When he brings music to elephants, he brings them peace.
Paul Barton, a self-taught pianist and classically trained artist, plays piano for elephants at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, according to Mother Nature Network (mnn.com), He moved to Thailand to teach piano at a private school for three months. During that time, he met Khwan, a wildlife artist and animal lover. They married and have lived in Thailand for 22 years, mnn.com said. For many years, Barton has volunteered at the sanctuary that houses sick, abused, retired and rescued elephants.
According to mnn.com, Barton wanted to do more than just visit the animals. He wondered if “these old, rescued elephants might like to listen to some calm, slow classical piano music,” he told the website. The sanctuary agreed, allowing him to bring his piano and play for the elephants.
Elephants have had unique reactions to Barton’s music. When Plara, an old, blind male elephant, heard Barton play the piano she was mesmerized. Barton told mnn.com that when Plara “heard the music for the first time, he suddenly stopped eating with the grass protruding from his mouth and stayed motionless all through the music.”
At that time, he told the website, there were not many visitors so he could spend “a lot of time each day alone with Plara and other elephants.” He said Plara enjoyed slow classical music. “Plara really liked slow classical music, and each time I played piano or flute he curled his trunk and held the tip trembling in his mouth until the music was over,” he told mnn.com.
Is playing music for elephants safe?
The elephants’ keepers, called mahouts, worried about Barton playing for the elephants because of the “inherent dangers being around such massive creatures, especially the large males,” the story said, but Barton said “these are the animals that seem to love the music the most.”
According to mnn.com, the bull elephants are the ones who can kill people at any moment. However, Barton told the website that ‘it’s been these dangerous and potentially aggressive bull elephants that are always kept well away from people that have reacted the most to expressive, slow classical music.” He said, “There is something about the music in the moment that makes them feel calm.“
For people who want to meet an elephant, Barton advises that they give the elephant a banana the first time they meet. He told mnn.com that elephants “memorize your scent and will think of you as a friend next time you’re together.”
In addition, he noted, people have told him elephants can smell fear. Once when he was playing music for a bull elephant named Chaichana, the elephant “outstretched his trunk toward me over the piano top and sniffed around my head as I was playing to him.” He told mnn. com that because he always feels calm and happy when he plays music for elephants that “perhaps Chaichana could smell and recognize the scent of someone that liked him very much indeed.”
Click to watch a mother and her baby sway and enjoy Barton play the piano for them, bringing them music and peace.
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