Lesson 41 Training elephantsFirst listen and then answer the following question.At what point does the training of a captive wild elephant begin?Two main techniques have been used for training elephants, which we may call respectively the tough and the gentle.The former method simply consists of setting an elephant to work and beating him until he does what is expected of him.Apart from any moral considerations this is a stupid method of training, for it produces a resentful animal who at a later stage may well turn man-killer.The gentle method requires more patience in the early stages, but produces a cheerful good-tempered elephant who will give many years of loyal service.The first essential in elephant training is to assign to the animal a single mahout who will be entirely responsible for the job.Elephants like to have one master just as dogs do, and are capable of a considerable degree of personal affection.There are even stories of half-trained elephant calveswho have refused to feed and pined to death when by some unavoidable circumstance they have been deprived of their own trainer.
