“It was difficult to spend so much time so close to the big beauties and not feel a real connection with them. But thinking about things like that remind you that they are kinda gross...” - http://clapway.com/2015/06/07/11-crazy-facts-about-indian-elephants/

In October 2013, I joined a two-week volunteering program in Jaipur, Rajasthan, in which I took care of a number of Indian elephants: two in week one, and five in week two. When I type those words, it feels like I’m describing something that happened to someone else. But I really did it, and it was one of the coolest — and strangest — experiences of my life.

(Full disclosure: these ellies weren’t wild, rehabilitated, or orphaned. They were “working” elephants. Six days a week, their “job” was to give tourists a ride up a small hill to the entrance of the Amber Fort, which is a castle that sits on the outskirts of Jaipur…

The Amber Fort from afar. You’re forbidden from taking photos of the elephants while they work.

…The elephants had tons of food, could see each other, were kept very clean and their conditions were inspected regularly, but they were chained, trained, and lived an unnatural life.)

I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the programme before I started, having never been so up close and personal with an elephant before. It was really hard work, a lot of fun, and I learnt some strange and unexpected things about nellies and their behaviour:

1. They have light-coloured speckles on their face, their trunk and around their ears, and these fade and brighten at different times of the year. I was a bit worried about it at first, but all Asian elephants have it and it’s totally fine. African elephants don’t change colour like this, which is probably why I wasn’t used to it as they’re always the species you see on TV.


2. Elephants sleep lying down on their side; they don’t stand up like horses do. I don’t know if they move around or roll over when they sleep — it sounds dangerous to me! When they awaken they lie there, eyes open, for a while before standing, and some, but not all, are slow and dopey at the start of the day, just like humans.


3. Elephant carers are called mahouts, and they take care of one elephant 24/7, including riding them when they “work” at the Amber Fort. The mahouts also live with or near their elephants: when I worked in a small complex that housed five elephants, their five mahouts all slept in one room, close enough to hear them breathing. A mahout does not have a lifelong pairing with one elephant, but usually works with elephants for a long time. One mahout I met called Sanuman was 22 and had already worked with elephants for ten years.


4. When they have the ‘saddle’ (technically called a howdah) put on their back before leaving, some of them curl up their trunk in a way that reminds me of how humans rest their chin on their hand or fold their arms when they’re bored.
    “It’s way too early for this…”


5. My elephants were crazy about chapattis, and I made some for them twice a week when they had finished their “jobs”. Their other favourite food is sugarcane, which they eat vast amounts of every day, and they usually toss around to get the small leaves off. I spent ages collecting the sugarcane and putting it down in front of them; it’s strong, like bamboo, but they snap it easily and munch it down. Some elephants let you put food into their mouths or trunks, but when you try this with others, they snuffle quietly and move away — which is fair enough; I’d probably react the same if someone tried to feed me.


6. They can eat flour, and they love it. If there’s any going spare from the chapattis, the mahouts dump the sack in front of them and they suck it up their trunk like a vacuum cleaner and then squirt it down their throat. They somehow magically do this without either breathing it in or making a mess. Just the thought of it makes me want to cough.


7. Elephants’ breath is strong and musty, but it doesn’t smell bad. Their mouths are all triangular, and their tongues and teeth are very strange. When I approached some of them they expected me, as a white person, to feed and fuss over them, so they stood there with their mouths open, staring at me. They also sometimes yawn and forget to close their mouths.Someone’s hungry!


8. They have clusters of very thick skin on their ears which look like warts, and most of them have big, hard, saggy lumps on the sides of their legs. They also have long, coarse eyelashes, which they get stuff stuck in and which it gives me great pleasure to pull out. It was difficult to spend so much time so close to the big beauties and not feel a real connection with them. But thinking about things like that remind you that they are kinda gross…


9. Elephants fart. A lot. It doesn’t stink but it is incredibly loud, and it never stops being hilarious. Their shit is relatively clean — clean enough to be able to pick up with your hands — and not unpleasant-smelling. (Nothing like cows).How do I know all this? Because I spent about an hour every day cleaning up elephant poo with my hands. Here is a picture:
   


10. They can be commanded. These are the commands that I know:- Ota: move your feet
    - Zhum: more / move it / wake up
    - Beit: sit down
    - Peejahet: back
    - Zhup: eat upYou have to shout in a certain tone of voice, and in the morning usually several times until they deign to obey. There are loads more commands than the above, but they were hard to remember because they’re Hindi/Urdu


11. They recognise cameras, and this one, Rupa, could pose like a pro.

11 Crazy Facts About Indian Elephants