The elephant whisperer: one Thai woman’s lifelong quest to protect a rescued herd

Saengduean Lek Chailert, who founded the Elephant Nature Park as a sanctuary for abused elephants in 2003, singing to the elephants. Her goal is to help them regain their natural social behaviour Photograph: Gianmarco Di Costanzo

Saengduean Lek Chailert was five years old when she saw an elephant for the first time. It was in chains, lumbering past her home in rural Thailand on its way to help loggers pull trees from the forest. Back then, she saw the giant mammals like everyone else – as animals that served humans. But that changed the day she heard a scream from the forest.

Chailert was 16 when she heard the terrible noise. She scrambled through the trees until she found the source: a bull elephant scrabbling in the mud as it tried and failed to drag a log out of a ditch. Every failed attempt was met with punishment from the loggers and mahout, the elephant keeper.