. >> we traveled to the region of chiang mai in northern thailand, home to many of the elephant camps enjoyed by tourists. >> there have been recent sites basesed in africa watching eleephants, ang o other thihing, r r a very, very lonong time,, whereas in asia there's very little research hasas been done. very little has been said about the dramatic drop in population. no one would have any idea that this spececies is also endanger. >> john roroberts runsns an elet camp.p. he was one of thehe firo recognize the link between the supply of elephants for the tourism industry and elephant hunting in the wild. >> we've beenen jumpingng up and down sasaying, if y you buy ann elephant,t, you're probabably tg another elelephant outut of the wild. we realized very early on that buying elephants was causing a problem a and hurting the wildld popatioion or at lelt the bururmese population. >> the hunting of wild elephants is ilillegal in thailand, b but eerts claim the practice is widespread in neighboring burma, and it threatens t the last healalthy populalations of asian elephants that reside