Asian Elephants: Culture, Conflict And Co-Existence

SALAKPRA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, KANCHANABURI, THAILAND: A wild elephant is seen at night investigating a novel object, in this case a car wash brush, strapped to a tree on the border of Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary. The wild elephants are often wary of anything new in their environment, in this case, the elephant has decided the brush would make an ideal back-scratcher. This project is part of the work of the Comparative Cognition Lab at Hunter College City University of New York in their ongoing efforts to better understand how Asian elephants think in order to potentially mitigate human/elephant conflict across the region. The tests are conducted on both captive and wild elephants, the main difference that has emerged is that captive elephants are less wary and cautious of the boxes. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images)