The men who love and take care of elephants in the Central HighlandsVietNamNet Bridge - The members of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center are all “amateurs” as they were never professionally trained to take care of elephants. None of the workers at the conservation center were trained to take care of elephants, because there is no such school major in Vietnam. The number of elephants in Dak Lak is rapidly decreasing. In Dak Lak, elephants are seen not only as important laborers like any member of the M'nong ethnic minority, but also as a symbol of luxury and power. According to the Elephant Conservation Center, in 1980 Dak Lak had over 1,000 domestic elephants, but the figure dropped to 100 in 2015.