Up to 1,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand could become casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, animal welfare advocates fear.

The giant animals are a popular tourism drawcard in parts of the southeast Asian country.

All elephant camps were ordered to shut in March as the virus swept the world.

Some Thai elephant ride attractions have drawn international controversy as campaigners claim the work is cruel and their conditions are substandard.

But others like Tree Tops Elephant Reserve on the island of Phuket are sanctuaries, and with no tourism they risk running out of money to take care of the gentle giants.

The elephants roam freely at Tree Tops, where visitors are allowed to walk alongside the herds.

Project director Louise Rogerson told Sky News it cost around £600 a month to feed an elephant.

She warned in some of the other camps where elephants were leased out for rides they faced being chained up and missing out on exercise.

Save The Elephant Foundation has told Sky the organisation estimates around 1,000 of the country’s domesticated elephants could be at risk of starving to death during the Covid-19 crisis.

“If there is no support forthcoming to keep them safe, these elephants (some of whom are pregnant), will either starve to death or may be put on to the streets to beg,” founder Lek Chailert said.

Some of them could be sold to zoos, or they could be returned to the now outlawed logging business.

Lek continued: “It’s a very bleak outlook unless some financial help is received immediately.”

The mahouts – Thai for the wokers who ride, train or keep the elephants are also said to be worried about their welfare.

Food for huge beasts is costly, and in some parts drought has dried out their grass.

A mahout named Veerayut, who looks after nine-year-old Buatong, told Sky the keepers at mamy parks were already going unpaid, and they feared the elephants would go hungry as funds dried up with no tourism.

Veerayut said: “That’s what they are most afraid of. Even though the elephant might not belong to the mahout it’s instinct that we have to take care of them because this is what we were born to do.”

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