Chiang Mai - Elephants #2 - Caring for Elephants

On our tour, we were each assigned an elephant to care for that day.  Not sure we can spell their names, but here is what we were assigned:

Brandy - Champoon - a new mother 16 years old
Chip - MahWahJohn - an older mother with a young baby
Charles - Mackadeck - The leader of the Herd
Gillian - Playon - The Largest of the elephants
John - Poon - An energetic young elephant

Before we rode the elephants, we had to do several things to care for them.

First we had to check their heath. This involved several steps.
1.  Make sure their ears are flapping and tails wagging every few minutes
2.  Check that they slept on both sides.  Elephants sleep 4 hours a day.  They lay down on one side sleep for 45 minutes, then stand for 15, then sleep 45 minutes on the other side.  This is due to the weight on their body.  We checked to make sure there was dirt on them where they slept.
3.  Make sure they were sweating.  Elephants sweat through their toes.  Apparently toe infections are one of the leading caused of death.
4.  Check their poop!  We had to count the number of poops, pick the poop apart and squeeze it to make sure it was wet, and smell it.  A grassy smell was healthy.  If it stunk, it was a bad sign.
5.  Make sure the tears on their face were even.  The tears are what cleans their eyes.

Here is a shot of some toe nails.

 

 

Gillian was volunteered to show everyone how to check poop.  Here she is carrying the poop to us after counting the number of pods left behind.  She was a great sport as they said it is normally the youngest in the family that gets volunteered, but John refused.

After we checked their health, we brushed the dirt off the elephants with some branches.  While you swatted the dirt off of the elephants, they closed their eyes as if it was a pleasurable massage.

 

 

After brushing off the dirt, we washed the elephants.  They also put the hose in their mouths for some hydration before our walk.