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It's June and it is hot here at Elephant Nature Park. The
elephants are making their way to the river for a drink and a
cool splash even when it isn't scheduled bathing time.
Volunteers and overnight visitors are spending part of the hot
afternoons floating down the river to beat the heat. The land is
dry and parched and the grass crunches under our feet as we
walk. All who live here (elephants, dogs, cows, water buffalo,
cats, pigs, horses, as well as the human residents) are waiting
with great anticipation for the first downpours of the rainy
season to fall upon us and bring the parched earth and shallow
river back to life. What kind of ele-stories are you looking
for?
The past 12 months were full of emotional ups and downs,
elephants leaving, elephants passing on to their next lives, and
elephants beginning a new life here at Elephant Nature Park.
Some, like Rara and Jaem Jan (Ratree) arrived late last year and
left us much too soon, before they could even settle in and
begin to thrive. But the fact that we were blessed with the
first two babies ever born from Park females was something to
give us happiness and hope for a bright future. Hope and Tong Suk, our young bulls, are coming of age and soon they will be
fathering babies themselves. Faa Mai and Chang Yim love playing
together after bathing time.
There is a new project on the horizon (see below), and you
will be happy to hear that some of our old friends will be
participating. The future is looking brighter for a few
elephants and the people who care for them in a small Karen
hilltribe village in Mae Chaem district thanks to Lek and
Elephant Nature Park. Once again, a big thanks goes out to Bert
Von Roemer of Serengeti Foundation, as without his generous
donation of the funds to purchase this land, we would not be
here today. A lot has changed in seven years: we have grown from
one small hut in the middle of the Park, to almost mini-village
proportions with ample guest accomodations, a full time staff of
massage ladies, a proper conference room for talks and viewing
documentaries, and only this year a new beautiful custom
kitchen. Where will we grow from here? Only time will tell...
Elephant Nature park announces our new
project to release elephants from trekking camps and bring they back home.
Since many year I have work with the Karen Tribe ( the only hill
tribe who own elephants and have looked after them for
hundreds of years. After the government ban logging , to take their
elephant to work at the tourist business it seem to be the only
chance to make money and let them to have the culture to taking
care the elephant. Since 1989 Most ex-logging elephant move to
work with the tourist camp. Many Karen owner or some of them in
the family come to stay and look after the elephant while they
work , but many year pass , many Karen learn that when they have
to take the elephant to work far away from home , then they have
separate from their family . Many of Karen decided to leave the
elephant at the tourist camp and lease them to the camp owner
and the camp will be the one who find the mahout to taking care
for the elephant.
When the elephant not get look after by the real owner then they
get treat less care. Some young mahout from Burma just work for
money they have not relate with elephant and they just work for
money. The problem about the elephant sick and died for the last
few year happened too often , many elephant get abused by mahout
( not the owner ) Many mahout came to the park to ask us to help
to solution for the problem , but we can't do any thing much
because of some time they have to deal with the law case . After
I get to know several time of the problem I start to do the
research and find out of all the root of the problem . It quite
concern when I have found some of the Karen family who have the
elephant from generation to generation , but this day many of
them no more have the elephant. One family I has interview and
find out that in 3 generation they have lost nearly 20 elephant
.
Some grandfather who have so many elephant still alive , but
their elephant are disappear.
I ask the young generation ,many of them lost the proud to have
the elephant . Many old people are concern that one day the
culture life between Karen and elephant will totally gone , so I
decided to talk to the Karen family if they want to bring the
elephant to stay home. Many of them are so excited and want to
bring the elephant to go back to stay with them then they don't
have to worry about their elephant any more.
The project will help to bring the old elephant , pregnancy
elephant , mother and baby elephant back to stay in the village
and release they 24 hours free. ENP will bring the volunteer to
work at the village , plant the food for the elephant , plant
the tree , work together to help the local community.
We already built the facilities for the home stay and the
money of the volunteer project will proceed toward to develop
the elephant life and Karen family including school and helping
the Karen woman to increase their income and activity.
Our first group of the elephant will start to walk back to home
on 08 June 2010 . it will be mother and baby elephant , one old
female elephant and one pregnancy .
The journey will take 7 days to reach home and we will have the
group of volunteer , film crew and mahout will join with trip .
The elephant will walk and eat all the way , we already make the
rout map and it will walk pass 6 district of Chiang Mai , and
many hill tribe village.
I will update you after our 7 days trek with the elephant . If
you have any question with this trip feel free to write me back
Best
Lek
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Thanks to funds donated by Bert Von Roemer of
The Serengeti
Foundation, located in the US, and steel materials
donated by
Thai
Koon Steel, from Bangkok, the first of our permanent
elephant shelters are well underway and nearing
completion. |
Each elephant will be in their own personal paddock, chain
free. Each shelter will be equipped with closed-circuit TV
cameras. The floor will have a rubber coating to minimize foot
discomfort, there will be constant access to fresh running water
and food will be placed in a ventilated bin, not on the floor.
The first shelter will house six elephants and the plan is that
Mae Geao, Mae Jarunee, Mae Kham Paan, Mae Tee, and Mae Kham Geao
will be among the first occupants. The next shelter that will be
built is the first of the musth bull shelters that will
accommodate Hope and or Jungle Boy.
Elephant Nature Park would like to send a huge thank you to Bert
Von Roemer and Thai Koon Steel for making this dream become a
reality for the rescued elephants at Elephant Nature Park
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Though bamboo has a more tropical Thai look, it is
depleting the forests. (Remember: bamboo is elephant
food in the wild) And huts built with the bamboo and
coconut wood usually only have a three to five year life
span. But a mud brick hut is very solid, sturdy, and
economical to build. A new mud brick hut at the Park The
bricks are actually made on site. Part of their
composition is rice hulls. The brick walls are covered
with a sand based plaster which acts as a sealer. The
walls absorb and deflect heat so it is cooler when the
weather is hot and warmer when it is cold. The roof has
sky lights to allow more light into the hut. On the top
floor there are two bedrooms with bathrooms attached and
a central sitting room which is outfitted with beautiful
teak furniture made by jail inmates from trees recovered
from illegal logging and the walls are graced with
amazing photos of Park elephants by Lek. On the ground
floor are two bedrooms also with bathrooms attached. As
time progresses and the need to replace visitor and
volunteer accomodations arises, more mud brick houses
will be sprouting up at the Park. |
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Medo and Mae Lanna have settled back into their old
routine since Tong Daeng's departure. Mae Lanna is
slowly but surely getting a bit more comfortable with
other elephants being close by. On many mornings the Faa
Mai/Chang Yim family spend some time in an area very
near Medo and Mae Lanna and often Faa Mai comes to visit
them. Interestingly enough, there are many occasions
where Mae Keow and Lily are sharing the same shade under
the two giant trees back behind the medical center. This
is Medo and Mae Lanna's favorite spot to eat their
lunch.
Mae Lanna can also be a bit skittish about other
animals besides elephants, like dogs, water buffalo, and
cows. |
At this time she is going through a desensitization period as
both Medo and Mae Lanna's mahouts are very dog friendly, so much
so that dogs flock to them during the girl's feeding times to be
given a banana or two, pre-peeled for their eating pleasure.
With dogs hanging out nearby on a regular basis, Mae Lanna is
starting to not get as stressed out by the dog's presence as she
used to, which is a good thing for her.
Mae Jan Peng, who arrived January 8th, is doing great. She
has gained lots of weight and her ribs are no longer visible as
a nice layer of fat now protects them. She still enjoys the
safety of the medical center, but spends less time in there as
she has to learn to feel confident roaming around with the other
elephants. She is comfortable with most of the elephants who
like to hang out around the medical center, especially Mae Tee
and Mae Kham Geao, but she is quite wary of Tong Suk (Jungle
Boy).
Mae Jan Peng, who is now fat and happy, is getting a good
scratch on After Ratree's (Jaem Jan) passing, Mae Kham Geao and
Mae Tee moved to the medical center as both girls had developed
minor toenail infections. Keeping them in the medical center
assured that their feet could stay clean and dry for the
duration of their treatment period. At this time, Mae Kham
Geao's infection has completely healed and Mae Tee is well on
the way to recovery as well. The best friends now spend their
mornings outside of the medical center hanging out by a favorite
tree eating cornstalks. Around feeding time they make their way
back to the medical center to eat their lunch at which time Mae
Tee has her foot treated.
Mae Geao and Mae Jarunee both continue to enjoy roaming
around the Park confidently. Mae Jarunee mostly keeps to herself
but Mae Geao is getting quite socially confident. On any given
day she can be seen in the vicinity of Mae Bua Kham, Mae Kham
Paan, Mae Boon Ma, and Mae Bua Loy (whom she really seems to
like), and sometimes Mae Tee and Mae Kham Geao and even Tong
Suk on the rare occasion! Both ladies have been enjoying
extended relaxing baths in the river and Mae Geao enjoys hanging
out at the feeding platform as well.
Both Tong Suk (Jungle Boy) and Hope are experiencing moments
of "early onset puberty" which they act upon from time to time
as well. Their most ardent admirers are still Mintra (much to
Mae Jampaa and Mae Dta Keow's distress) and Faa Sai whom
encourage interaction with the young males whenever they get a
chance. Mae Perm and Mae Jokia are starting to find Hope and his
emerging dominant behavior more than they can handle and are
spending less and less time with him as of late. Mae Keow, who
has been a long time adversary of Hope, (kind of in a love/hate
relationship with him) had still been trying to instigate
trouble with Hope on a regular basis. Hope finally had enough
one day and really let Mae Keow have it, much to her distress.
Mae Keow finally learned her lesson and it seems that her days
of bullying Hope (who has become too big to bully now) are over.
Jungle Boy has earned a new nickname these days, "Jungle
Raja." Rumour has it that there are people in Sri Lanka who
think that our Tong Suk with his magnificent growing tusks,
beautiful tail hair, and handsome confirmation would make the
perfect next "Raja" and that we should sell him to them so that
Tong Suk can take on this admirable role. (Don't worry, we
wouldn't even consider this, but it is a great story....) "Raja"
must be a magnificent tusker (of which Sri Lanka has almost
none) who leads the Peri Hara festival that happens in Kandy
each year and has the honor of carrying a tooth of the Buddha in
an elaborately decorated howdah upon his back. "Raja" is also
adorned in heavy brocade and gold fabric festooned with electric
lights that cover most of his head and body (and must be very
hot and uncomfortable). Though considered of great esteem for an
elephant to carry a relic of the Buddha, we cannot imagine
unbroken Tong Suk ever in a million years allowing himself to be
dressed in such a costume and paraded through a chaotic city
festival, he would most surely run rampant! We at Elephant
Nature Park are honored that people of Sri Lanka think that our
"Jungle Raja" is so handsome and perfect in his looks, but he is
an elephant who has not had his spirit broken and will grow up
to be king of the jungle, roaming freely and enjoying his life
mostly on his terms, not being paraded in royal splendor.
Malai Tong, who is supposedly pregnant and could give birth
at any time, is not showing any signs of popping the little one
out. In the meantime, she is enjoying her role as auntie to both
Chang Yim and Faa Mai and has her trunk full looking after them
and loving every minute of it. Malai Tong shares this job with
Mae Sri Nuan, who was able to move in to the Faa Mai/Chang Yim
family after Chang Yim accepted her as an auntie. She has
settled in to her role quite comfortably despite the fact that
Mae Thai and Mae Bua Tong do not always approve of her presence.
Lately, they have been acting out a bit, trying to shove Sri
Nuan away (of course Sri Nuan hardly budges, she is so big). The
two females are just reminding Mae Sri Nuan that they
didn't accept her into the group, it was only Chang Yim...but
what a baby wants, a baby gets.
Faa Sai, besides being boy crazy, has been very social lately
and is a very happy and well-adjusted young lady. She is often
seen well away from her family group, spending time with the
other pachyderm residents both young and old. On hot days she
will go to the river early and bathe with the other eles and
then back in the river once again when her family arrives. Faa
Sai loves looking after the little ones and also still has the
occasional urge to be a "little one" once again herself! She
loves to snuggle in close and be lulled to sleep by the lullabys
that Lek sings for Faa Mai and Chang Yim.
Faa Mai is becoming more of a little lady each day and Chang
Yim more of a terrorizing little boy. She is very calm and
gentle and he can't stop trying to challenge the mahouts,
throwing his cute little head around or trying to climb up on
Faa Mai, who loves to play with him. On some days when they
return to the shelter in the afternoon, Chang Yim gives in to
the beautiful lullaby Lek sings and submits to a nap. Once he
has fully drifted off someone sneaks in to sit with him, giving
him lots of loving, gentle, massage like touch, hoping to send
him calming vibes and energy. When it looks like he is ready to
wake back up, the person must scramble out of Chang Yim's
shelter quickly as he is alert and ready to rumble almost
immediately after he wakes. Faa Mai, on the other hand, is
pampered to the highest degree, being fanned and cuddled by
lucky volunteers. She likes it when Lek is crouched under her
front legs and belly, as Faa Mai knows Lek can't sneak away
without Faa Mai knowing. These days she is lulled to sleep by "Que
Sera Sera." Faa Mai needs people to stay with her until she
wakes up and if she is really comfortable, she will sleep for
more than an hour at a time.
Mae Kham Sai is still a loner, but definitely enjoys spending
time with Mae Bua Kham who herself is getting more social with
some of the other older ladies. Mae Kham Paan has filled out
beautifully and looks like a well looked after retired super
model, despite her long working life. She is also a loner but is
comfortable in the company of Mae Geao, Mae Jarunee, and even
Mae Bua Kham. All eles are seeking out shade looking for a
respite from the intense heat, looking forward to the upcoming
rains.
Faa Mai has grown in to a sweet and well-mannered little
lady. She's a bit on the chunky side, but this is probably just
a phase she will grow through. She is looking more like she is
the little sister of Aura than of Tong Jan, even down to her
chubby knees and the shape of her ears. She is not spoiled with
lots of sweet treats, she just indulges in both her mother's
milk and auntie Dok Ngern's as well!
Her birthday (05 May) was a day filled with fun, family and
adventure just like any other, but this day also involved a
special custom baby elephant birthday cake! The cake was made of
banana tree stalk, peeled bananas and Faa Mai's favorite tender
young grasses, lovingly hand picked by mum Lek and mahouts.
As the cake was set in front of her and mum Lek crouched
under her belly, Faa Mai politely posed for pictures and then
delicately started to pick up pieces of the cake and pop them
into her mouth in a very ladylike fashion. Soon big sister Faa
Sai came up to investigate this wonderful thing that was placed
in front of little sis Faa Mai. She touched and smelled it with
her trunk, took one look at Faa Mai and seemed to say, "Come on,
be an elephant! That's not how we do it..." and Faa Sai promptly
picked up the "cake" and threw it up on her head.
Happy birthday Faa Mai! Every day that you have been with us is
a blessing
In the meantime, Hope swaggers around the Park. His
self-assured, mischevious personality is radiating, a
boy on the verge of manhood, causing all who meet him to
smile. |
Hope has changed a lot in the past few years and
matured. He is definitely graduating from a boy to a
teenager. Just recently Hope prematurely became the
oldest male at the Park, and with this position comes
responsibility that he doesn't quite have the experience
for yet. But quite often he is being called upon to
practice for his future role of fathering the next
generation of Park calves.
Hope has been experiencing some mild surges of
testosterone and the mini-musth periods that go along
with them. Occasionally his temporal areas swell and
small amounts of clear temporal fluid ooze out from the
small pores on each side of his head. This is a result
of his extremely healthy condition and the fact that
there are no adult males present at this time. Despite
this, he has been cooperative with his mahouts and
polite with the females. We hope that this behavior
continues as we want Hope to grow into a well-mannered
male who the females enjoy being around, not a bull whom
the females fear. |
On the 20th June all the elephants will disappear,
representing extinction - reappearing a couple of day’s
later altogether at the Chelsea Royal Hospital Park
where they will be prepared for auction. Anybody wishing
to buy our elephants is welcome to put in a bid - even
better if they then donated it back to us. Average sale
price is expected to be about £7,000 for which 70% of
the profits will come to the park, the other 30% going
to the Thai artist.
More ideas on how you can help. |
Elephant Nature Park is honored to receive support
from our friends all over the world. And we're excited
to be involved not only in fundraising events that
benefit our rescued eles at the Park, but in awareness
raising events too. The more people who know about the
plight of elephants worldwide, the more likely we'll be
able to make a difference.
One such event we've been pleased to been a part of is
the Elephant Parade in London. Elephant Families has
been hosting a spectacular parade of 250 model elephants
throughout the streets and parks of London for the past
month. This is an unprecedented event that has brought
massive media exposure and has helped to raise public
awareness.
We are proud to be conservation partners in this
exciting venture. And Roger Mann, founder and head of
Elephant Nature Foundation UK, has been instrumental in
making this partnership happen. Below he shares some
insights into the Elephant Parade thus far and upcoming
events too.
The Elephant Parade has certainly captured the
imagination. When I have been out on the streets with
Cloudia the travelling elephant collecting petition
signatures I have been stuck by how many people are
going round with check list ticking off elephant
sightings. Cloudia will be in a different place every
day, everybody who takes their photo with Cloudia and
posts in on the parades' Facebook page will be entered
into a draw for a daily prize.
Elephant Nature Park's very own elephant is in Green
Park and welcomes any visitors. On the 13th June we are
having an open picnic next to our ele labelled "I Miss
the Forest" and we would welcome as many volunteers and
supporter |
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