Elephant School in SW China's Remote Mountains

A dozen elephants are well protected and receive special training at an "elephant school" in the famous Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province in southwest China.

Located in a vast and quiet tropical rain forest in the Mengyang Nature Reserve, the school is surrounded by more than 4,000 kinds of plants. There are also a variety of animal species including 20 animals under first-class state protection.

Zoologists predict that there are over 300 wild elephants roaming a nearby valley in the remote mountainous area of the prefecture.

But only a few lucky pathfinders to the valley are able to get a glimpse at the giants, the experts said.

To protect the wild elephants that have wandered away from their groups, the reserve established the school in February 1996.

If local residents find elephants, which have been abandoned or lost their way in forest, the animals are immediately sent to the school.

"The school has become a vet hospital and nursery for the elephants," said a zoologist with the school.

In December 1996, a farmer of the Dai Ethnic Group found a new born elephant calf that had fallen into a deep gully. The calf received a comprehensive physical examination after being sent to the school. Since it was severely injured and had pulmonary disease, veterinarians carried out emergency medical treatment for the calf.

To help the calf recover quickly, experts at the school built a separate house for the small elephant and used milk and rice flour to feed him.

While recovering, the calf was taken back to virgin forest in order to learn to cope with wildlife. Unexpectedly, the young elephant returned to the school determined to stay.

The elephant was later registered as a regular "student" at the training center, and was given the name "Future".

According to the experts, "Future" is very clever, and since graduating from the school "Future" has become a famous animal star performing across the country.

To offer visitors more information on elephants and popularize protection knowledge on the rare species, everyday, the skilled elephant students are taken to a tourist site to stage enjoyable performances for tourists.

School director Liu Dejun said that the dormitories for the elephants are tremendous concrete buildings. Every dawn, instructors wake up the elephants and take them to drink water and eat grass on the bank of a nearby river.

At eight o'clock, when the elephants start class, some of them attend group training and some receive tutorial teaching.

The instructors feed the students constantly with delicious bamboo leaves and bananas to award them on their excellent performances, otherwise the students' may strike.

At noon, the elephants are brought to the stage to play soccer, perform tricks and walk upright, which is warmly welcomed by tourists.

"The performance will convey to people a sense of basic knowledge about elephants and arouse their enthusiasm for protecting the biggest land mammal," Liu said.

The whole afternoon is the free time for the elephants, who spend the luxurious period relaxing and playing in mountain area close to the school.

Around 6:30 p.m., all the elephants stop playing to rush back to the school and open their big mouths to wait for tasty corn bread thrown to them by their instructors.

After being fed, the elephants fall asleep on the ground. New comers often wake up when they hear something, because in the early days at the school, they keep alert by laying their ears close to earth to listen for danger.

The old ones produce loud grunts in their sleep because they know that they are in a safe place, Liu said.

Wild elephant groups are often seen in the area, and one of the school students went missing after one of these sightings.

School-trained elephant "Master Soccer Player" followed a wild elephant group and disappeared into forest after spending one year attending the school.

One day, ten months later, "Master Soccer Player" turned up with a group of wild elephants in front of the school, looking dirty and unkempt.

Encountering the instructors, the other wild elephants withdrew and ran away, but "Master Soccer Player" stood his ground, grabbing cookies out of the teachers hand with his trunk.

The instructors called out code words to "Master Soccer Player", then mounted his back and took him back.

"Master Soccer Player" staged an excellent performance the next day, remembering all the actions he had learned at the school over ten months earlier, an instructor said.

The school has trained more than ten elephant students over the past four years. "The elephants that perform in nearly all circuses in China were trained at the school," said Liu.

According to Liu, the tradition of elephant training started 300 years ago in Xishuangbanna. However, the elephant training skill was lost in war time last century.

Since the establishment of the elephant school here, the ancient training art has been revived, Liu said, adding that now China has developed a new group of elephant instructors.






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