Elephant polo players in action during the King's Cup Elephant Polo event 2016 final between teams King Power (blue) and The Elephant Story, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 13, 2016. Team King Power won the annual charity event, which is now in its 14th edition. This year's edition involved 18 elephants brought from tourist trekking camps in Pattaya as well as some unemployed in Surin, and a total of 10 teams encompassing over 40 players, in this event directed at raising funds to improve the lives of elephants and elephant conservation. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA)

An elephant “kisses” a visitor during a show at an elephant training school in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, April 18, 2015. Some 16 elephants live at the school and give four 30-minute performances everyday for visitors. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

These men are chased by the defiant elephants on May 4, 2013. Taken by Biplab Hazra in Bishnupur, India, the images show the extreme lengths the inhabitants of the town go to to deter elephants from damaging their crops and property. Elephants encroaching out of their habitats is an increasingly common occurrence with deforestation in much of India. (Photo by Biplab Hazra/Caters News Agency)

This photo taken on September 1, 2023 shows a one-day-old female Sumatran elephant by her 41-year-old mother elephant named Lisa at the Elephant Flying Squad camp in the Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan, Sumatra. (Photo by Wahyudi/AFP Photo)

Indonesian mahouts (elephant masters) bathe elephants prior to a daily patrol at a Conservation Respons Unite (CRU) to control elephant-human conflicts in Serbajadi, East Aceh on April 7, 2016. Elephants have joined the front line in the fight against poaching and illegal logging in the dense jungles of Sumatra. Guided by their Indonesian mahouts, they trek alongside rivers, over rough terrain and deep into the rainforest in an area that is home to numerous endangered species, from orangutans to tigers, but which has suffered devastating deforestation in recent years. (Photo by AFP Photo/Januar)

A mahout rides on an elephant in the city of Amritsar, India, 08 November 2015. Such elephants are often accompanied by their caretakers who ask for alms from people in the streets. (Photo by Raminder Pal Singh/EPA)

The group of elephants was tracked though nearby jungle by wildlife officers in Chachoengsao, Thailand on April, 2020. More than 50 wild elephants crossed the highway. (Photo by Pratya Chutipat Sakul/Viral Press)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)