Sri Prae

Sri Prae was born around 1990 somewhere along the Thai-Burma border. She was rescued by Antoinette Van de Water's non-profit Bring the Elephant Home from illegal logging, forced breeding, and street begging. Sri Prae arrived at Elephant Nature Park on November 4th, 2010 from the Buriram province. She had been staying at Antoinette's Elephant Island project for the past 1.5 years.

There is not much information regarding Sri Prae's early days. She was most likely separated from her mother at a very young age. She could have performed in an elephant show soon after she was "broken" by the Phajaan ritual. Her illegal logging career probably began at the dangerously young age of eleven or twelve. About five years ago, while working illegal logging in the Tak province, Sri Prae's front left foot was injured when she stepped on a landmine. She was in recovery for two years at an elephant hospital in Lampang. Luckily she did not lose the use of her foot and could still walk, though with difficulty. At some point after this she was sold to someone in the northeast of Thailand. There are only two options for the owners of female elephants who have sustained injuries of this kind: street begging and "breeding program." Sri Prae was subjected to a breeding program, where she was forcibly mounted by male elephants on several occasions, against her will. Despite all efforts, she never fell pregnant. She became a street begging elephant, but people complained when they saw her injured front foot. As a result the owner decided to sell her.

Sri Prae is an elephant who is easy to identify because the curve of her spine is quite exaggerated and the domes on her head are rather pointy as well. She has not joined any social groups as of yet but definitely has the desire to do so. With time, hopefully she will find her place in the herd.

Sri Prae Gives Birth to a beautiful male calf