Chaichana the Bull Elephant Moves to Beethoven's Piano Music

Chaichana often moves to the rhythm in this particular piece — only, as it becomes progressively rhythmical, almost as if he was dancing.

Chaichana is a former logging elephant. His life was spent hauling cut trees through the Thai forests with a harness of chains around his body. In his new home at Elephants World Chaichana discovered freedom in the mountains by the River Kwai for the first time.

In this video, it’s the end of the day. We moved the piano away from the river to the dirt road to be collected with our pickup truck to take home. Chaichana wandered up to the piano so I thought I’d play him the Beethoven one more time before we set off home.

Music: Beethoven “Pathetique Sonata” - 2nd movement.