Captive wild animal encounters are hugely popular, thanks partly to social media.
But our investigation shows many creatures lead dismal lives.
- By Natasha Daly
- National Geographic
- Photographs by Kirsten Luce
I’VE COME BACK to check on a baby.
Just after dusk I’m in a car lumbering down a muddy road in the rain, past rows of shackled elephants, their trunks swaying.
I was here five hours before, when the sun was high and hot and tourists were on elephants’ backs.
Walking now, I can barely see the path in the glow of my phone’s flashlight.
When the wooden fence post of the…