Mayura is the youngest and most energetic elephant in the ChangChill herd, is often heard trumpeting and roaring with her mother, Mae Gohgae. Born in 1989, close to the Thai-Myanmar border, Mayura worked as a logging elephant in both Thailand and Myanmar for many years.

While she was sometimes sent to work in different regions than her mother, the two were
often able to reunite in their owners’ home town during breaks between logging jobs. Recently, she worked as a taxi elephant in Chiang Mai, carrying tourists on her back alongside her mother, at a camp that gave them very little free time to spend together. Elephants are wild animals that belong in the wild. If a venue allows you to get close enough to ride, bath or touch them, it’s because they’ve been cruelly trained.

In 2017 things started to get better for Mayura and her mother. World Animal Protection
helped transform their camp Happy Elephant Valley into animal-friendly ChangChill (meaning ‘relaxed elephant’ in Thai). No more chains, no more carrying tourists, no more direct interaction with visitors.

ChangChill reopened its doors to the public in 2019 and provides Mayura with the opportunity to really be an elephant again. The transition allows the six resident female elephants the freedom to roam the valley, graze, and bathe in the river, mud and dust, while socialising with each other. It’s the best life they can have, considering they cannot go back to a life in the wild anymore.