Mae Tee with her old friend in the background

Mae Tee and Mae Kham Paan Retire at Elephant Nature Park.

Thanks to our generous volunteers. It is pretty exciting to think of how spending a week or two volunteering at Elephant Nature Park can change someone's life so much that they leave here thinking that they want to buy an elephant's freedom.

Sadly, Aura's owners could not be persuaded to sell her to the Park, even though she has spent most of her life here. When Lek heard about Mae Tee and Mae Kham Paan, who were working at a new elephant camp just a five-minute walk away from Elephant Nature Park, she contacted Diane and Steve to see if they were interested in rescuing an old lady in need of retirement and they happily obliged, so their funds bought the freedom of Mae Tee. Mae Tee is approximately 65 years old and had only been working at that camp for about three months. She came to Chiang Mai from Krabi where she had worked as a "legal logging" elephant, pulling skids of logs that had once been rubber trees. This job had taken its toll and her wrist and ankle joints were worn completely out. Still she was sold to someone else who would continue to work her.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for her last owners to realize that she shouldn't be carrying tourists and that retirement was the best option for her. She is settling into life at Elephant Nature Park quite comfortably and has found a new friend in Mae Kham Geao.

Now the two older females are virtually inseparable. The stately old Mae Kham Paan, who arrived with Mae Tee Mae Kham Paan may be closer to 75 years old, and had only been at the nearby trekking camp for about a month. Before this, she had been illegal logging in Phrae. Mae Kham Paan befriended Mae Tee. Both of these females had been owned by the same man before they were sold to the camp. Mae Kham Paan was incredibly thin and too old and weak to work. All of her ribs were showing and you could practically count the vertebrae in her tail. The two worn out old females were bought and arrived at Elephant Nature Park together in early June.

At first, they stayed by themselves, but as the days passed, some of our more curious or just plain socially outgoing elephants ventured closer to meet them. Mintra was very interested in Mae Tee and Mae Kham Paan and spent a lot of time with them in the beginning making them feel welcome, and before we knew it, the shy Mae Kham Geao was moving closer to the two ladies and decided that she liked them. Sadly, for whatever reason, Mae Kham Paan didn't feel comfortable with Mae Kham Geao (gentle though she is) and bowed out gracefully to become a loner for the time being. The funds for Mae Kham Paan's rescue came from two individuals; one being a big-hearted softie who wishes to remain nameless and the other is one of our on-site staff with a bit of an elephant addiction. Extra funds to help with her care were donated by two lovely Singapore girls who were volunteers. Despite Mae Kham Paan's emaciated condition, she has full flexibility in all of her joints and amazingly isn't covered with scars. It is suspected that a year or so from now, once she fills out, she may be similar to Mae Bua Kham (who is another one of our oldest elephants, but also one of our most robust), and look quite youthful for her age and have a lot of energy. Once again we would like to give a big thanks to those who helped rescue these two elephants and to all who have helped to buy the freedom for the eles of Elephant Nature Park in the past as well. We couldn't have done it without your help! Because of your belief in Lek's cause, there are elephants living happier, healthier lives here at Elephant Nature Park.

*Records and official documentation of elephants of more than 10 years ago are sketchy at best. The dates we use are our best estimates.