Hello everyone.

My wife and I were recently recently taken to visit a special preserve
in Northern Thailand for old and disabled elephants located in Lampang
province. The center is operated by the National Elephant Institute of
Thailand's Forest Industry Organization.

Among the residents is an elephant who is totally blind. She is the
only elephant among those there that is not taken to the forest to
live. It amazed me to she how calm she was. In my experience blind
animals are often very nervous and aggressive. This elephant showed
none of those traits. Elephants in this preserve have a one on one
mahout (keeper)-elephant relationship. When a new elephant arrives it
is allowed to adjust for a few days before being assigned mahout.
They observe the animal and when it evident which of the mahouts the
elephant seems to get along with best a job assignment is made. I will
be posting pictures and video over the next few days to our site
http://elephantnews.com if anyone is interested in seeing them.