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Well, travel around rural areas of Thailand and you'll never forget the elephants and what they get up to – anything from jungle treks, painting, making music and playing soccer or polo.

The elephant, Thailand's national symbol, has thrived in show business. At a theatrical show called FantaSea on Phuket Island, up to 20 of them perform together, trunk-to-tail, on a strengthened stage.

At a conservation camp in northern Thailand, music-loving jumbos dance and swing their trunks to rock, jazz and folk music, perform on harmonicas and other instruments, and join in four-a-side soccer, tug-of-war, obstacle races and water-spraying games.

They pose with one huge foot poised over the head of their mahout (trainer) on the ground below, accept bananas from spectators and demonstrate how they can work in the now-dwindling timber industry, carrying and stacking tall trees.

The elephants can make up their own music, too. The 14-member Elephant Orchestra formed in 2000 at Lampang Conservation Centre, 100km south of Chiang Mai, has played before the Queen of Thailand and recorded three CDs.

Elephants have also been taught to paint at Lampang since 1998; one collection of their art was auctioned for $A140,000 in New York, while a single canvas painted by a three-year-old calf fetched $A2180 in London.

Money from sales goes towards elephant conservation work in Thailand, which is needed because elephant numbers have fallen from 100,000 a century ago to about 4000 (1500 of them in the wild), attributed mainly to a loss of habitat.

Before the 18th century in what was then Siam, they were the chief machine of war, leading men into battle against the mainly Burmese foe. One 17th century king had 20,000 "war elephants" in training.

All of which brings us to an upcoming battle, the eighth annual King's Cup Elephant Polo Championship, to be held in northern Thailand's Golden Triangle region from March 23-29.

A dozen or more teams are expected to take part in the event under rules established by the Nepal-based World Elephant Polo Association for its members in Nepal, Rajasthan (India), Sri Lanka and Thailand.

It was described by US-Italian writer Antonio Graceffo as "the biggest, weirdest, slowest and most expensive game in Thailand", one of the sports he said was invented by the bored rich to entertain themselves, while fortifying themselves with expensive drinks and talking about fox hunting.