It was an apt arena for early tests of manhood. The ranch’s chief cowboy taught me to stay in the saddle on a horse that greeted each day by lowering its head, forelegs splayed, its hindquarters hammering the air, bucking and pivoting for a minute or two before docilely settling into a day’s work.

The elephants, our ranger explained, would come be harnessed to drag the logs and – without needing help from their mahouts – team up with each other to hoist them into color-coded piles to await being trucked to the sawmill!