with four tusks and cloven hooves (bestiary.ca, Copenhagen Kongelige Bibliotek Gl).

Indian elephants were captured for agricultural and agricultural purposes as early as 3,000 years ago. construction work in the north of the Hindustan Peninsula. The rulers of ancient Indian states kept several hundred Indian elephants at their courts, and some of the tamed animals were used for military operations. About African elephants it is known that they (starting from the 15th century BC) were kept in the zoos of some pharaohs. From 262 BC. e. The Carthaginians began using African elephants for military purposes. Thus, in the army of Hannibal during his first campaign against Rome (218 BC) “were in service” with 40 war elephants. At the beginning of our era, elephants were supplied in huge quantities to the Roman Empire for gladiatorial games. After the Christian emperors of Rome banned such cruel games, interest in elephants in Europe fell. The first elephant to come to Europe after ancient period, there was an Indian elephant (according to some sources - an albino) named Abul-Abbas. This giant was given to Charlemagne in 800 by the Baghdad caliph Harun ar-Rashid, one of the characters in The Arabian Nights.

So, in India, unlike in Africa, elephants are not killed, but rather caught and tamed. This kind of fishing takes on the character national holiday. It begins with the authorized representative of the fishing organizer sending messengers to the villages. They call on the population to arrive at the assembly points, taking with them enough provisions.

Those who arrive are placed under the command of professional hunters - shikari - and form the chain of beaters necessary for catching elephants, sometimes numbering several thousand people. As soon as the chief shikari discovers the herd, having determined that twenty or thirty elephants have been grazing in the same place for several days, the beaters are ordered to cordon off the herd. First, the posts are installed at a distance of 50-60 meters from one another, then they gradually begin to move closer together. The chief shikari at this stage ensures, first of all, that the animals are not disturbed as much as possible and at the same time not let out of sight. The ultimate goal of the roundup is to drive the elephants into kraals that have been built and prepared for their reception.

WHAT KRAALS LOOK LIKE

Kraals are somewhat different from each other. In India, they are usually circular pens with a diameter of 150-200 meters. The pens are surrounded by a fence made of thick tree trunks. The entrance to the kraal, in front of which there is a well-camouflaged funnel-shaped palisade, is approximately four meters wide and can be closed with a lowering grate.

The Sinhalese elephant trainer Epi Vidane, who took part in many roundups in Ceylon, told me that the size of the kraals on this island is much larger than in India. The kraal is a barricaded square, one kilometer long. One of its sides is extended by a fence also a kilometer long. Elephants are driven onto this fence, and along it they then “slip” into the kraal.

There is always a pond near the kraal, the smell of which attracts animals. In Ceylon, the number of participants in the raid is several thousand. Each of them, as Epi Vidane told me, must first make a will.

HOW IS A RAID PERFORMED?

The beaters are equipped with a stick or spear. They are instructed not to frighten the animals with noise or shouting, because if the elephants panic, they may break through the cordon. The goal is to calmly, with gentle measures, encourage the elephants to move in to the right people direction - towards the kraal. The necessary influence on them should be exerted, first of all, by a quiet rustling in the thickets, which makes the animals feel uneasy. They will begin to suspect something is wrong and slowly move away. There are not only negative but also positive means to guide elephants to the right side, and these means are delicacies: fragrant hay, bananas, sugar cane. However, it is not man, or at least not him directly, who brings them food that serves as bait. Most often, the food is delivered on tamed elephants and dumped on the ground with a pitchfork. The elephants that receive this insidious gift are still completely wild. One would, in fact, expect that they would rush at a reckless person who dared to creep into their midst, and, united in an organized attack, drag him off his tamed elephant and trample him. But as a rule, exceptions to which have never yet been observed, a person riding a tame elephant into a herd of wild ones is completely safe, even if he is carried by a very young elephant calf.

So, the animals do not touch the rider, but are only interested in the bait. The main task of the beaters during this period of fishing is the same as before - not to do anything that could frighten or alert the elephants, which are very easily disturbed from a state of serene rest. And if they get scared, it’s as if the devil possesses them, and then they rush away, running for many kilometers without stopping. In these cases, all the labor-intensive work of cordoning off begins all over again. Once, during a hunt in Ceylon, a herd of about forty elephants broke through a cordon three times, in which more than a thousand people participated. Full of primitive power, these animals rushed through the chain. Each time they were led by a leader - a powerful, temperamental female. And only after the hunters separated its leader from the herd, they were able to drive him into the kraal.

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING IN THE JUNGLE...

The elephants, and in particular their old leader, clearly have no idea what their opponents are up to. After all, people try not to show themselves as much as possible. But still the elephants are worried - something is happening in the jungle... The next day, blows, grinding, and crackling noises are heard in the forest. What is happening?.. The participants in the raid are erecting a bamboo fence around the surrounded herd. It's not very durable. If the elephants, realizing their strength and capabilities, rushed at him, he would not have resisted and would have immediately collapsed. However, animals do not know how to evaluate forces, as humans do. Everything alien, hitherto unprecedented, still unfamiliar inspires them with fear. In essence, these giant, clumsy animals are no braver than a timid hare. The light fence is guarded by beaters, who are equipped with spears and torches just in case. The herd does not give up without a fight. But this struggle very rarely comes to a fight and is usually limited to demonstrations on the part of the animals. Following the leader, the elephants, holding against the wind, rush to one side of the fence. But it is here that a person shows all his power. A gong sounds, trumpets sound, shots thunder, a deafening cry goes up, torches flash everywhere. One of them flies straight at the leader's head. Where has all the courage gone? The elephants retreat to the center of the encircled space. Silence falls again. There is peace in the jungle.

STRANGE "COLLEAGUE"

The next morning the world looks completely different than it did the night before. There is a gap in the hated fence, from which no human smell can be heard. The herd moves on. Adult animals are on the left and right, and protected young animals are in the center. And again there are numerous baits on the way: whole mountains of maize, bananas, sugar cane. Suddenly, a strange elephant approaches the herd, but it is not like them, but one of those they had already met yesterday. He behaves strangely - he calmly goes his way, not showing any interest in the herd. What does all of this mean? As for the rarest “colleague,” the herd would not get excited because of him alone. Elephants cannot talk to each other the way people can. They cannot even formulate their thoughts (which should have preceded such a discussion). But they have something else, they have a very perfect organ of smell. The strange lone elephant emanates, just like yesterday, a human smell. This is the smell of a two-legged creature sitting on the back of a “colleague”. The leader does not at all intend to come to terms with her discovery. She wants to leave this place as quickly as possible and hit the road. The herd is about to follow her. But then the disgusting human smell suddenly overtakes the animals from all sides. Suddenly, dark-skinned people appear and make a hell of a noise. What's left to do? The elephants huddle together, trumpet, grunt, but feel helpless and mark time in one place.

AT THE KRAAL GATE

But suddenly the noise subsides. People are disappearing. And this mysterious elephant comes to the fore, an animal of their breed and yet a creature from another world. Should you follow him? Instinct tells the elephants that something is wrong here. However, experience had already shown them that peace and silence reign precisely when they join a stranger, and all unpleasant phenomena arise if they refuse to follow him. Where is this brother who acts so unbrotherly leading them? Of course, to the kraal gates. It happens that before the elephants enter this gate, the leader, and with her the entire herd, is seized with mistrust and they try to turn back. However, they won't get far. They are stabbed with spears and, most frighteningly, pyrotechnic shells explode in front of them. Finally they stop resisting. Following the tamed elephant, they pass through the gate into the kraal. The years of freedom are over. From this hour on, elephants are at the mercy of man.

LONE HUNTERS AT WORK

Of course, one should not think that driving a whole herd into a kraal, which requires large number participants, lasts for weeks and is performed like a performance - the only type of elephant catching in India. It also happens that lone hunters (in Ceylon they are called panikis) approach elephants and catch them, so to speak, with their bare hands. But their hands still cannot be called completely “naked”; they hold a lasso made of buffalo leather. The hunter, imperceptibly approaching from the direction opposite to the wind, at an opportune moment entangles the elephant’s legs with this lasso. Among the Indians there are great specialists in this type of hunting. These are people in whose families the profession of elephant catcher is passed down from generation to generation; they masterfully find the trail and lead the tracked elephant into any mood he desires. Of course, a lasso is the minimum that is required for hunting elephants, and only specialists in this field who have gone through fire, water and copper pipes can afford to approach the gray giants with such an inconspicuous weapon.

A FUTURE ATTEMPT TO BREAK AWAY FROM CAPTIVITY

The oldest of the elephants driven into the kraal, those that can no longer be tamed, are released back into the jungle. When dealing with the remaining elephants, three conditions are mainly observed: calm, calm and calm again. If animals had a human mind (which is precisely what they don’t have!) and if they thought like humans (which is precisely what they cannot do!), they would easily get out of the captivity into which they were lured . Still, they undoubtedly have some vague idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe possibility of escape. The elephants rush back and forth through the kraal, trying to find some opening, but they do not find it. There are stakes all around, and it seems there is only one thing left to do: throw yourself at the person. Then they decide to use force. Suddenly the entire group, led by the leader, rushes to some place in the fence. But at the same moment, the guards guarding on the other side of the kraal also begin to move. The guards begin to wave their spears (and sometimes only sticks and clubs) and raise a desperate cry. If the elephants had been more decisive, pitiful human tricks would never have blocked their path. Of course, the stockade would not stand if the elephants began to trample it with their powerful legs, and, of course, the little men could not do anything to stop them. But the gray giants comically underestimate their capabilities. They cowardly retreat before this militant demonstration, huddle in the center of the kraal, huddle together and freeze in bewilderment, clearly not understanding what it all means. If they are not irritated now, they will not make new attempts to break through. And therefore, not only are they not irritated, but, on the contrary, they strive to sweeten their stay in the kraal (and in the literal sense of the word).

ENERGETIC ELEPHANT BAIT

Darkness falls. At night, large fires are lit around the kraal to prevent the elephants from trying to break free again. In the morning they are a little calmer, and now you can do something new against them. A mahout rides into the kraal on a tamed elephant. This elephant walks indifferently through the kraal. Along the way, he picks off a few leaves, and then heads into the thick of the newly captured animals. In relation to such a decoy elephant (it is called a deck) wild elephants behave differently. Some of them seem to be expecting help from him and let him approach them with some curiosity. Others simply don’t want to know him and are ready to attack him.

What is the task of a mahout? He must calm wild animals, “inspire them with cheerfulness” and “set them up for new way". And he does this, scattering all kinds of delicacies in front of them. Newly caught elephants receive many wonderful gifts. But the most precious thing, water, is not given to them, and this is very cunningly planned. Let the elephants be thirsty, let them experience all its torments. At the right moment, man, that is, the very creature that doomed them to torment, will help them find water for both drinking and bathing. And since elephants are not able to understand the connection between phenomena, then, quenching their thirst, they will only feel the benefit of side of man and will not at all unravel his devilish cunning.For now, they are given tasty things to feast on and left alone.

LOOP AROUND YOUR NECK

Nothing has been achieved yet by the fact that the elephants roaming the kraal are no longer obstinate. Coming new stage their taming. The elephants must be tied up. Tame elephants appear on stage again. They enter the kraal, approach the herd, then move away from it again and each time they try - and not without success - to attract the attention of the other elephants. Meanwhile, under their cover, the mahouts quietly penetrate into the kraal, and while the wild elephants get to know their tamed brothers, people wrap their hind legs with jute ropes as thick as a good club. The ends of these ropes are tied to trees growing outside the kraal. But just tangling the elephants' legs is not enough. Mahouts, sitting on the backs of tamed elephants, throw loops around the necks of wild animals, the ends of which are also tied to a tree on the other side of the kraal. Bound animals, as soon as they realize that their freedom has been damaged, naturally become obstinate. They stick their tusks into the ground, uproot all the bushes they can reach, and do not eat the food that is offered to them. True, they grab him, but immediately scatter him in different directions. And first of all, they frantically wave their trunks around themselves. They try to prevent this by placing an iron rod under the heroic blows. Having gradually wounded the end of the trunk, they weaken the force of the blows and eventually calm down completely.

Elephants are desperate - this word can be used in this case with good reason. No matter how careful we are when comparing an animal with a person, we can say that the affects of animals are extremely similar to ours. The elephants are overcome with sadness and anger. But neither exertion of strength, nor jerking, nor violence helps them. The ropes hold them tight.

Our friends are going through difficult days. The ropes cut deep into the body. Wounds appear that must be treated immediately before insects infest them. Of course, not all elephants in the kraal are tied up at once. They are subjected to this procedure one by one and, as a rule, in accordance with the danger they pose to others, as well as their qualities as leaders. The relationship between still free animals and already bound animals is interesting. They run up to them, sometimes even stroke them with their trunks, “feel sorry,” but never do anything to untie the ropes, although, as evidenced by the actions of tamed elephants in sawmills, there are opportunities for this.

LIBERATION AND... enslavement

And here comes liberation, which is at the same time enslavement: liberation from suffocating fetters and enslavement by man. The ropes are untied. Two tame elephants are brought down. The broken and devoid of will, the animal obediently stands between them and allows them to do whatever they want, especially pleasant things - for example, take themselves to the river for a watering hole.

But initially the captive is not yet completely freed from his shackles. After returning to the kraal, his neck (but no longer his legs) is again tied with rope. The elephant begins to protest again. But his resistance is no longer strong. At the same time, he is again shown the pleasant side of human enslavement. The enslaver removed the elephant's responsibility for food. Bananas and sugar cane rain down on him as if from a cornucopia. He is no longer stubborn. Tests last day, fasting and bathing made him hungry. He grabs food and feasts on it. Several days pass, and the elephant allows the man standing in front of him to touch him.

And a few days later he already allows a person to sit on his back. Some of the tamed animals are sold right there on the spot. In Ceylon their price is about one hundred rupees apiece.

"NO DIFFERENCE"

The opinion that mainly Indians, or even only they alone, have the ability to tame and train elephants is unfounded. Europeans have certainly made significant advances in elephant training in both Asia and Europe.

At one time it was believed that African elephants were either not domesticated at all, or were domesticated to a lesser extent than Indian ones. This idea is also wrong. Karl Hagenbeck said that within a day he managed to train African elephants, which they had never tried to train before, to carry a guard and a load on their backs. The reason for this blitz of training was a visit to the Berlin Zoo during the stay of a large Nubian caravan by the famous Professor Virchow. The scientist questioned the ability of African elephants to train. In response, Hagenbeck, shaking his head, said: “There is no difference!..” And as soon as Virchow left, he immediately ordered the Nubians to begin training five African elephants. At first, the animals showed extreme displeasure - they trumpeted and shook themselves off. However, after a few hours, under the influence of delicacies and persuasion, they began to yield and by the middle of the next day, to the joy of Hagenbeck and the surprise of Virchow, they turned from stubborn and wild into efficient riding and pack animals.

If the elephants are not yet completely tamed, they are left for some time in the kraal. They treat them well. More can be achieved by gentle treatment and good food than by roughness and severity. The vast majority of elephants are capable of taming. However, some, very few, do not obey man under any circumstances. Sometimes such “incorrigibles” are released into the wild, and sometimes their lives are cut short by a bullet.

WHAT BIOLOGICAL TASK DOES MUST PERFORM?

In general, tamed elephants can be relied upon. Both among males and females, unreliable specimens are a rare exception: these are, as a rule, animals that are ferocious from birth or are in the peculiar state already mentioned above (must), which outwardly resembles a yar, but is still different from it. Sometimes males in this state do not show any mating intentions; females do not attract them. Why then must must, what biological task does it perform? The most logical explanation is that instinct prompts males to fight for the female before mating. Their blood is boiling, they are eager to fight with their opponent. However, with must, the excitement of animals does not subside even after mating.

Of course, unreliable elephants are found not only among bullies from childhood and animals in a state of must. In Burma, elephants deemed dangerous are identified by placing a bell on them. In addition, the ootsi (as mahouts are called in Burma) receives an assistant armed with a spear, who is obliged not to let the elephant out of his sight for a minute.

POSSESSED WITH RABIES

The chronicle of accidents caused by untrustworthy elephants is extremely extensive.

One day, in a kraal in Ceylon, a tamed deka began to go on a rampage. He tried to throw off the driver, but he was an experienced mahout. What did this bully elephant do, what tricks did he throw out, but achieved nothing. Then he suddenly threw his trunk back, grabbed his rider, threw him to the ground and trampled him. Sometimes elephants go berserk, and then, after all the trouble they have caused, they enter a state of what, from a human point of view, may seem like repentance (but in reality, of course, it has nothing to do with it).

In Burma, one elephant, which, however, was not in a state of must, killed its rider, and then for a whole week guarded the body of the killed one, grazing only near it and becoming terrible at the slightest attempt by people to approach the corpse. When the corpse decomposed, the animal ran away. Ten days later the elephant was recaptured and was behaving quite normally. In another case, reported by John Hagenbeck, a tamed elephant suddenly went berserk and began to attack everyone who caught his eye. A happy thought, as it seemed to him, occurred to Mahout. He decided to play on the animal’s timidity, wrapped his face in a black scarf and, resembling a mummy in this form, went to meet his raging charge. But the raging animal did not allow itself to be frightened. The elephant rushed at the mahout and killed him.

According to Hagenbeck, what happened next was that a black scarf was removed from the corpse. Seeing the face of his dead owner, the elephant immediately calmed down, began stroking the corpse with his trunk and making plaintive sounds. Finally, he dug a hole in the ground, pushed the corpse into it, and decorated the grave with branches and leaves plucked from a nearby tree.

Hagenbeck calls this case, which, however, is known to him only by hearsay, “absolutely true.” This, of course, cannot prevent us from considering the final part of the story, especially the version that the elephant “decorated” the grave, as a legend based on an overestimation mental abilities animal.

Another elephant, of Siamese origin, killed no less than nine mahouts in Burma in fifteen years. He pierced all his victims with his tusks. In the end, his owner decided to use radical treatment methods. He ordered both tusks of this magnificently developed elephant to be sawed off, and even down to the meat. The operation was clearly very painful for the animal, but the wounds healed relatively quickly. After this, the elephant became meek like a lamb and no longer attacked the person.

What seems surprising is that finding drivers for animals known for their viciousness is not so difficult. Such risk-taking mahouts receive no more reward than their colleagues working on tame elephants. But there are many elephant mahouts for whom the admiration of their misplaced courage balances the terrible risk; Some people may enjoy this game of danger. The coldly calculated owners of such vicious elephants probably also contributed to the emergence of such sports fanaticism.

WHO IS BETTER - A FEMALE OR A MALE?

If we compare the qualities of males and females from the point of view of the possibility of their use by humans, we must say the following. Males are larger and stronger than females, and are also less shy. But along with these advantages, nik also has disadvantages. Having reached puberty, the male begins to show a tendency to rebel. His master is now no longer a leader to whom he obeys, but a rival with whom he fights for leadership of the herd.

Of course, Indian mahouts are trying to curb such elephants. One of the most effective, but also cruel means is to keep the male in a state of prolonged malnutrition. In this way, its overflowing force is moderated. But even reducing feeding is not an absolutely reliable remedy against outbreaks of violence. And drovers in Asia often have to pay with their lives.

Elephants And Mammoths- large mobs that live in forests, jungles, deserts and plains. Mammoths can be found in snowy biomes. There are two breeds of mammoths and two breeds of elephants in the fashion, they are shown in the picture on the right:

• Sungari Mammoth
• African elephant
• Woolly mammoth
• Asian elephant

Friendly, they attack only in response. After killing, the Skin drops.

Taming

Elephants and mammoths are only tamed as children. To tame it, you need to feed the cub ten or five Cakes. After this, you will be asked to name the animal. You can then rename it using Book or Medallion.

Tamed elephants can be treated by feeding them Bread or Baked Potatoes. You can attach a Leash to them.

Think carefully about where to keep the elephant, as hostile mobs will attack it.

Adaptations

Tamed elephants and mammoths can be equipped with various useful or simply beautiful devices.

elephant harness

An elephant harness is placed on an adult elephant or mammoth and allows you to control it, as well as put other devices on top, without it you cannot put on anything (except for padding). Only one player can climb on an elephant with a harness.

In order to climb on an elephant or mammoth, you need to sneak up to it (walk while holding Shift) for four seconds, after which it will sit down and you can sit on it.

This device is used for decorative purposes and can only be worn on an adult Asian elephant.

Elephant Throne ( English Elephant Howdah) also serves for decoration and can only be worn by an adult asian elephant. Before you put on the elephant throne, you need to put on elephant clothes.

Hanging Chests

Hanging chests fit on adult elephants and mammoths and allow them to carry things like some do

Every tourist who has ever visited Thailand would not miss the opportunity to ride a horse, take a selfie on its back, or admire their performances on circus show. However, almost none of them even suspect how the Thais train and subjugate these amazing and strong animals to people to work in the tourism sector (as well as in logging). The answer lies in an incredibly sad and discouraging story, the original of which we translated from several English-language primary sources.

Attention! This article may lead especially impressionable people shocked!

The tribal approach of the time modern politics and ignorance of reality among tourists played a role key role what we see today in many countries around the world. Nowadays, elephants have become a symbol of tourism, especially in countries South-East Asia.

The plight of the elephants

Over the years, in order to generate income from tourism, elephant owners have subjected their animals to disgraceful acts of street begging, circus performances, forced breeding, horse riding, not to mention industrial logging.

If you think that elephants enjoy the fame and life of a circus, the grueling work of cutting down trees in the jungle, and the fact that they have a choice about whether to take people along for the ride, then you are sadly mistaken. What if we told you that the elephant only allows people to ride it out of fear? Fear of repetitions of the torture that he had to endure before.

The Phajaan Ceremony - destruction of the spirit

Although Indian elephants, unlike African ones, are excellent at riding and performing other tasks, this procedure still requires a ton of effort. In Thailand, the process of subduing them is called the Phajaan Ceremony, meaning “destruction of the spirit” of the animal.

Phajaan Literally translated from Thai it means “to crush”.

The Fajan ceremony has deep roots in Thai history. In those days, the expulsion of the wild spirit of the elephant and its subjugation was carried out by a tribal shaman. And since no one has yet come up with a more gentle method of training (maybe elephants are not tamed any other way), this ceremony has survived to this day.

Its essence is that they are subjected to physical and mental torture for a week or even more. The process begins with the theft of a baby elephant from its mother at the age of 6 months, then it is driven into a tight cage. His legs are tied, feeding is excluded for a very long time, while he is beaten with a weapon resembling a small pickaxe, and the sensitive insides of his ears and trunk are damaged.

Once the “wild spirit of the elephant is driven out,” the animal will obey all its master’s commands out of fear. The video below clearly demonstrates the above process.

An elephant never forgets an insult

Every year, thousands are sent to training camps and subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Not everyone survives the ceremony, and those who undergo it are left with physical and mental memories of a dark past for the rest of their lives. Scars on the skin of an animal, once inflicted piercing weapon, can be easily detected even by inexperienced people.

Dislocated hips and damaged spines in elephants are quite common in Thailand. Such injuries are usually caused by forced breeding, ill-fitting saddles and over-riding. The list of injuries can be endless.

Method of combating brutal torture

Based on the above, it can be summarized that a large number of Elephants are subjected to severe torture, in large part because of tourism. Of course, this is impossible, but what if all tourists at the same time refused to ride horses, watch shows and other entertainment with elephants, then the Fajan ceremony would simply lose its relevance. A much smaller number of elephants would end up in the camps, and then only for training in industrial work, and this point should already be regulated by state policy.

CATCHING AND TAMING ELEPHANTS IN INDIA

BIRDERS CORRIDE THE HERD

So, in India, unlike in Africa, elephants are not killed, but rather caught and tamed. Such fishing takes on the character of a national holiday. It begins with the authorized representative of the fishing organizer sending messengers to the villages. They call on the population to arrive at the assembly points, taking with them enough provisions.

Those who arrive are placed under the command of professional hunters - shikari - and form the chain of beaters necessary for catching elephants, sometimes numbering several thousand people. As soon as the chief shikari discovers the herd, having determined that twenty or thirty elephants have been grazing in the same place for several days, the beaters are ordered to cordon off the herd. First, the posts are installed at a distance of 50-60 meters from one another, then they gradually begin to move closer together. The chief shikari at this stage ensures, first of all, that the animals are not disturbed as much as possible and at the same time not let out of sight. The ultimate goal of the roundup is to drive the elephants into kraals that have been built and prepared for their reception.

WHAT KRAALS LOOK LIKE

Kraals are somewhat different from each other. In India, they are usually circular pens with a diameter of 150-200 meters. The pens are surrounded by a fence made of thick tree trunks. The entrance to the kraal, in front of which there is a well-camouflaged funnel-shaped palisade, is approximately four meters wide and can be closed with a lowering grate.

The Sinhalese elephant trainer Epi Vidane, who took part in many roundups in Ceylon, told me that the size of the kraals on this island is much larger than in India. The kraal is a barricaded square, one kilometer long. One of its sides is extended by a fence also a kilometer long. Elephants are driven onto this fence, and along it they then “slip” into the kraal.

There is always a pond near the kraal, the smell of which attracts animals. In Ceylon, the number of participants in the raid is several thousand. Each of them, as Epi Vidane told me, must first make a will.

HOW IS A RAID PERFORMED?

The beaters are equipped with a stick or spear. They are instructed not to frighten the animals with noise or shouting, because if the elephants panic, they may break through the cordon. The task is to calmly, using gentle measures, encourage the elephants to move in the direction people want - towards the kraal. The necessary influence on them should be exerted, first of all, by a quiet rustling in the thickets, which makes the animals feel uneasy. They will begin to suspect something is wrong and slowly move away. There are not only negative, but also positive means to direct elephants in the right direction, and these means are delicacies: fragrant hay, bananas, sugar cane. However, it is not man, or at least not him directly, who brings them food that serves as bait. Most often, the food is delivered on tamed elephants and dumped on the ground with a pitchfork. The elephants that receive this insidious gift are still completely wild. One would, in fact, expect that they would rush at a reckless person who dared to creep into their midst, and, united in an organized attack, drag him off his tamed elephant and trample him. But as a rule, exceptions to which have never yet been observed, a person riding a tame elephant into a herd of wild ones is completely safe, even if he is carried by a very young elephant calf.

So, the animals do not touch the rider, but are only interested in the bait. The main task of the beaters during this period of fishing is the same as before - not to do anything that could frighten or alert the elephants, which are very easily disturbed from a state of serene rest. And if they get scared, it’s as if the devil possesses them, and then they rush away, running for many kilometers without stopping. In these cases, all the labor-intensive work of cordoning off begins all over again. Once, during a hunt in Ceylon, a herd of about forty elephants broke through a cordon three times, in which more than a thousand people participated. Full of primitive power, these animals rushed through the chain. Each time they were led by a leader - a powerful, temperamental female. And only after the hunters separated its leader from the herd, they were able to drive him into the kraal.

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING IN THE JUNGLE...

The elephants, and in particular their old leader, clearly have no idea what their opponents are up to. After all, people try not to show themselves as much as possible. But still the elephants are worried - something is happening in the jungle... The next day, blows, grinding, and crackling noises are heard in the forest. What is happening?.. The participants in the raid are erecting a bamboo fence around the surrounded herd. It's not very durable. If the elephants, realizing their strength and capabilities, rushed at him, he would not have resisted and would have immediately collapsed. However, animals do not know how to evaluate forces, as humans do. Everything alien, hitherto unprecedented, still unfamiliar inspires them with fear. In essence, these giant, clumsy animals are no braver than a timid hare. The light fence is guarded by beaters, who are equipped with spears and torches just in case. The herd does not give up without a fight. But this struggle very rarely comes to a fight and is usually limited to demonstrations on the part of the animals. Following the leader, the elephants, holding against the wind, rush to one side of the fence. But it is here that a person shows all his power. A gong sounds, trumpets sound, shots thunder, a deafening cry goes up, torches flash everywhere. One of them flies straight at the leader's head. Where has all the courage gone? The elephants retreat to the center of the encircled space. Silence falls again. There is peace in the jungle.

STRANGE "COLLEAGUE"

The next morning the world looks completely different than it did the night before. There is a gap in the hated fence, from which no human smell can be heard. The herd moves on. Adult animals are on the left and right, and protected young animals are in the center. And again there are numerous baits on the way: whole mountains of maize, bananas, sugar cane. Suddenly, a strange elephant approaches the herd, but it is not like them, but one of those they had already met yesterday. He behaves strangely - he calmly goes his way, not showing any interest in the herd. What does all of this mean? As for the rarest “colleague,” the herd would not get excited because of him alone. Elephants cannot talk to each other the way people can. They cannot even formulate their thoughts (which should have preceded such a discussion). But they have something else, they have a very perfect organ of smell. The strange lone elephant emanates, just like yesterday, a human smell. This is the smell of a two-legged creature sitting on the back of a “colleague”. The leader does not at all intend to come to terms with her discovery. She wants to leave this place as quickly as possible and hit the road. The herd is about to follow her. But then the disgusting human smell suddenly overtakes the animals from all sides. Suddenly, dark-skinned people appear and make a hell of a noise. What's left to do? The elephants huddle together, trumpet, grunt, but feel helpless and mark time in one place.

AT THE KRAAL GATE

But suddenly the noise subsides. People are disappearing. And this mysterious elephant comes to the fore, an animal of their breed and yet a creature from another world. Should you follow him? Instinct tells the elephants that something is wrong here. However, experience had already shown them that peace and silence reign precisely when they join a stranger, and all unpleasant phenomena arise if they refuse to follow him. Where is this brother who acts so unbrotherly leading them? Of course, to the kraal gates. It happens that before the elephants enter this gate, the leader, and with her the entire herd, is seized with mistrust and they try to turn back. However, they won't get far. They are stabbed with spears and, most frighteningly, pyrotechnic shells explode in front of them. Finally they stop resisting. Following the tamed elephant, they pass through the gate into the kraal. The years of freedom are over. From this hour on, elephants are at the mercy of man.

LONE HUNTERS AT WORK

Of course, one should not think that driving a whole herd into a kraal, which requires a large number of participants, lasts for weeks and is played out like a performance, is the only type of elephant capture in India. It also happens that lone hunters (in Ceylon they are called panikis) approach elephants and catch them, so to speak, with their bare hands. But their hands still cannot be called completely “naked”; they hold a lasso made of buffalo leather. The hunter, imperceptibly approaching from the direction opposite to the wind, at an opportune moment entangles the elephant’s legs with this lasso. Among the Indians there are great specialists in this type of hunting. These are people in whose families the profession of elephant catcher is passed down from generation to generation; they masterfully find the trail and lead the tracked elephant into any mood he desires. Of course, a lasso is the minimum that is required for hunting elephants, and only specialists in this field who have gone through fire, water and copper pipes can afford to approach the gray giants with such an inconspicuous weapon.

A FUTURE ATTEMPT TO BREAK AWAY FROM CAPTIVITY

The oldest of the elephants driven into the kraal, those that can no longer be tamed, are released back into the jungle. When dealing with the remaining elephants, three conditions are mainly observed: calm, calm and calm again. If animals had a human mind (which is precisely what they don’t have!) and if they thought like humans (which is precisely what they cannot do!), they would easily get out of the captivity into which they were lured . Still, they undoubtedly have some vague idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe possibility of escape. The elephants rush back and forth through the kraal, trying to find some opening, but they do not find it. There are stakes all around, and it seems there is only one thing left to do: throw yourself at the person. Then they decide to use force. Suddenly the entire group, led by the leader, rushes to some place in the fence. But at the same moment, the guards guarding on the other side of the kraal also begin to move. The guards begin to wave their spears (and sometimes only sticks and clubs) and raise a desperate cry. If the elephants had been more decisive, pitiful human tricks would never have blocked their path. Of course, the stockade would not stand if the elephants began to trample it with their powerful legs, and, of course, the little men could not do anything to stop them. But the gray giants comically underestimate their capabilities. They cowardly retreat before this militant demonstration, huddle in the center of the kraal, huddle together and freeze in bewilderment, clearly not understanding what it all means. If they are not irritated now, they will not make new attempts to break through. And therefore, not only are they not irritated, but, on the contrary, they strive to sweeten their stay in the kraal (and in the literal sense of the word).

ENERGETIC ELEPHANT BAIT

Darkness falls. At night, large fires are lit around the kraal to prevent the elephants from trying to break free again. In the morning they are a little calmer, and now you can do something new against them. A mahout rides into the kraal on a tamed elephant. This elephant walks indifferently through the kraal. Along the way, he picks off a few leaves, and then heads into the thick of the newly captured animals. In relation to such a bait elephant (called a decoy), wild elephants behave differently. Some of them seem to be expecting help from him and let him approach them with some curiosity. Others simply don’t want to know him and are ready to attack him.

What is the task of a mahout? He must calm wild animals, “inspire them with cheerfulness” and “set them in a new mood.” And he does this by scattering all kinds of delicacies in front of them. Newly captured elephants receive many wonderful gifts. But the most precious thing, water, is not given to them, and this is very cleverly planned. Let the elephants be tormented by thirst, let them taste all its torments. At the right moment, a person, that is, the very creature that doomed them to torment, will help them find water for both drinking and bathing. And since elephants are not able to understand the connection between phenomena, then, when quenching their thirst, they will only feel good deeds on the part of man and will not at all unravel his devilish cunning. For now, they are given tasty things to eat and left alone.

LOOP AROUND YOUR NECK

Nothing has been achieved yet by the fact that the elephants roaming the kraal are no longer obstinate. A new stage of their taming is coming. The elephants must be tied up. Tame elephants appear on stage again. They enter the kraal, approach the herd, then move away from it again and each time they try - and not without success - to attract the attention of the other elephants. Meanwhile, under their cover, the mahouts quietly penetrate into the kraal, and while the wild elephants get to know their tamed brothers, people wrap their hind legs with jute ropes as thick as a good club. The ends of these ropes are tied to trees growing outside the kraal. But just tangling the elephants' legs is not enough. Mahouts, sitting on the backs of tamed elephants, throw loops around the necks of wild animals, the ends of which are also tied to a tree on the other side of the kraal. Bound animals, as soon as they realize that their freedom has been damaged, naturally become obstinate. They stick their tusks into the ground, uproot all the bushes they can reach, and do not eat the food that is offered to them. True, they grab him, but immediately scatter him in different directions. And first of all, they frantically wave their trunks around themselves. They try to prevent this by placing an iron rod under the heroic blows. Having gradually wounded the end of the trunk, they weaken the force of the blows and eventually calm down completely.

Elephants are desperate - this word can be used in this case with good reason. No matter how careful we are when comparing an animal with a person, we can say that the affects of animals are extremely similar to ours. The elephants are overcome with sadness and anger. But neither exertion of strength, nor jerking, nor violence helps them. The ropes hold them tight.

Our friends are going through difficult days. The ropes cut deep into the body. Wounds appear that must be treated immediately before insects infest them. Of course, not all elephants in the kraal are tied up at once. They are subjected to this procedure one by one and, as a rule, in accordance with the danger they pose to others, as well as their qualities as leaders. The relationship between still free animals and already bound animals is interesting. They run up to them, sometimes even stroke them with their trunks, “feel sorry,” but never do anything to untie the ropes, although, as evidenced by the actions of tamed elephants in sawmills, there are opportunities for this.

LIBERATION AND... enslavement

And here comes liberation, which is at the same time enslavement: liberation from suffocating fetters and enslavement by man. The ropes are untied. Two tame elephants are brought down. The broken and devoid of will, the animal obediently stands between them and allows them to do whatever they want, especially pleasant things - for example, take themselves to the river for a watering hole.

But initially the captive is not yet completely freed from his shackles. After returning to the kraal, his neck (but no longer his legs) is again tied with rope. The elephant begins to protest again. But his resistance is no longer strong. At the same time, he is again shown the pleasant side of human enslavement. The enslaver removed the elephant's responsibility for food. Bananas and sugar cane rain down on him as if from a cornucopia. He is no longer stubborn. The trials of the last day, the fasting regime and the bathing made him hungry. He grabs food and feasts on it. Several days pass, and the elephant allows the man standing in front of him to touch him.

And a few days later he already allows a person to sit on his back. Some of the tamed animals are sold right there on the spot. In Ceylon their price is about one hundred rupees apiece.

"NO DIFFERENCE"

The opinion that mainly Indians, or even only they alone, have the ability to tame and train elephants is unfounded. Europeans have certainly made significant advances in elephant training in both Asia and Europe.

At one time it was believed that African elephants were either not domesticated at all, or were domesticated to a lesser extent than Indian ones. This idea is also wrong. Karl Hagenbeck said that within a day he managed to train African elephants, which they had never tried to train before, to carry a guard and a load on their backs. The reason for this blitz of training was a visit to the Berlin Zoo during the stay of a large Nubian caravan by the famous Professor Virchow. The scientist questioned the ability of African elephants to train. In response, Hagenbeck, shaking his head, said: “There is no difference!..” And as soon as Virchow left, he immediately ordered the Nubians to begin training five African elephants. At first, the animals showed extreme displeasure - they trumpeted and shook themselves off. However, after a few hours, under the influence of delicacies and persuasion, they began to yield and by the middle of the next day, to the joy of Hagenbeck and the surprise of Virchow, they turned from stubborn and wild into efficient riding and pack animals.

If the elephants are not yet completely tamed, they are left for some time in the kraal. They treat them well. More can be achieved by gentle treatment and good food than by roughness and severity. The vast majority of elephants are capable of taming. However, some, very few, do not obey man under any circumstances. Sometimes such “incorrigibles” are released into the wild, and sometimes their lives are cut short by a bullet.

WHAT BIOLOGICAL TASK DOES MUST PERFORM?

In general, tame elephants can be relied upon. Both among males and females, unreliable specimens are a rare exception: these are, as a rule, animals that are ferocious from birth or are in the peculiar state already mentioned above (must), which outwardly resembles a yar, but is still different from it. Sometimes males in this state do not show any mating intentions; females do not attract them. Why then must must, what biological task does it perform? The most logical explanation is that instinct prompts males to fight for the female before mating. Their blood is boiling, they are eager to fight with their opponent. However, with must, the excitement of animals does not subside even after mating.

Of course, unreliable elephants are found not only among bullies from childhood and animals in a state of must. In Burma, elephants deemed dangerous are identified by placing a bell on them. In addition, the ootsi (as mahouts are called in Burma) receives an assistant armed with a spear, who is obliged not to let the elephant out of his sight for a minute.

POSSESSED WITH RABIES

The chronicle of accidents caused by untrustworthy elephants is extremely extensive.

One day, in a kraal in Ceylon, a tamed deka began to go on a rampage. He tried to throw off the driver, but he was an experienced mahout. What did this bully elephant do, what tricks did he throw out, but achieved nothing. Then he suddenly threw his trunk back, grabbed his rider, threw him to the ground and trampled him. Sometimes elephants go berserk, and then, after all the trouble they have caused, they enter a state of what, from a human point of view, may seem like repentance (but in reality, of course, it has nothing to do with it).

In Burma, one elephant, which, however, was not in a state of must, killed its rider, and then for a whole week guarded the body of the killed one, grazing only near it and becoming terrible at the slightest attempt by people to approach the corpse. When the corpse decomposed, the animal ran away. Ten days later the elephant was recaptured and was behaving quite normally. In another case, reported by John Hagenbeck, a tamed elephant suddenly went berserk and began to attack everyone who caught his eye. A happy thought, as it seemed to him, occurred to Mahout. He decided to play on the animal’s timidity, wrapped his face in a black scarf and, resembling a mummy in this form, went to meet his raging charge. But the raging animal did not allow itself to be frightened. The elephant rushed at the mahout and killed him.

According to Hagenbeck, what happened next was that a black scarf was removed from the corpse. Seeing the face of his dead owner, the elephant immediately calmed down, began stroking the corpse with his trunk and making plaintive sounds. Finally, he dug a hole in the ground, pushed the corpse into it, and decorated the grave with branches and leaves plucked from a nearby tree.

Hagenbeck calls this case, which, however, is known to him only by hearsay, “absolutely true.” This, of course, cannot prevent us from considering the final part of the story, especially the version that the elephant “decorated” the grave, as a legend based on an overestimation of the animal’s mental abilities.

Another elephant, of Siamese origin, killed no less than nine mahouts in Burma in fifteen years. He pierced all his victims with his tusks. In the end, his owner decided to use radical treatment methods. He ordered both tusks of this magnificently developed elephant to be sawed off, and even down to the meat. The operation was clearly very painful for the animal, but the wounds healed relatively quickly. After this, the elephant became meek like a lamb and no longer attacked the person.

What seems surprising is that finding drivers for animals known for their viciousness is not so difficult. Such risk-taking mahouts receive no more reward than their colleagues working on tame elephants. But there are many elephant mahouts for whom the admiration of their misplaced courage balances the terrible risk; Some people may enjoy this game of danger. The coldly calculated owners of such vicious elephants probably also contributed to the emergence of such sports fanaticism.

WHO IS BETTER - A FEMALE OR A MALE?

If we compare the qualities of males and females from the point of view of the possibility of their use by humans, we must say the following. Males are larger and stronger than females, and are also less shy. But along with these advantages, nik also has disadvantages. Having reached puberty, the male begins to show a tendency to rebel. His master is now no longer a leader to whom he obeys, but a rival with whom he fights for leadership of the herd.

Of course, Indian mahouts are trying to curb such elephants. One of the most effective, but also cruel means is to keep the male in a state of prolonged malnutrition. In this way, its overflowing force is moderated. But even reducing feeding is not an absolutely reliable remedy against outbreaks of violence. And drovers in Asia often have to pay with their lives.

WHAT A TRAINED WORKING ELEPHANT SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO

It is not enough to tame an elephant and make it tolerate a mahout or ootsi on its back. The elephant must do work, and this work, which can be very varied, must be trained. This has been done for centuries in Indian and Burmese elephant schools. The elephant must learn to respond to a significant number of words and body movements of the mahout. The “learned” elephant, on command, picks up a pipe, a knife, or a stick from the ground, which are thrown by its driver, and tightens or loosens the chains entwined around the trees. He must be able to understand the meaning of the mahout's body movements.

If the mahout tenses and leans back, it means that he wants the elephant to stop. Pressing the knee on one of the sides should encourage the elephant to turn in one direction or the other. Hitting forehand or backhand means lifting your right or left front foot. If the mahout leans forward, it means he wants the elephant to kneel.

The stages of training a young elephant are usually as follows. After the baby elephant is weaned from its mother, which usually happens in the fifth year of life, the animal must be accustomed to its driver. Training takes place in a camp near which a river flows. In the center of the camp, a triangular fence is built from wooden stakes the height of a baby elephant. With the help of a tamed elephant, bait, or by force, the baby elephant is driven into this fence. He enters the pen through the open side of the triangle, which is immediately closed. The animal feels that it has been deprived of its freedom and begins to go on a rampage. They try to calm him down by treating him to bananas and other treats. A block operated by two workers is installed next to the fence, with the help of which the future mahout lowers himself onto the back of the elephant. However, the animal does not want to put up with this maneuver and becomes restless. Then the rider is lifted up, but as soon as the elephant calms down, he is lowered again.

This game continues until the baby elephant gets tired of resisting. In the end, he reconciles himself with fate and no longer tries to throw the driver off his back. It’s as if he’s saying now: “Of course, what you’re doing is stupid, and I don’t understand why it’s happening. But if that’s what you want, so be it!..”

STICK EDUCATION

Even when young elephants have already been trained to tolerate a rider on their back, they become capricious. Williams reports that one of the elephants in his camp used to attack him at every opportunity. Something had to be done. They decided to give the animal a good beating, just as teachers (let’s note by the way: bad ones) do with a disobedient child. The elephant was driven behind a triangular fence, and here the people gathered for this procedure inflicted dozens of blows on it with sticks. Before the flogging began, Williams stood in front of the elephant and, showing a stick, tried to let him know what awaited him. What is the result? When the next day the young elephant saw Williams, who happened to be holding a stick, he gave a deafening trumpet and rushed off into the jungle. Of course, it cannot be assumed that a beaten elephant is able to understand the connection between “guilt” and “retribution.” And in this case, of course, the elephant did not realize why he received the beating (not to mention the fact that he could not understand the “justice” of the punishment). The result of the punishment, naturally, could only be that the animal began to associate the sight of a person who was unsympathetic to it for some reason with the unpleasant sensations emanating from this person and in the future did not dare to attack him again. When an elephant reaches eight years of age, it is first loaded with a light load and taught to climb mountains or wade through shallow water.

Over the following years, he becomes accustomed to performing more difficult tasks, such as lifting brushwood from the ground and placing it in a pile for a fire, or freeing a chain entangled in bamboo thickets. Only after reaching nineteen years old is an elephant considered full-fledged. He has already “trained”, and his power has reached highest point development. He "entered the age of a mature man, lasting up to about fifty-five years. The classic work of the Asian elephant is his work in woodworking and sawmills, for example, such as in Rangoon (Burma), where hundreds of animals are employed. Here they are constantly, and here they are at their best as workers.What can an elephant do in a sawmill?

His main duty is to carry logs. For the most part he does this with the help of his trunk. If the logs are too long and thick, he drags them along the ground.

Some old males, when they need to carry a heavy log, kneel down, place their tusks under it and, holding it with their trunk, then carry it to the saw. Cleaning up sawn trunks is also the responsibility of the working elephants. They do not throw the boards haphazardly, but carefully place them in stacks. Human hands could not work more reliably. Elephants blow away heaps of sawdust. However, elephants not only know their duties, they also well understand the meaning of the bell, which signals the end of work. After it has sounded, the elephant will no longer carry anything with its trunk.

BIOGRAPHY OF SEYNA

In India and Burma there are two ways of keeping elephants. Some large enterprises, such as sawmills in Rangoon, Moulmein, Mandalay, house elephants (often numbering several thousand) in stalls in the same way as horses. These animals have a mark on the back of their body that is burned into them when they are young (usually at the age of six). As for the events that happen in their lives, accurate information about them is provided by entries in the book kept for each elephant.

By Sein, No. 895 1897 Born in November.
1903 Trained. The mark "C" is burned into both buttocks.
1904-1917 Worked as a pack animal.
1918-1921 Carried logs in the area of ​​the My River.
1922 Transferred to Gango forests.
1932 Wounded in a fight with a wild male. It was not used for work for a year. Completely cured.
1933 Transferred to Kindab forests.
1943 Busy carrying tree trunks for bridge construction.
1944 Transferred to the Surun Valley. Disappeared for one day. Found on a pineapple plantation, where he ate about a thousand fruits. Acute colic. Cured.
1945 Given to a sawmill in the Vietok Forest.
1951 March 8. Found dead. Shot by an unknown assailant in the Vietoc area.

LABOR VEHICLES REWARDS

Such animals, kept in stalls in a “barracks position”, are always at hand and under their control. But the constant keeping of elephants in captivity also has its own negative sides: animals deprived of freedom do not reproduce on the same scale as those in the wild. One might say: so what! When the need arises for working elephants, they can be caught in the jungle! But this is false for two reasons: firstly, the jungle is not inexhaustible, and, secondly, taming and training an animal raised in freedom or a baby elephant born in captivity are different things. In the latter case, everything happens much easier and without interference. From birth, the baby elephant is in constant contact with its mother's owner, considers him as her playmate and accepts food from him. It is clear that an animal that has been accustomed to humans since infancy is easier to train than one caught in the jungle.

Therefore, in Burma, and less often in India, you can find another, more original treatment of a tamed elephant. During the day he works, but then he is “his own boss,” and this, first of all, means that he himself must take care of his own food. A peculiar method, one reader or another will think: an elephant exhausts its strength for the sake of the person it helps with work, and then it is even denied food - a self-evident reward that any animal in a circus or zoo receives as compensation for imprisonment! From a human point of view, this is undoubtedly the most disgusting exploitation. But the elephant himself, unable to think in concepts, has not the slightest idea of ​​the absurdity of the role assigned to him. Just as he cannot evaluate his own actions by human criteria, so he cannot apply these criteria to human actions.

After work, the mahout rides his elephant home, and his home is often many kilometers from the factory. Then he releases the elephant and the animal can do whatever he wants. So what does it do? In any case, it does not run away from its owner and does not even move too far from his house, but goes in search of food, and rarely goes deeper into the jungle more than ten kilometers.

"WHY DID YOU RUN SO FAR AGAIN?"

The next morning, the mahout first goes out in search of his elephant. We should not forget the conditions under which he has to go deeper into the jungle. There are no alleys for walking through the forest thicket; the place is full of wild animals. But the oozi is well acquainted with the surrounding forests, he is vigilant and cautious.

You can never say with certainty where the elephant is. A person who had not yet dealt with elephants, or even was simply not familiar with the habits of the sought-after elephant, would probably not have found it. But our ootsi is a master of his craft and an expert on elephants to the core. His father, grandfather, all his ancestors were elephant drivers. And when he himself was barely six years old, he was already sitting on the back of an elephant. At the age of fourteen he went to a sawmill and at first served here for a pittance as an assistant to the ooci, doing all sorts of auxiliary work for him. One day - it was one of the most important and glorious days in his life - he himself became an ootsi and received an elephant into his care. He not only knows the habits of his elephant down to the smallest detail, but knows its tracks, remembers their area, their diameter, all their features. He can distinguish them from the tracks of hundreds of other elephants. Following the tracks, he suddenly stumbles upon huge piles of manure. They tell him that the elephant spent the night there, and even what exactly the animal ate. It happens that there is a lot of bamboo in the manure - we can conclude that for a change the animal wanted to feast on this plant growing on the bank of a small river.

When the oozi thinks that the elephant is somewhere nearby, it begins to sing a song, wanting to attract the animal’s attention. Noticing an elephant, the mahout approaches and talks to him as if he were intelligent being. He reproaches the elephant, reads moral lessons to him, scolds him: “Why did you run so far away again? You always think only about your belly! Since yesterday evening, all I’ve done is eat! How many centners have you eaten? And what have I got during this time?” Was it in your mouth? A piece or two, and that’s it!”

The huge good-natured man lets these instructions fall on deaf ears. Needless to say, he didn't understand anything. But then the ootsi orders: “Hmit!” - and the elephant understands this requirement to lie down very well. He bends his front and hind legs and touches his belly to the ground. When the ootsi sits on its back, the elephant gets up and goes to the factory.

WORKING DAY FOR ELEPHANTS

The working day of an elephant in a sawmill is usually precisely distributed. Animals know their duties and willingly run to their jobs. After two hours of work, first break. If there is a lake or river nearby, the elephants are allowed to splash around there. They do this with obvious pleasure, water themselves and their comrades, dive, frolic and play. After bathing, the elephants go to their stalls, as the time of the most scorching heat approaches, which the animals do not tolerate well. Here they receive a lunch consisting mainly of hay, bananas and sugar cane. A few hours later, a siren signals the end of the afternoon rest, and the elephants return to work, continuing until dark and ending with another bath.

One might think that Asian elephants are mercilessly exploited. But they still take care of them. Of course, not so much for reasons of humanity, but out of the understanding that it is impossible to treat such precious goods in a predatory manner. During the year, elephants have nine working months (from June to February) and three rest months, which occur during the hottest time of the year. But working months have no more than eighteen twenty working days. During the year, an elephant works approximately one thousand three hundred hours and during this time produces work that completely pays for its maintenance. It happens that an elephant working at a sawmill is also used for ceremonies. For example, when distinguished guests visit a plant, gray workers with white lines drawn on their foreheads - signs of Shiva - are lined up in two lines to the right and left of the gate.

LIVING TRACTORS

Deep in the jungle, Indian elephants are often used as living tractors. They must drag tree trunks fallen onto densely overgrown tropical vegetation paths from the felling site to the transfer point. Usually such points are located on the banks of a river along which the timber is floated further. The elephant plays a particularly important role in one of the most important branches of Burmese industry - the harvesting of teak wood. The teak trunk gives excellent hard wood, which splits easily and is well processed. It can last three times longer than oak wood. Teak is used in the construction of temples and especially in shipbuilding. The delivery of trunks from the jungle is carried out mainly by the draft power of elephants, the efficiency of which is increased by the fact that roads are laid along certain sections of the route. At transit points, elephants also work using their trunks, tusks and front legs. Sometimes you need to drag trees to the edge of a precipice and throw them down. And the elephant also performs this job reliably. He knows with an accuracy of one meter how close he can get to the edge of the abyss. Without any command, he himself stops about three meters from the edge. And now no force can force him to take even a step forward. The chains connecting the elephant to the load it drags behind it are untied, and the animal is placed behind the trunk. Now the driver gives the command. The elephant tilts its head and sticks its trunk under the trunk like a lever. First, one end of the log moves forward. The elephant immediately corrects this awkward position, so that the middle and the other end also advance. Having pushed the trunk to the very edge, our friend finally gives it a good kick with his front leg. The heavy machine flies into the abyss with a roar.

In Thailand, approximately three hundred elephants were constantly working in a forested area of ​​​​five thousand square kilometers. The animals dragged felled tree trunks through the forest to the nearest river. When the rainy season arrived, stacked logs were thrown into the river and, tied into rafts, were then driven downstream to Bangkok. Elephants love water very much, and working in the river gives them obvious pleasure. One traveler in Thailand, sailing on a canoe along the river, discovered that in one place the river bed was dammed with about a hundred teak logs. And among the piled trunks, three elephants worked, showing all signs of pleasure. First, they grabbed the logs with their trunks and brought them into the position indicated by the overseer, and then guided them along the fairway with their foreheads and tusks. In some areas of India and Ceylon, mahouts are not content with just training elephants to work, but train them like in a circus. One traveler who visited Ceylon reported, for example, that on the way from Colombo to Kandy he met Sinhalese who taught elephants to stand on their hind legs and wrap their trunks around themselves, on which the mahout sat. Other elephants, by order of the mahouts, stood on three legs, on their heads, or sat with their front legs raised in front of them. Elephants can also serve well in road construction. It is less rational to take them on long hikes, since the huge mass of fodder they need for nutrition is too burdensome ballast, and the payload that they are able to carry is very small compared to the colossal weight of their body. However, in India, elephants were used for military purposes, namely in artillery. In an elephant battery there are twelve elephants for every six guns. To care for and supervise them, there is an overseer and twelve mahouts, as well as twelve mowers who provide the animals with food. Military elephants are supposed to carry a load of 500 kilograms over a distance of up to 70 kilometers per day. The largest load that they are able to carry, and then only along the road, over a distance of several hundred meters, is a thousand kilograms. On hilly terrain they can carry no more than 300-350 kilograms.

DIVING PLANES AGAINST ELEPHANTS

Elephants played a significant role during the Second World War in Burma. The British 14th Army, which operated in this country, had many elephant companies that performed important functions. When the Japanese invaded Burma in 1942, elephants served the British retreating to the Indian provinces of Assam and Bengal well in building bridges and roads and in evacuating Burmese cities. Animals then had to do work that was much harder than in peacetime. So, they had to lift logs to a height of up to three meters. It was this operation that posed the greatest threat to the ooci. The elephants first placed the trunks on their tusks. When they then raised their heads, there was a danger that these massive trunks, weighing up to a quarter of a ton, would roll back and injure the rider, perhaps even fatally. During the retreat in the Chin Mountains, the British had to overcome a height of up to two thousand meters. The elephants climbed it, but very slowly and carefully, and some of them could not stand the climb and died. Not only the British, but also the Japanese used elephants, which in a number of cases they captured along with oozi. But they used them to a lesser extent than the British for road construction and logging, and more for transporting military materials. Capturing males also provided the Japanese with other benefits. Having a passion for ivory, they sawed off their tusks down to the meat. This did not harm the health of the animals, but significantly reduced their performance. When the Japanese advanced to the approaches to Imphal, the British began to counterattack them. British aircraft attacked the elephant caravans, diving on them and opening fire on them with machine guns. Forty elephants became victims of one such terrible raid. Elephants caught after such attacks often had gaping wounds on their bodies. At that time, the British set up a field hospital for elephants - undoubtedly a unique phenomenon in the history of wars. It turned out that elephants have a high regenerative ability and their wounds heal relatively quickly. By the time the war in Burma was over, the number of working elephants had dropped by about four thousand. Some of them, no doubt, died. As for the survivors, it can be assumed that they, having lost their home and owners, went into the jungle, where they joined the wild herds. There were several brave ootzis who decided to return at least some of the wild elephants. Their plan was to ride tamed elephants into the midst of the herd, approach the elephants with a brand on their backs, and, mounting them, force them to obey. Such an enterprise requires, of course, the greatest courage and dexterity, but it is a game with death. Nothing is known about the success or failure of this jungle expedition.

TRAVEL TO GAUDHA

In India and Thailand, the use of elephants as riding animals is traditional. Sometimes they are taught to lie down on command, so that it is easier to climb on them. If elephants cannot be trained to do this, then a ladder is placed next to them, along which passengers climb onto the animal’s back. They travel while sitting in a gaudha, a box attached like a saddle. Its shape can be very different. In India, gaudha looks like a sleigh, in Thailand it looks like a bed. In most cases, it has a woven bamboo roof to protect it from sun and rain. In front of the Gaudha sits a mahout, whose position is by no means a sinecure. His work is quite intense: he must constantly force the animal to move with an ankbm - a stick with an iron tip and a hook, as well as with his screams. During large marches, the mounted elephant is unsaddled in the evening, its legs are tied up, it is released into the forest and left to its own devices. Despite the fetters, he sometimes moves away quite a distance. If he manages to free himself from his bonds, he often has to search for him for days on end. People who have repeatedly ridden elephants claim that these rides are comfortable and enjoyable. Despite the constant shaking that you have to put up with, you can even sleep in the gaudha,

TRAINING A HUNTING ELEPHANT

The elephant is also used to hunt tigers. Of course, this function of his has long ceased to have serious significance. economic importance, because modern firearms much more reliable than the strongest elephant. But even today, when hunting tigers, the main thing is not the practical expediency of this or that method of hunting, but its effectiveness. The participation of a powerful giant striding through the steppe and jungle undoubtedly makes a very big impression. But first the elephant must be trained to hunt a tiger. After all, if he, without any preparation, meets this predatory tabby cat in the jungle, then, in his fearfulness, he will certainly rush to run. Meanwhile, in this case, he should in no way run away. How to achieve this? He should be accustomed to tigers, which he may never have met in the wild, as well as to all the vicissitudes and dangers of hunting. First he is introduced to appearance, the smell and roar of the hunted object and do this by showing him a tiger in a cage.

However, encountering a tiger sitting behind a strong fence is a completely different matter than encountering one in the jungle. Training, therefore, must be supplemented. And then one fine day the elephant is led into the forest, where quite unexpectedly a tiger jumps out of the thickets, which, of course, is not free now, but is tightly restrained by a chain. However, the predator growls threateningly at the elephant and, as far as the chain allows, rushes at it. The elephant has no desire to deal with such a dangerous subject and tries to get away as quickly as possible. But the mahout, sitting on the elephant’s back, prevents his escape with anka injections, and against his own will the elephant approaches his companion in the jungle. He is clearly excited, but gradually becomes convinced that he has nothing to fear from this tiger (and, as the trainer expects, he simply will not understand the difference between this tiger and all other animals of this species). The excitement subsides. Thus, the goal was achieved: the elephant became accustomed to the appearance and habits of the tiger.

All that remains is to accustom him to rifle shots. To do this you need to shoot in close proximity to the elephant. At first he is thoroughly frightened, but then the shooting hardly makes any impression on him.

BATTLE WITH THE TIGER

The hunt proceeds as follows. Dozens of saddled elephants, some of them seasoned tiger hunters and some of them novices, line up in front of the stables with their mahouts on their backs. Having completed all preparations, the hunters, led by an old elephant, set out into the jungle. After marching for many hours, the elephants finally take their starting position. With a wide front they block all escape routes for the tiger. Beaters are placed between them. First, peacocks, deer and other harmless living creatures, frightened by the beaters, try to break through the cordon of elephants in mortal horror. They succeed, because this time they will hunt only large animals. Finally the tigers emerged from the grass. They seek not to fight, but to save their lives. Only when they see that they cannot save their lives without a fight do they rush at the elephants (of course, if they have not already been killed by the hunters’ bullets). The most dramatic moment comes when the tiger jumps on the elephant. The latter has in the person of his mahout an excellent second, who uses a heavy iron stick against the “reluctant aggressor”. The elephant can also count on help from other mahouts. And he himself does not feel defenseless at all. He tries to grab the tiger with his trunk and, if he succeeds, presses it to the tusks, throws it to the ground and tramples it until it gives up the ghost.

In one hunt, planned on a large scale, which was organized by the insanely extravagant Nawab (ruler) of Oudh, in addition to a huge armed retinue and other accompanying persons (including jesters and bayadères), no less than a thousand elephants took part. When the tiger let out a roar, two hundred elephants surrounded him. Suddenly, a predator jumped out of the bushes and jumped onto the back of one of the elephants, on which three hunters were sitting. He shook himself with such force that all four - people and the tiger, having described a large arc, flew into the bushes. It seemed that the hunters' cause was lost, but the tiger had no time for them. He thought only about escape, but he failed to escape. The elephants drove him to an elephant surrounded by a dense cordon of heavily armed guards, on which the nawab sat ready to shoot. It was his personal privilege to kill the tiger. As a rule, after such a hunt, the killed tigers are tied to elephants. But the elephants don't like it. They do not tolerate the smell of such animals and are very reluctant to carry them. Finally, Indian elephants are also used for all sorts of less significant tasks, for example, even for such a seemingly completely alien activity as fishing. The Mahouts direct their animals to some pond or oxbow lake, and the elephants, who have a special love for water, go there with obvious pleasure. But we're talking about not about pleasing them and providing them with entertainment, but about using them as assistants in fishing. With their heavy gait they should scare away the fish. When the frightened inhabitants of the reservoir float up, they are finished off with clubs or knives or caught with their hands. And sometimes the elephant is directly involved in fishing. He lowers his nimble trunk into the water and pulls out a fish. However, he does not use his prey. A "convinced vegetarian", the elephant does not know what to do with the fish, and obediently hands it to the mahout.