Sunday, July 29, 2012

Elephant Capture #1 (From Eric Beheim)

Elephant%20Capture-1 by bucklesw1
Elephant%20Capture-1, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

From time to time, someone will mention the elephant domestication stations operated by the Belgian Government in the Congo, where African elephants were trained to do useful work. The September 1938 issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC has an article by Lawrence and Margaret Thaw, who stopped off at the elephant domestication station at Gangara na Bodio while on a trek through Africa to obtain photos and motion picture footage. At the time, the station had some 60 trained elephants available for purchase or for rent, and would capture and train 12 to 15 new animals a year. The Thaws arrived during the middle of the hunting season and got to go out on an expedition and film one of the captures.

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