This video features the remarkable 65-year old Rajan, the world’s last ocean swimming elephant who lives on a beautiful archipelago in the Bay of Bengal.
Rajan, who weighs around four tons, once worked hard carrying lumber between islands but is now retired—although he still takes the occasional swim for fun.
It takes ten years to train a working, swimming elephant and it is no longer considered economically viable with the availability of modern transportation. However elephants are still valued workers and this was reflected in the $40,000 price that Rajan’s keepers paid for him.
They repaid this money through a variety of means including hiring him out on photo shoots to photographers.
