Hundreds of elephant centres in Thailand are facing closure after the coronavirus decimated the country's tourism industry.
The sanctuaries and zoos are popular with holidaymakers but since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, visitors to the country have plunged.
According to official figures, there was a 40 per cent drop in tourists between January 25 and February 29, with March expected to be even worse.
In Chiang Mai, where there are 93 elephant camps of varying size, officials said that 85 of them were facing closure unless the situation improved.
Boontha Chailert, president of the Chiang Mai Tourism Business Association and the Maetaeng Elephant Park, said they had already cut staff and would need to make further savings.
He said the worst case scenario would see the camp close permanently, with the elephants having to be re-homed.
''It's a similar situation across the country,'' he said. ''We cannot survive without tourism and the elephants can't be cared for without that income.''
Footage from Monday (March 9) morning shows the mahouts at the normally busy Maetaeng Elephant Park walking around the empty property.
While a handful of tourists all wearing masks sat on a stand, many fed up staff could only play on their phones to stay entertained.
Their working hours have already been reduced in response to the drop in revenue caused by the contagious outbreak.
Boontha added: "Normally there would be more than a thousand tourists visiting this centre each day, but recently there have only been around 50.
"We need around 500 tourists a day to break even and cover the running costs. It costs about four million THB (97,469 GBP) per month to pay 500 employees and raise100 elephants.
"We have to cut the costs by reducing the mahouts working days down to 15 days but soon we will soon have to cut them to 10 days.
"If nothing improves over the next couple of months we will have to shut down the centre as well. That is the worst case scenario because of the coronavirus.''
In Thailand there have been 53 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one death. Around the world, there have been at least 114,614 cases and 4,030 deaths as of March 10.
The sanctuaries and zoos are popular with holidaymakers but since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, visitors to the country have plunged.
According to official figures, there was a 40 per cent drop in tourists between January 25 and February 29, with March expected to be even worse.
In Chiang Mai, where there are 93 elephant camps of varying size, officials said that 85 of them were facing closure unless the situation improved.
Boontha Chailert, president of the Chiang Mai Tourism Business Association and the Maetaeng Elephant Park, said they had already cut staff and would need to make further savings.
He said the worst case scenario would see the camp close permanently, with the elephants having to be re-homed.
''It's a similar situation across the country,'' he said. ''We cannot survive without tourism and the elephants can't be cared for without that income.''
Footage from Monday (March 9) morning shows the mahouts at the normally busy Maetaeng Elephant Park walking around the empty property.
While a handful of tourists all wearing masks sat on a stand, many fed up staff could only play on their phones to stay entertained.
Their working hours have already been reduced in response to the drop in revenue caused by the contagious outbreak.
Boontha added: "Normally there would be more than a thousand tourists visiting this centre each day, but recently there have only been around 50.
"We need around 500 tourists a day to break even and cover the running costs. It costs about four million THB (97,469 GBP) per month to pay 500 employees and raise100 elephants.
"We have to cut the costs by reducing the mahouts working days down to 15 days but soon we will soon have to cut them to 10 days.
"If nothing improves over the next couple of months we will have to shut down the centre as well. That is the worst case scenario because of the coronavirus.''
In Thailand there have been 53 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one death. Around the world, there have been at least 114,614 cases and 4,030 deaths as of March 10.
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