With more elephants than the land available can handle, Zimbabwe's wildlife managers have been forced to systematically kill a restricted number of elephants. Some babies have been spared, raised on farms instead of being sent to zoos and circuses. Now every morning and evening, they line up to take visitors on short safaris. They also have been trained to perform little tricks, making a show designed to entertain and to reassure tourists that the elephants are under control. But it is also part of their constant training, and another way of reinforcing the bond between human and giant beast.
Elephants are highly intelligent.
The training and bonding is the exact opposite of the techniques used in places like India, according to camp manager Jack Manning. There they'll chain an elephant up for a month and just give it sufficient food and water to live on, where ours are trained with positive reinforcement. And it shows. The elephants are pretty relaxed. It's more like floating, once you relax.