Look after elephants at Thailand's Elephant Nature Foundation

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Look after elephants at Thailand's Elephant Nature Foundation
Danielle Lancaster
April 23, 2010


Washing the elephants is just one of your tasks at Thailand's Elephant Nature Foundation park.
Picture: Danielle Lancaster




Trainer Sangduen 'Lek' Chailert was named a Hero of Asia by TIME Magazine.
Picture: Danielle Lancaster

SLOWLY the long grey trunk encircles my body, finishing the sniffing inspection with a puff that raises the fine dusty earth I sit upon.
I hesitate to look up and can feel my heart beating. A huge elephant foot rests next to me. It covers an area more than five of my own hands and I appreciate the immense size and apparent strength of these animals – the largest land animal on Earth. There is nothing between us, no fence - no guard or even a mahout (elephant handler).

Words sung softly in a north Thai dialect begin to calm me. I look across and Sangduen "Lek" Chailert's dark eyes meet mine. She smiles reassuringly as Faa Mai, a 181kg baby elephant rests on her lap in preparation for an afternoon nap.

"Don't worry, you are with me and I am her nanny, she likes you," says Lek of the elephant above me.

That's a relief, for that trunk contains 100,000 different muscles and with one swipe it could knock a human unconscious, and one stomp from that wrinkled foot could have me saying goodbye to this world forever. Yet this is a happy elephant, says Lek (her Thai nickname translates as "small one").

The female elephant standing over me is Mae Bua Tong, one of 33 "happy" elephants varying in age from infants to old-timers that live at the 60ha Elephant Nature Foundation, in the breathtaking Mae Taeng Valley, about an hour north of Chiang Mai in northeast Thailand.

Park morals

Inside the park's boundaries, Lek and her team heal abused and neglected elephants so they are able to "live out the rest of their lives in peace and dignity". Each is free from arduous work obligations such as logging, ridiculous tourism antics, or being ridden for hours at a time with a hard metal frame rubbing their back, often causing painful pressure sores. Now the tourists are coming to this little-known park. For through word of mouth, stories of the team's work and this unforgettable place are spreading.

While visitors are not allowed to ride the elephants, they do get close to them on many occasions. There's feeding to be done. These giants of the forest consume 10 per cent of their bodyweight daily, and that adds up to a truckload of bananas, pineapples, pumpkins, bamboo and other elephant delicacies to be diced and sliced for hand feeding.

Then it's bathtime down at the river, where the elephants relish in you throwing buckets of water over them and receiving a rubdown and scratch. For some of the herd this is also playtime when they frolic in the water, diving, ducking and floating on the river's current while others are content spraying a trunkful of water over anyone nearby or smooching for affectionate and slobbery elephant trunk kisses. The mahouts stand nearby, keeping the protective mothers busy as visitors enjoy more play time with the babies who love to explore and interact with humans.

This is all part of the healing: the retraining of the elephants that not all humans are bad. And Lek should know about healing. Her grandfather was a Khamu (hill tribe) shaman, who once was given an elephant aspayment for saving a life. Today, she protects these endangered Asian elephants. Lek was named a Hero of Asia by Time magazine.

Each elephant has a tale

There are stories for those who wish to listen, on how the elephants arrived here, and on Lek's other work and commitment to north Thailand's tribe people.

One story is of the beautiful and calm Jokia – which means "eye from heaven" – a mother elephant that was blinded with a slingshot for trying to tend to her newborn calf; And then there's Lilly, an elephant that was given amphetamines to keep her working round-the-clock on illegal logging; And Boon Khum, a magnificent male that was chained to a tree as its tusks were cut out with a chainsaw causing a life-threatening infection.

Pry a little deeper and Lek will tell you about her efforts on a "Jumbo Express": a plan to get medicine, educational supplies and essentials supplied free to hill tribes and their elephants.

Visitors can join Lek on a trip to the isolated tribes, or remain at the reserve where they can receive a soothing massage from a local woman. My travelling partner and I decided to give the "tourist" elephant venues a wide berth after hearing of Lek and her herd of elephants. We were not disappointed. While day visits to the park are very popular and numbers restricted to 20 people a day so everyone has a personal experience, we had decided to stay overnight.

Opening our door in the morning to the sight of a huge Asian elephant lumbering past trumpeting good morning will be a memory we'll never forget. Our only regret was we had not booked longer.

Travel is all about experiences and tourism is not all glitz and glass. A venture to help, understand and be enlightened can be as relaxing and rewarding as any holiday you could plan.

Day visits and overnight visits of two days/one night or three days/two nights are offered. One week, two week and three week volunteer stays are also available where you can assist with the running of the park and care of the elephants.

More: www.elephantnaturefoundation.org

perthnow.com.au

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A Paradise for Elephants, a Unique Experience for Humans
KYAW THEIN KHA
Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Mae Taeng Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand has been Mae Lai Tong's home for the past five of her 37 years, and it is here that she will spend the rest of her life, safe from the perils of a world made dangerous by human beings.

Mae Lai Tong was taken to this elephant refuge in 2005 after she fell victim to a landmine while working at a logging camp in Burma. Even now, she still struggles to walk because part of one of her hind legs had to be amputated.


Two-month-old Fah Mai (center) is the youngest elephant at the Mae Taeng Elephant Nature Park, located about 50 km north of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.
(Photo: The Irrawaddy)

“She was injured on the Burmese side of the border, but when we found her, she was already in Thailand,” said Sangduen Chailert, the park's founder. “She can't be used for logging any more, so that's why we brought her here.”Sangduen, who opened the park in 1995, said she sometimes visits logging camps in Burma to ask mahouts what they do with their elephants as they age or when they get injured. Usually, she said, they are simply worked to death.

The Mae Taeng park is located about 50 km north of Chiang Mai, and is home to 31 elephants, most of them survivors of accidental injuries, neglect or cruelty at the hands of their masters. In some cases, according to Nattapon Tabcheen, the park's volunteer coordinator, the park must purchase the elephants from their owners in order to give them a decent life.

“I do this because I love elephants,” said Sangduen. “Elephants in the logging camps have a very terrible life. I don't want them to rest only when they die.”

Thailand banned logging in 1985, but that did not mean the end of suffering for elephants in this country. To pay for their food, their owners often walk them through the busy streets of major cities to beg. Others are used to entertain tourists. Many are mistreated by owners who regard them as little more than a burden.

Mae Jokia, a 40-year-old female, is blind in both eyes because of two separate incidents. One eye was lost after it was hit by a slingshot, and the other after her mahout stuck an iron hook in it to punish her for refusing to work.

Mae Jokia stopped working because she had had a miscarriage caused by being forced to work while she was pregnant. In his rage, her mahout lashed out at her, blinding her one good eye.

No longer of any value to her owner, she was sent to Mae Taeng in 1999. Now she walks around the park with the help of other elephants who act as her guides.

Almost all of the elephants at the Mae Taeng park have been traumatized in one way or another. Here, however, they live without fear of abuse. The mahouts at the park are not allowed to use iron hooks to control the elephants. Their only duty is to follow the elephants wherever they go and to feed them twice a day.

“We have one mahout for each elephant, or sometimes two, if the elephant is difficult to control. But we don't use chains or hooks to control the elephants,” said Nattapon.

Some of the elephants at the park were born here. Fah Mai (whose name means “New Sky”) is just two months old, and is the youngest of eight juveniles at the park, including her six-year-old sister, Tong Jam.

Tong Jam, or “Golden Moon,” is old enough to be separated from her mother, so she spends most of her time with adolescent elephants, learning how to interact with them and with humans.

This is a skill that Fah Mai still lacks, so she sometimes misbehaves, trying to beg for food from guests or mahouts by pushing at them with her head or pulling at their arms with her already powerful trunk.

Although she can be a bit of a handful at times, the mahouts never resort to the kind of discipline that is common in logging camps.


Sangduen Chailert, the founder of the Elephant Nature Park in Mae Taeng. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

“We never shackle their legs to make them behave. We don't use violence to teach them. We don't want to hurt them, so we use different ways of teaching them,” said Nattapon.

Mae Taeng is not only an earthly paradise for pachyderms. It is also a very pleasant place for people to spend some time.

The park appeals most to people who are looking for more than just another elephant show. Guests can stay in comfortable bungalows and enjoy buffet meals—both offered free of charge—but the main attraction is the opportunity to work closely with others committed to creating a unique sanctuary for elephants.

“I've been here for five days, and I just love it,” said Lauren, a volunteer at the park. “Amazing people, great energy, everyone's working together for the same goal, which is to help the elephants and improve their lives.”

The park also teaches visitors something about the nature of the special relationship between elephants and humans, and the experience of watching disabled elephants helping each other is sure to leave a lasting impression.

Perhaps no one has been more inspired by the elephants' example of selfless service to others than Sangduen, the park's founder.

“I'll continue to work for the elephants until the end of my life,” she said. “I've dedicated my life to them.”

irrawaddy.org

[HollyGoodhead]

lovely reading.

[Ripley]

I went to one " rescue" park near the area where the elephants were chained up then a performance (washed in a lake) for tourists while being beat on the head w sticks.

[DrAndy]

I knew a Russian prostitute in KL who went to Mae Taeng to play with the elephants for a month

she said it was "very nice"