Thailand’s talented elephants are about to add toilet-training to their repertoire of skills, which already includes painting, dancing and playing musical instruments. The elephant handlers, or mahouts, at a private enclosure near Chiang Mai, are determined to teach their charges how to use specially-designed giant-sized toilets, according to The Nation newspaper. Several large concrete loos have been installed, equipped with a rope-flush that can be pulled with the gentle tug of a trunk.

An eager five year old elephant named Diew has been put on toilet duty, trialling the new sanitation system and its jumbo-sized plumbing.

The operators of the facility at Mae Taman, 50 kilometres north of Chiang Mai, are hoping that the toilets will keep the tourist attraction clear of huge and unsightly elephant droppings. With fully-grown Asian elephants able to consume over 100 kilograms of forage in a day, even a small group of the animals can produce massive amounts of poo.

Mae Taman and Chiang Mai are among Thailand’s most popular destinations, drawing international visitors who are fascinated by the country’s clever pachyderms.

Thailand’s Asian elephants are an endangered species, with an estimated population of 3,000 to 4,000 animals. A century ago, around 100,000 elephants roamed the jungles of Siam, as Thailand was formerly known.

The elephants kept at Mae Taman have been rescued from Bangkok’s streets, where they were put to work by their owners to collect money from tourists.