How to train elephants

Two main techniques have been used for training elephants, which we may cal respectively the tough and the gentle. The former method simply consists of setting an elephant to work and beating him until he does what is expected of him. Apart from any moral considerations, this is a stupid method of training, for it produces a resentful animal who at a later stage may well turn into a man-killer. The gentle method requires more patience in the early stages, but produces a cheerful, good- tempered elephant who will give many years of loyal service. The first essential in elephant training is to assign to the animal a single trainer who will be entirely responsible for the job. Elephants like to have one master just as dogs do, and are capable of a considerable degree of personal affection. There are even stories of half-trained elephant calves who have refused to feed and pined to death when, by some unavoidable circumstance, they have been deprived of their own trainer. Such extreme cases must probably be taken with a grain of salt, but they do underline the general principle that the relationship between elephant and trainer is the key to successful training.