There the elephant stands with a brush on his trunk and paints a small picture. A video of this scene caused a stir. Are there really painting elephants?
The short summary about painting elephants:
The video of the elephant painting is NOT fake! The material comes from the elephant camp near Chiang Mai (Thailand). The elephants were trained to create these works of art, and animal rights activists criticize them.
The large gray animal skillfully swings the brush. It looks amazing because lines actually appear on the paper. Do elephants have hidden talents?
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Painting elephants, many users are wondering from the video whether it is really real. And if it is real, do the elephants do this voluntarily or are there certain practices behind it, some of which might not be entirely pleasant for the animals?
In short: The following video is not fake!
The painting elephants from Thailand
Here you can see a painting elephant from an elephant camp near Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is one of the largest cities in Thailand and is located in the north of the country.
You can imagine the whole thing as a petting zoo with elephants; visitors can feed, ride, pet elephants, play football or watch them paint pictures. So far viewed uncritically.
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By the way, the pictures are traded! From the Süddeutsche Zeitung we learn that such a picture, which shows rather abstract lines, is sold for up to 400 dollars (270 euros) ( see here ).
Criticism from animal welfare
an article on tierwelt.ch describes a different side to the painting elephants. What looks so peaceful and “picturesque” can have horrific backgrounds. The website describes:
Nevertheless, the films give a false impression of the elephants' abilities and artistic understanding.
The animals don't necessarily do the whole thing voluntarily, but have been trained. Animal rights activists criticize the fact that, among other things, painful methods are used. There are various reports of barbaric methods of training, as described by the website “ One Green Planet ”.
There are reports of sometimes brutal and cruel methods used to train the animals to paint. It has to be said: This is not a specific problem with painting elephants, but rather with training working elephants in general.
A forum post describes which methods are used, which we link to here ( read here ). This is a tourist's travel report. Elephants are in great demand among tourists in Thailand. Accordingly, commercial use is in the foreground at this point. and the focus is often more on commerce.
Finally
It cannot be conclusively confirmed whether these questionable methods are used in the training of all elephants. In an earlier report on this topic, we received feedback from a user that there was a camp near him in Thailand where there was no sign of this torture. There are - as everywhere and so often - both black sheep and exemplary examples here.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

