Green Trails Elephant Tours

We offer a number of elephant tours. The elephant is the official national animal of Thailand. Before the 2nd World War the national flag showed a white elephant against a red background. It has been a contributor to Thai society and its icon for many centuries. Elephants in Thailand are Indian elephants. The Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) is a subspecies of the Asian elephant.

In the early 1900s there were an estimated 100,000 captive elephants in Thailand, either in captivity or in the wild. Now there are an estimated three thousand domesticated elephants in Thailand. Roughly a thousand wild animals live in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. In 1986 the IUCN, the world conservation union, declared the elephant an endangered species.

Threats to the Asian Elephant

The most serious threats to the Asian elephant today are habitat loss as well as degradation and fragmentation of that habitat. This often leads to increasing conflicts between humans and elephants. About three thousand elephants are working in tourism venues. Besides that, about one thousand animals work in rubber plantations in the south of the country. Here they drag logs of rubber trees. It is unlikely that these elephants will ever go back to the wild.

We are highly selective in which elephant venues we work with on our elephant tours. We love animals and want them to be in good care. Green Trails supports the ASEAN Captive Elephant Working Group. Here you can find a statement of this group that consists of veterinarians and elephant experts, both foreign and Thai.

Join us on our elephant tours. Tours that include visits to the House of Many Elephants and to the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Park also fall in this category.