Mourning Mae Tee
At about 6 p.m. on 17 June a truly Grand Dame took her last breath. Mae Tee had just passed her five-anniversary of life at ENP. In all those years she had never laid down. We were always in awe…
Chain-Free Living at ENP
Finally, we are able to enjoy the payoff of the long term construction work and the constant presence of heavy machinery. Our newest chain-free shelters are finally reaching completion!! The good news Within the last year, there have been three…
Pamper a Pachyderm Update
We have finally said goodbye to the hot and dry season. Each night, the mountiansides were ablaze and the usually fresh air was pungent with the acrid smell of smoke. The moon itself, barely visible through the heavy smog. The…
ENP Rescues Trekking Elephant
For one lucky 65-year-old elephant, her life of trekking came to an end on 25 March 2014. Kwan Jit, meaning sweet heart in Thai, stepped into a new life of freedom at Elephant Nature Park, joining more than 30 other rescued…
Mintra Celebrates Fifth Anniversary at ENP
And so it begins ... Before arriving to Elephant Nature Park on the last day of February 2009, Mintra spent her whole life as a street begging elephant. Mintra seemed to develop slowly, possibly because of her dislocated hips. Though…
Elephant enrichment project
Through the years, we have had various enrichment toys for our elephants placed around the park. Many elephants make good use of the “toys,” while others pay little attention to them.
At the moment, we have a few elephants who are confined to their shelters while they are being treated for abscesses or foot problems. Once again, we have taken to creating enrichment toys to help ease their boredom while stimulating their sense of curiousity and problem solving.
We roam around the park looking for tires, branches and discarded boxes that can be used safely. We take a trip to the jungle and cut off bamboo branches that have already been knocked down by elephants and find other plant life that might be interesting. We then snatch up bundles of elephant grass and banana leaves. From there we head to the elephant kitchen and find various fruits and veg that can also be stuffed into the boxes and tires.
Now it is time to have fun and get creative!
My Time at Elephant Nature Park
Editor’s Note: We’ve invited our intern, Sofiya, to contribute to Save Elephant Foundation’s blog and document her experiences with some of our projects.
For most of my life elephants and monkeys have been my favorite animals. You can imagine my excitement when I found out I was selected to intern at Save Elephant Foundation here in Chiang Mai, which meant I would be traveling to Thailand where my two favorite animals happily reside.
After a couple days settling into the office I had the opportunity to volunteer at the park. There are several different ways to visit Elephant Nature Park, from day visits and overnight stays to week-long volunteer opportunities. Since I arrived later in the week I missed the general tour and information which week-long volunteers receive at the beginning of their stay. Before I could join the volunteers in their duties, I was scheduled to walk around with the day visitors and familiarize myself with the park grounds as well as catch up on what I had missed.
At 8 a.m. I got picked up at the office with a group of day visitors and we embarked on an hour long ride to the park. In the van we had the opportunity to hear details about the park and were shown a documentary centered around Asian elephants and the park itself. Our day visit guide, Sai, was incredibly knowledgable, friendly and open to every and any question we had about the park and the elephants.
Meet the Mahout: Buchu
It is common knowledge that the majority of mahouts are not highly educated and do not have many other career options. The job of mahout is considered somewhat dirty and dangerous without much room for advancement. At Elephant Nature Park, all of our mahouts come from the Karen (or Kayin), Kayah and Shan states of Burma. Most of them did not actually want to leave their beloved homeland. They loved living amongst their own tribes, practicing their tribal traditions, speaking their own language, singing their songs, cooking their own style of food. They loved the mountains that had given life to their people for generations, but they were forced to flee for many reasons.
Most of them ended up in refugee camps (just inside Thailand) or became migrant workers here. Mahout jobs are readily available and the pay makes it worthwhile. Back at home, where they could read and write and speak the language, many men currently working as mahouts in Thailand, were once teachers, ministers, university students or teachers in training.
