Happy New Year (Thai).

I would to start this newsletter by wishing you all a happy and successful Thai new year from all at Elephant Nature Park. We hope that your plans for the forthcoming 12 months can include a visit to see our herd.

Boon Khum (BK)

Elephant Nature Park over the past few weeks has seen an intensely emotional mix of blessing and tragedy, heartbreak and hope. We have lost beloved members of our herd: mighty Boon Khum and noble Max have passed away, and Mae Boon, Aura, and Mae Elu have been taken back by their owners. Yet amongst our tears there has been a sprinkling of joy as well: new eles have arrived to begin new lives at the Park, and new steps are made towards bettering the lives of all elephants in Thailand. We are shocked and saddened by the passing of Max and BK, and we know how dearly loved these fallen giants were by so many of you. We are heartbroken, too, to think of the life that may now lay before young Aura and her family.

In the early hours of a quiet Friday morning, just before Max left us, a new life came into the Park: Mae Bua Tong, Tong Jan's mother, had a little girl named Faa Mai. Perhaps Max didn't want us to be too sad, so he asked Mae Bua Tong if her little one could arrive as he was leaving.

Aura and Mother leave the park

The 5th of March was a painful day for all at the park. It was a day that all of us knew was eminent, but hoped would never come. Our beloved long-term leased mother and daughter, Mae Boon and Aura, were finally taken back by their owners after 3 years of freedom and fun at Elephant Nature Park. It was incredibly sad to see them being forced onto the truck. Neither of them wanted to cooperate in the least. Mae Boon knew exactly what was going on and where she was headed when they got out the heavy chains and draped them over her neck. Aura was visibly affected by her mother's stress. There was no way to comfort them as you couldn't tell Aura that life was going to get better, as it was only going to get a lot worse.

Over the past three years, on many occasions, we tried to negotiate with the owners to sell the pair, but they were not interested in selling. Mae Boon and Aura's lease time was extended when more than a year ago, the Park started paying a monthly lease wage for Aura as well. We had bought them as much time as we possibly could, postponing the inevitable. Mae Boon and Aura were the favorites of many humans and elephants alike. They both had very friendly, outgoing personalities and could get along with anyone. Aura was accepted by every family group and it is well known that when Pupia and Mae Toh Koh were here, Aura was often seen suckling from Mae Toh Koh's breast. Mae Boon loved her daughter, but was a very "modern day" mother and was happy for others to care for Aura so she could enjoy her free time eating and socializing (her two favorite activities).

The after-effects of their leaving will be felt for some time to come, especially by longtime best friend of Mae Boon and permanent resident, Mae Dta Keow. Dok Ngern was also affected by Mae Boon and Aura's departure, as she had become big sister auntie to Aura on a more permanent basis after Mae Toh Koh and Pupia had left. The four females enjoyed trips to Elephant Haven together, which now Mae Dta Keow and Dok Ngern make as a pair. Dok Ngern is adjusting to the loss better than Mae Dta Keow, who spends most of her time alone these days. Dok Ngern has teamed up with Malai Tong and Mintra, and the three make quite a trio. Hopefully Mae Dta Keow can team up with someone in the future as well, but it takes her a while to find her comfort zone with other elephants. Our hope was that even though we couldn't prevent Aura's owners from putting her through the phajaan, that all of the positive reinforcement training that she received at Elephant Nature Park would make her time in the crush less painful and lengthy.

We have just received an update from Aura's owners who said that Aura was incredibly easy. They "couldn't believe it," being led with food, she walked right in to the crush cooperatively. She performed every command that was asked of her and only had to stay in the crush for three days. According to her owner, she didn't receive one scratch. The people in this village have performed many breaking ceremonies in the past and seemed to be very impressed with how smoothly the process went with Aura. They could not deny that all of the positive reinforcement training that she received at Elephant Nature Park made the ceremony a much less traumatizing and cruel experience. At this time the people in this village feel that due to the success of Aura's training, they would like to send more young elephants like Aura to stay at Elephant Nature Park for positive reinforcement training in the future. We at Elephant Nature Park hope that this is just the beginning of slowly phasing out this 6,000-year-old tradition of forcibly breaking the elephant's spirit. Overall March has been a month of many losses for Elephant Nature Park, as another long-term leased elephant returned to the real world as well. Mae Elu had been staying at Elephant Nature Park for over three and a half years.

She originally came to stay at the Park after her last three pregnancies ended in miscarriage due to overwork in the trekking industry. Her owner wanted her to rest and get healthy and ended up liking the way the elephants lived and were cared for at the Park, so Mae Elu was able to stay for a long time. During her time here at Elephant Nature Park, Mae Elu became an auntie to Tong Jan and was a member of her family group until she left at the beginning of March. She was also a part-time friend to Kham Sai, and would make trips to Elephant Haven with her. Mae Elu and Kham Sai had worked together before arriving at Elephant Nature Park. Before Tong Jan and her mother came to live at the Park, Mae Elu spent her time with Kham Sai. Sadly for Kham Sai, when Tong Jan arrived, Mae Elu only wanted to stay with the Tong Jan family, and Kham Sai was left with no companion.

We were sad to see Mae Elu have to return to a life of work, but as nice as she was with her family group, Mae Elu on occasion could be aggressive with some of our older and handicapped elephants, and we had to keep their safety and best interests in mind. Mae Elu was able to gain weight and become healthy while staying at Elephant Nature Park and she was able to enjoy being in a family group and roaming freely all day long. We hope that her mahout owner learned something during her stay with us and that it will have a positive effect on how he cares for his elephants in the future. Yet another mother and baby who had come to stay at Elephant Nature Park for maternity leave, left after ten months of rest and relaxation. Mae Boonchu arrived last May 1st, with Tong Kham still riding along in her swollen belly and gave birth to him at our Park on May 24th. The pair enjoyed their time here and attracted a number of attentive aunties during their stay, the last two being Mae Geao and Mae Jarunee. Mae Jarunee has had a very hard time accepting the loss of Mae Boonchu and Tong Kham, and still hasn't really gotten over it.

We were hoping that they would have stayed here longer, but their owner was more interested in getting Mae Boonchu back to work. It is always sad to see a leased elephant have to return to a life of work and exploitation, but with some owners, buying isn't an option. At least these elephants get a bit of time in their long lives to enjoy roaming free of chains or a trekking seat, and get to experience a period of time in a family/social group similar to those lucky enough to live safely in the wild.

Ele Friends - Getting into the herd

The young and lovely Tong Jan just celebrated her fourth birthday on February 14th. Her life has settled into a pleasant routine, and she has become really attached to her adopted big sister, Faa Sai. Both Tong Jan and Faa Sai have been straying from mom and aunties on a regular basis to spend time with little Tong Tae. They seem to find him irresistible (as does almost every other ele and human in the Park!) and love to sniff him, touch him, and play gently with him.

For Tong Jan, this is good practice for a possible role as big sister in the future. Tong Jan's family seem to be doing fine despite the return of auntie Mae Elu to the working world. Mae Elu is actually not very far away, just a five minute walk down the road. Occasionally you can hear elephants bellowing from this camp and some of our elephants responding late at night. It might be Mae Elu calling to the Tong Jan family, and them responding to her calls.

Playing in the mud pit after noontime bathing has become popular once again. Tong Jan and Faa Sai have loads of fun with Tong Daeng and even little Tong Tae, who is now feeling confident enough to join in on the mud pit action. Out of the mud pit, Tong Daeng likes to spend most of his time with Tong Jan's family, wrestling with Faa Sai and Tong Jan. Tong Daeng seems to be infatuated with Faa Sai.

The two are a good match and both have such troubled, exploitive pasts, they seem to understand each other well

Tong Daeng is feeling so confident these days that he is initiating shoving and wrestling matches with Tong Suk, who enjoys a good wrestling match whenever he can get one. Jungle Boy (Tong Suk) who is now 7½ years old and going through an amazing growth spurt, is spending less time with his aunties Mae Keow and Lilly (who are spending most of their time with Khum Min (Kham Meun) who is in musth at this time). Lilly no longer makes the weekly trips to Elephant Haven with Tong Suk and Mae Keow, as she walks very slowly due to being excessively overworked in the past.

Now Mae Bua Kham, who is supposedly the oldest elephant in the Park, has became so healthy and robust, that she has started making the weekly trip to Elephant Haven. The hope was that she would be company for Mae Kham Sai, but so far the two elephants have not seemed to connect. In the meantime, Mae Bua Kham is really enjoying the change in scenery and greenery that comes with Haven trips.

Mae Vi Lai, an older elephant who was brought here on a temporary basis to treat an abscess on her foot and to let her rest, was taken back to work by her owner on February 16th. The abscess was not yet healed, but the owner decided he wanted to take her back. Apparently, her mahout disagreed and felt that she should not return to work as of yet, and threatened to quit if she was put back to work. We do not know if Mae Vi Lai was indeed put back to work or not, but her mahout's reaction was a good example of a mahout thinking in the best interests of the elephant. Mae Vi Lai did enjoy her time at Elephant Nature Park, and the company of Mae Boon, Aura and Dok Ngern. (Mae Dta Keow was too shy to really get to know her.)

Khum Min (Kham Meun) is now in musth and on most days is enjoying the constant company of female admirers Mae Keow and Lilly. Sometimes Jungle Boy, their adopted nephew is visiting as well. The first signs of heavy temporin were noticed on March 14th, so this was considered the official start of his annual musth. About three weeks earlier he was showing signs of coming in to musth and was chained at that time as a precaution.

Kham Meun and his mahout, Supon have a really good relationship based on mutual trust and respect. Usually even the mahout who cares for a male elephant cannot safely approach the bull while he is in musth, but while feeding Kham Meun (who was streaming temporin) Supon was able to stand just a few feet away, still within his elephant's reach and Kham Meun seemed to not be bothered in the least by his mahouts presence. This is not normal behavior for a bull in musth and may have something to do with the relationship that has developed between the two.

Hope, the clown prince, is in the process of accepting a new mahout, Tae Reh, who has been a mahout at Elephant Nature Park for more than two years now. Most recently, Tae Reh was the mahout of Boon Khum. This has seemed to work in Tae Reh's favor as Hope is accepting him as an authority figure more easily than some others who have tried to work with Hope in the past. As we have mentioned before, it is important that Hope has new mahouts working with him on a semi-regular basis, so he doesn't get so comfortable with one person, that he decides he won't listen to anyone else. Hope is now approximately 8½ years old and March was his anniversary month of arriving to stay at Elephant Nature Park. It has been a joy to have Hope in our lives for the past seven years and to watch him grow up without any torture training, never losing that glint of mischief in his eye.

Home > News

Newsletters Past, Present, and Future

Readers and lovers of our Park eles, rest assured if we don't mention an elephant in every newsletter it doesn’t mean that something unforeseen has happened to that elephant. Some periods of time are not as newsworthy as others for all of our elephants. But this just leaves readers with more to look forward to in the next newsletter.

Park Improvements

Our new observation deck is being enjoyed by our volunteers, visitors and staff alike, there is always a beautiful breeze and the view is fabulous. In the future, we will have conference room facilities as well for any nature or conservation groups. Please contact us if you are interested

Mintra Fits Right in and Malai Tong Becomes Her 'Big Sister Auntie'

On February 27th Elephant Nature Park welcomed a new arrival. Her name is Mintra and she is somewhere between 10 to 14 years old. She has a handicap similar to Medo's with the same sloping back and similar limping walk. At some point in the past, her hips have been damaged in some way, though we are not sure exactly how. We know that when Mintra was approximately 4 years old, she was hit by a car while street begging, and think it is possible that she could have gotten an initial injury when she was a baby, following along behind her mother who probably was an illegal logging elephant in Mae Hong Son, where Mintra originated from.

Mintra's last job, and what she has done for most of her life, was street begging. She was working at the Siam Square super shopping plaza in Bangkok. Lek found out about her from many letters, phone calls and emails from visitors and volunteers on their way to and from Elephant Nature Park, passing through Bangkok who would see her begging in this busy area. All who saw her felt so sad for this young, handicapped elephant forced to spend her days breathing the smog and exhaust fumes and exposed to all of the noise and chaos that a big city has to offer. Sadly, her owner didn't have any other choice, as there was no other way to earn a living with an elephant in her condition.

When Lek contacted the owner to see if he was interested in selling her, he told Lek that he was, but he also had another interested buyer. In the end the owner chose to sell to Lek as he liked the idea of Mintra getting to spend the rest of her life in a sanctuary, where she could roam freely and socialize. And socialize she is doing! She immediately fell right in with the Mae Tong Dee/Tong Tae family group and Malai Tong really fell in love with her and declared herself "big sister auntie." We later found out the reason Mintra and Malai Tong got on so well is that when Malai Tong was street begging in Bangkok, she was in an area close to where Mintra was working. The two girls had met and become friends during this time. Possibly when they weren't working they may have shared the same vacant lot or underpass. What a lovely reunion for them here at Elephant Nature Park.

Malai Tong are spending less time with the rest of the family group, though they get along with them well. Dok Ngern also really enjoys their company and when the three of them get together, there is a lot of trumpeting and bellowing. Tong Daeng really likes Mintra and tries to engage her in wrestling sessions. Sometimes she humors him and pushes back for a bit. Mintra gets a positive reaction from everyone that she encounters socially from Tong Jan and Faa Sai to Mae Lanna and Medo, whom she shares a shelter with at lunchtime. She is irresistibly cute, full of personality and isn't afraid to express herself. It is so hard to imagine her having to spend her days pounding the pavements with no friends to socialize with, but now, she is making up for lost time.

Special thanks to Darrick Thomson, Mintra is a permanent resident of Elephant Nature Park and she never has to worry about having to return to a life of exploitation. For the rest of her days she can enjoy freedom, family, food and fun with her many new (and old!) ele-friends.

Surin Team - Educational Trip to Park

The first week of April, Elephant Nature Park hosted a team of people from Surin who work in elephant-related tourism. The Surin province has the biggest elephant population in Thailand, but not many tourists visit this area. Elephant Nature Park is trying to help change this by teaming up with the government and the people in Surin to create something similar to our sanctuary in the Mae Taeng valley. The government has donated 3,500 acres and the idea is to create a homestay. The project will also include a volunteer program and an education program for day visitors similar to Elephant Nature Park. The idea is to "Bring the elephant back home" to Surin, as most of Surin's elephants are on the streets of Bangkok as this is the only way their owners can earn a living with them at this time.

Gidtipon, the director of the Elephant Institute of Surin stayed at Elephant Nature Park for one week, along with six mahouts, an elephant trainer, a local guide, a housekeeper and kitchen staff. They followed along with our staff to learn how the Park ran on a day-to-day basis. The visiting mahouts spent some of their time following our mahouts and also helped our volunteers with their daily chores. The week progressed well, with a great show of teamwork and a feeling of camaraderie between the staff of Elephant Nature Park and the visitors from Surin. Stay tuned for more details as this project moves forward.

Pumpkin Seed Project

A great example of one of the many ways that we try to involve the residents of Muang Gudt, the neighboring village across the river from Elephant Nature Park, is our new pumpkin seed project. Our elephants love to eat pumpkin, which we buy from local growers whenever possible. Over the past few months, one of our volunteer's jobs has been to de-seed the pumpkins before we feed them to the elephants. Everyone clusters around a large table in the elephant kitchen and the process begins. First the seeds are scooped out, then they are separated from the pulp, then they are laid out on flat rattan baskets in the sun to dry. After this, the seeds are given to the farmers from Muang Gudt to plant (growing them with no pesticides of course) and once they are ready to harvest, the farmers will sell the pumpkins to Elephant Nature Park for a fair price, with everyone benefiting from this process.

Picture of Faa Sai

Whispering Seed Childrens Project visit

Two years ago, Melanie and Remi, a French Canadian couple who have devoted their lives to teaching and counseling children came to Thailand and wanted to see elephants. They visited the Thai Elephant Conservation Center and felt that it was ok, but something was missing. It wasn't exactly what they were looking for. Upon returning to Canada, they happened upon a Reader's Digest article about Elephant Nature Park and thought "This is it!" They did more research, found our website and thought Elephant Nature Park might be an ideal place to bring a group of kids from Whispering Seed.

Whispering Seed Children's Home is a community living and learning center and is in Sangklaburi Thailand, near Three Pagodas Pass. It is co-founded by Nao, a woman from Bangkok and Jim, a man from USA. Jim has always wanted to take care of kids. He ended up in Thailand by accident, met Nao and four years ago they were able to buy twelve acres of land from money raised by the Rainbow Caravan. Melanie and Remi had visited Whispering Seed a few times in the past two years. Back in Canada, they did fundraising with Earth Auction so they could raise the money to sponsor the kids' volunteer visit to Elephant Nature Park. The children come from Burma, some have been with them for four years, some children have arrived just recently. Their ages range from 1 ½ years old to 17 years old. All of the children come from brothels in Three Pagodas Pass and have had horrible abusive pasts. Most of them had mothers who worked in the sex trade, some mothers have died from AIDS, some mothers have given their children up, feeling that they can't care for them properly. The Whispering Seed Project focuses on love, health, play, education and positive family environment. The children of Whispering Seed

During their week at Elephant Nature Park, the children had a wonderful time and won the hearts of all of our staff. Most of the kids could speak Thai, English and Burmese. Our mahouts really enjoyed being able to communicate with them. These children were intelligent and very hard workers. They loved the elephants and were very eager to learn all of their stories.

They participated in all of the regular volunteer jobs and didn't have any problem with cleaning out the elephant shelters or cleaning the cow and water buffalo poo. We were sad to see them go, but hope they will come back to stay with us again in the future. They took a little bit of Elephant Nature Park back with them to Sanklaburi in the form of a four-legged creature (no, not an elephant!) who followed them around the whole time that they were here. Frankie, one of our younger dogs befriended the group and since they didn't yet have a dog at Whispering Seed, Jim said that it was ok if Frankie went along with them. Frankie is doing well and is being spoiled with belly rubs from lots of loving hands.