A young male Thai elephant, spotted wading through a river in Khao Yai National Park. Whereas Thailand has around 3,000 domesticated elephants (fig.), its wild elephant population today amounts to an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 animals, plummeting from circa 4,000 twenty years ago, the main reason being habitat loss.

In 1950, some 60 percent of Thailand was covered with forest, today this is less than 15 percent, and declining.