A common question from Western travelers and tour operators is; Why don’t you stop offering elephant riding? We answer that our elephants benefit from tourist elephant rides. Our elephants do not suffer from tourist elephant rides. Of course, not all elephant riding is unconditionally good. It is essential to have a good relationship between the elephants and the elephant handlers, a rich natural environment, and proper management. We strive to commit to offering good elephant rides.

Below, we provide the evidence for our answer from 3 recent academic studies introduced in a blog by Dr. Ingrid, who has worked on the welfare of tourism elephants for many years.

Impact of Weight Carriage on Joint Kinematics in Asian Elephants Used for Riding

Riding elephants is one of the most controversial activities in the tourist industry, with concerns over whether load carrying is physically harmful. Here, we used an empirical approach to test how carrying loads up to 15% of the elephant’s body mass affected gait parameters. The maximal angles of fore- and hindlimb joints of elephants walking at a normal, self-selected speed carrying a mahout only were first evaluated and then compared to those walking with a saddle carrying two people plus added weight to reach a 15% body mass load. Data were analyzed using a computerized three-dimensional inertial measurement system. There were no significant differences between movement angles, including flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction of the fore- or hindlimbs between these two riding conditions. Thus, we found no evidence that carrying two people in a saddle causes significant changes in gait patterns or potentially affects musculoskeletal function. More studies are needed to further test longer durations of riding on different types of terrain to develop appropriate working guidelines for captive elephants. Nevertheless, elephants appear capable of carrying significant amounts of weight on the back without showing signs of physical distress.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/8/2423

Public Feeding Interactions as Enrichment for Three Zoo-Housed Elephants

Human–animal interactions are an important focus of modern animal welfare research. A subset of this interest includes animal–visitor interactions that occur in zoos. One understudied aspect of animal–visitor interactions involves public feedings, where visitors can directly feed the zoo animals. We examined the effects of public feedings compared with nonpublic feed days on the general activity of three zoo-housed elephants. In addition, we examined the general activity of the elephants in the months prior to public feedings, as well as their general activity on public feed days before, during, and after a public feeding. Public feedings were effective at increasing social activity and decreasing stereotypies for two of the elephants when compared with nonpublic feed days. Additionally, all three elephants showed increased foraging and decreased inactivity following a public feeding. Our results suggest that public feedings can be an effective form of environmental enrichment for zoo-housed elephants.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/6/1689

Management factors affecting adrenal glucocorticoid activity of tourist camp elephants in Thailand and implications for elephant welfare

Researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Unit, Chiang Mai University, and National Elephant Institute Thailand looked at the stress indicator level in 84 healthy elephants from 15 tourist elephant camps in Thailand over 1-year.

The result shows that the elephants interacting with mahouts and performing daily exercise through riding had lower stress levels than elephants in passive observation-only camps.

The elephants in the study that undertook to ride had better body score conditions and were less likely to be obese than elephants that did not undertake riding activities.

The elephants engaged in riding received both physical and mental stimulation, positive welfare attributes that the elephants at the passive viewing camp did not receive.

On the other hand, the elephants in the observation-only camps were to have the highest stress levels, the least amount of exercise, and be quite obese, a factor associated with poor health outcomes.

Results suggest that more naturalistic housing conditions and providing opportunities to exercise may be good for elephants under human care in Thailand and that a no-riding, no hook policy does not necessarily guarantee good welfare.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31574099/

It is common sense to all involved in elephant tourism that elephants do not suffer as long as elephant rides and interactions by tourists are done properly. No one, not even camp managers who loudly advertise “No riding” really believe that “elephant riding cause suffering to the elephants”. The only reason they insist on “No riding” is to avoid complaints from animal rights NGOs and their supporters who campaign against elephant tourism. In a blog introducing these studies, Dr. Ingrid said:

“There is a total fear of standing up to the multi-million-dollar animal rights activist industry and their dedicated brood of online trolls. Western travel groups are so frightened of being called animal abusers that it’s now easier to quietly bow down and let the activists override all science. Virtue signalling has also become a popular practice. “Stop elephant abuse” is a much catchier slogan than “We support evidence-based Asian elephant management on a case-by-case basis”. Southeast Asian tourism authorities are too afraid to even place an image of an elephant in their marketing, knowing that trolls in the UK, US and Australia will howl with outrage at the mere thought of elephant abuse. The demands of the animal rights activists are being treated as gospel while the scientists and elephant expert voices are drowned out. Sadly, none of this is improving elephant welfare.”

https://www.elephantstandards.com/post/activism-or-paternalism-the-case-of-elephant-based-tourism-in-southeast-asia

A French anthropologist who has studied numerous field on the relationship between Asian elephants and indigenous people criticized the elitism of the elephant conservation (“the elephantcentric vision” in the article) at an elephant camp in Sayaburi Province. The Western campaign to save elephants has not only excluded anthropocentric tourism, but also elephants from local villages. This results in their elephant conservation without locals. He looks toward a biocultural approach of conservation, arguing the life of humans, elephants, plants, and the entire living beings present within their shared and co-constructed landscapes.

Becoming a village elephant (sang ban), the animal maintains contact with its primary environment: it is a “domestic being” that is released every day in the forest (in the evening, after working time), or seasonally, for example during the monsoon season. They keep constant contacts with forest congeners (wild elephants), continue to have direct access to forest, and are able to cure themselves by self-medication.

By leaving a male or a female elephant free to wander in the forest, it is hoped that he will find to mate with one of his congeners, who will give birth to a new individual. Later, by the capture of a young individuals and its integration into the village community, local populations create domestic elephant with wild one. And so on, in a perpetual movement of regeneration and maintenance of the species.

Regarding animal welfare, the various attentions given by the local population provide them respect, protection, and well-being under a sophisticated health systems including ritual medicine, plant medicine. Actually, in the villages, in many ways, what French sociologist Jocelyne Porcher (Porcher and Schmitt 2010) called “good life offered to animal” can be found in regard to elephants.

As members of the village community, they accompany human activities and participate directly in what makes society. Throughout the year, they have access to a variety of natural environments (mountainous when they draw wood during the dry season, in the plain, near rice fields, during the rainy season). These animals have access to a rich diversity of plants to feed and care for themselves. And it is often forgotten, but their seasonal movement also contributes to the regeneration of the forest by spreading seeds and plants in each of the environments they pass through. Keeping the presence of elephants in villages along with local populations contributes directly to the conservation of biodiversity.

Nicolas Lainé (2018) Asian Elephant Conservation: Too Elephantocentric? Towards a Biocultural Approach of Conservation