January 7, 1996
Web posted at:1:45 p.m EST (1845 GMT)
GABORONE, Botswana (CNN) -- Take four young elephants, mix together in one big bath. It's a guaranteed recipe for a lot of fun. Bath time is definitely the favorite part of the daily routine for an unusual family of elephants.
They are probably the only African elephants in the world who are attending school-- elephant training school.
Although their Asian cousins have been domesticated for more than 2,000 years, African elephants were widely believed to be untrainable. Uttam Corea though otherwise, and opened his school to train orphaned baby African elephants in Botswana.
"They thought I was mad," Corea said of people's reactions to his idea.
But after four years, Serendib Elephant Orphanage's first graduating class of four has proved the critics wrong. ( 961K QuickTime movie) "They are very intelligent animals," Corea said. "They all have different personalities and each has got a very unusual character and that is important."
Thandi is the friendly one; Chaka mischievous; Sini headstrong; and the baby, Sukuri, she's a real charmer. But the charm doesn't work on their strict teacher. It's all discipline for Sunil Maithripala, a traditional elephant trainer, or mahout, from Sri Lanka.
"It's a friendship, but I am also their teacher so there has to be discipline," he said. "But I like to believe that we have a friendly relationship."
Under the ancient training method from the east, the bond between animal and human is built through obedience exercises and the teaching of practical skills like bush clearing.
After the elephants learn the basics, they go on to "high school" at Mokolodi, a nature reserve outside the capital, Gaborone. With high school comes greater responsibility, such as taking tourists on game walks right up to other animals.
Conflict with humans has caused a rapid decline of wildlife all across Africa in recent years. Visits to nature reserves such as Mokolodi are the only contact most children in Botswana will ever have with wild animals. Many have never seen an elephant, let alone touched one. "It was a bit scary. Then I got used to it. The outside was hairy," said one child during a park visit.
Corea believes the roles the elephants are playing in education and tourism is only part of what can be accomplished. With the right training, he said, domesticated elephants used as work animals can help improve a village's economy. ( 264k AIFF sound or 264k WAV sound)
But how do the elephants feel about it? We can only guess, but it appears that as long as they have a good dusting down, a cool bath and someone to scrub their back at the end of a long day's work, they don't seem to mind at all.
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