top attractions in Chiang Mai

The art of Touching an Elephant

The majority of us are blessed with the gift of sight. We take it for granted, without thinking how very lucky we are.

Imagine for a moment not being able to see, relying only on hearing and touch. Imagine being born blind, therefore not having any mental images stored for descriptive reference.

Imagine traveling to a foreign land, where your native tongue is not spoken and venturing to a place where elephants roam free and you can experience them up close, learning about them through touch.

Would you be afraid? Would you be excited?

For two years in a row we have had a very special group of teenagers from the Korean Art Association for the Blind who travel all the way from Korea to visit Elephant Nature Park, staying two days. They come from the Chungju Seongmo School for the Blind and their tour is titled “Touching an Elephant.” These students are training to be artists and are learning to ‘see by touch’ so that they can create works of art in various mediums.

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Their stay at Elephant Nature Park included the group engaging in feeding the elephants, learning about them and having an up-close experience with Lek and Faa Mai.

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Baby elephant Navann’s family reunites

In our last post about Navann and his ever changing line up of doting aunties, Dao Tong had joined the group much to the dismay of Mae Jarunee, who moved off to the sidelines in an act of protest. Faa Mai, Faa Sai, Tong Jaan, even Mae Bua Tong and Chang Yim had been spending lots of time with Navann, causing Mae Keow and Dani to lose their confidence to approach the irresistible young bull. Malai Tong was quite busy between keeping Mae Jarunee company, checking in with Navann and flitting around like the social butterfly that she is catching up with old friends.

Navann covered in mud

What would happen next was anyone’s guess …

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Baby elephant Navann causes auntie controversy

Who will really end up being baby elephant Navann’s aunties at Elephant Nature Park? At this moment it is anyone’s guess …

A few weeks ago we would have felt confident in saying that Mae Kham Paan was the recognized Number One Auntie and that Malai Tong and Mae Jarunee were a firm Number Two and Three. Mae Keow was a definite part-timer and recently Dani was even getting lots of quality time with Navann each morning.

Dao Tong at Elephant Nature Park

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Photo Essay: Founder Lek Chailert and Elephant Nature Park

Lek and the family herd at Elephant Nature Park

Since the foundation launched its new site and blog encompassing all of Lek’s projects in October 2012, we’ve aimed to provide our supporters not only with the latest news from her projects, but also entertaining and informative stories and photos about the animals we rescue.

Today, we’d like to share with you some of our favorite photos of Lek with you from the past year. These photos show just how amazing Lek and her bond with the animals in her life is.

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Could baby elephant Navann be most popular at ENP?

Now that baby elephant Navann is out and about all day, every day, things have became much more exciting in the social world here at Elephant Nature Park.

Navann and his growing brigade of aunties give everyone the feeling that there is hope for new relationships. ENP’s Navann is gaining new admirers with each passing day. There is hardly an elephant in the park whose life Navann has not touched in some way or another.

baby elephant Navann at ENP

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Chang Yim has a little sister – Elephant Nature Park proudly welcomes Dok Mai

April is a month of festivity for us here at Elephant Nature Park. Songkran, the Buddhist new year, followed by Faa Mai’s birthday along with ENP’s 10-year anniversary are cause of great celebration. Thanks to Dok Ngern and the wonders of nature, we now have yet another reason to be filled with happiness and merriment this year —  the arrival of Dok Mai.

Dok Mai Elephant Nature Park

We do not often advertise the possibly pregnant females who are roaming about the park. Since the gestation period is from 18 to 22 months, the build up of waiting and excitement can drive you crazy. Here at Elephant Nature Park, based on activities witnessed on several occasions, we had a feeling that a few of our females were most likely expecting.

After the birth of Navann in late October, we started to pay much more attention to the bellies, breasts and behavior of our ladies who have been reproductively active in the past two years.
Oh, to be an elephant … to fully understand their conversations and body language. They know exactly what is going on with each other and who will give birth when.

We, on the other hand, can just wait.

This time, they tricked us.

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Elephant Nature Park’s Mae Keow ready for companionship?

It is hard to imagine anything more amazing than Kham Sai’s acceptance into the family group – but (!) there is yet another exciting social development in the works here at Elephant Nature Park … and it involves Mae Keow.

Elephant Nature Park's Mae Keow

Many of our followers are quite familiar with Mae Keow. Almost two years ago she lost her best friend of 12 years, Lily. The passing of her dear companion shattered Mae Keow, who has not been the same since. With Lily by her side, Mae Keow was confident, sometimes a bully (known as a tail-biter) and possessive (when she was the adopted auntie of Jungle Boy,) among other things.

After Lily’s passing, Mae Keow appeared to lose her self confidence. She became shy and reclusive. She seemed to lack the social skills to make new friends and had passive/aggressive tendancies. Her only companion was her mahout of 4-plus years, Moses.

Mae Keow withdrew.

She spent most of her time up in the front corner of the park, only coming out to go to the river for bathing time. We were very worried about her, but we understood that her emotional healing had to happen in it’s own time.

A recent change in the elephant shelter arrangement became the first step in helping Mae Keow to reach out socially.

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