Khao Yai Elephant Attack

When I asked my youngest sister what she wanted to do when she was visiting me in Thailand, she gave me that oh so irritating answer, “whatever!. However, on being pressed, she did finally ask if there was any chance of seeing a wild elephant. As I am a frequent visitor to the forests in Thailand I was able to tell her that there was a distinct possibility if we drove around the roads in Khao Yai national park at night. As she was visiting in July, which is in the wet season, there was an excellent chance as this is when most of the sightings occur.

After a few days together in Bangkok we hired a car and drove to Khao Yai national park; a journey of about two and a half hours. We spent a fairly wet day walking in the forest, where we came across leeches, giant spiders, massive trees and weird noises, all of which I am used to but scared my young sister witless! This is a fairly common reaction for first-time visitors to a rain forest, which is a highly biodiverse habitat full of insect life. She very quickly joined the club of “leech dancers” which is a term I use to describe visitors who have a low tolerance for leeches. The dance occurs when the first leeches crawl on to the dancer and suddenly they realize that they have a passenger or two. Then, they lean down and flap at the leeches on their legs, using their hands, whilst hopping from one foot to the other. Some people accompany this with a rather shocking “leech song”, the lyrics to which are something like, “whao, wha, wha, ay, ay, ay, getoff”.

Having discovered that forest walking was not my sister’s favourite event, I decided to take her to Haew Narok waterfall, which in the wet season is quite a spectacle. As we drove along the forest road, chatting away, a car heading towards us flashed its lights at us. No police were likely to be in the forest so I couldn’t really think what the issue was, perhaps it was just a mistake.

The mistake was not taking heed at this signal, for as we rounded a bend there was an elephant in the road! The elephant was a young male, not fully grown but still big enough to cause a lot of damage and he was casually feeding on roadside vegetation. As we were quite close I backed up a little and we took photographs of it. As lighting was not great and the car vibrating from the engine running, our photos were a little blurred, so I turned off the engine to get better pictures (see below) a very silly mistake!

As we took our photos, another car came around the corner from the opposite direction, scaring the elephant as much as the driver. Unfortunately for my sister and I, the elephant decided it was us it would punish and it came racing at us with its trunk raised and bellowing at us. I hastily and clumsily threw my camera down and turned the car’s ignition key. This happened quickly enough but in my fear I fumbled for the gear shift but eventually threw it into reverse. By this time the elephant was only about 6 feet away and I fully expected it to thump right into us. My sister was silent as I reversed up the road as fast as I could with the angry elephant only two or three feet in front of us, still charging. By some miracle we stayed a couple of feet in front of it for a distance of 50-60 feet; it was a sight that neither of us was likely to forget in a hurry – an angry elephant staring right at us through the windscreen of the vehicle from only a few feet away as we desperately reversed.

One of the things that visitors to forests in Asia will be amazed at is the abundance of noises at night. At Khao Yai I have heard the calls of nine species of owls, 3 species of nightjars and a multitude of frog calls, insects and the occasional elephant or deer.

These three MP3 downloads feature different sounds from Khao Yai national park at night.