“The Elephant Crisis Fund is a game-changer and my foundation is pleased to support it. The ECF is also changing environmental philanthropy by eliminating bureaucracy and overhead and making sure funding can reach the very best elephant conservation projects.”
—Leonardo DiCaprio
On September 24th, 2016, Elephanatics hosted the 3rd annual Global March for Elephants and Rhinos. The final outcome from CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) might well be looked upon by some as a loss. But, as the leader and co-founder of GMFER, Rosemary Alles, so eloquently states; Advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint and the results of all the hard work we are doing is starting to be realized, although, too slowly.
Representatives from GMFER, a grass roots advocacy organization, were present for the first time at the convention and that should be considered progress! GMFER does not see the results as a loss, but rather a process to continue working on.
Some of the positive results are as follows:
From CoP17:
UPDATE: CITES/CoP17: From the AEC (African Elephant Coalition): what we set out to do and what we got; not **too** shabby. We have a LOT Of work to do going forward, but we also emerged from CoP17 with a slight edge.
The 5 proposals submitted at this CoP by the AEC:
1) Appendix I proposal
2) Closure of domestic ivory markets
3) Destruction of ivory stockpiles
4) Decision Making Mechanism
5) Trade in live elephants
What we achieved:
1) 
Appendix1 for all range states – Failed – but we pushed our agenda and made some noise about it, also, Botswana’s endorsement of Appendix1 was huge. TK Khama, minister of the environment, took the floor, endorsing Appendix1 and voluntarily agreeing to uplist his country’s status to Appendix1.
2) Closure of domestic ivory markets – success with a caveat; an exemption that weakens it was introduced by the EU. However we now have a process to ensure compliance. That process is significant.
3) Destruction of ivory stockpiles – partial success; the wording was changed to “disposal” (with no trade) and the establishment of a comprehensive management plan for stockpiles.
4) DMM, the dreaded Decision Making Mechanism – the process by which international trade in ivory is established is DEAD. A huge success for#elephants. International ivory trade is OFF THE TABLE.
5) Trade in live elephants – is sadly, still on the table, however believable measures will be established in regulating the conditions for “appropriate destinations”
Elephanatics hosted the 3rd annual Global March for Elephants and Rhinos, September 24th, 2016. CBC TV interviewed Patricia Sims, World Elephant Day founder. See our segment at 9 minutes 25 seconds.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/772719171861
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Canada Refuses an Ivory Ban Motion to Protect Endangered Elephants
Prior to the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos
Vancouver Joins the Global March with a Mardi Gras for Elephants and Rhino
Vancouver, BC, September 15, 2016 – Canada was one of only four countries that objected to motion by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last weekend. The motion called for every country to ban their internal trade of ivory and would help protect elephants facing extinction due to rampant poaching. The ban is enthusiastically supported by 145 cities participating in the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos on September 24. Well over 50,000 people are expected to march in 38 countries, to coincide with the first day of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference
The feud between Canada, South Africa, Namibia and Japan, versus the other 213 government agencies at the World Conservation Congress, caused walkouts and threats of cancelled membership. Canada argued that the ivory ban would affect the hunting of walrus and narwhal by the Inuit in Canada’s Arctic. The two government agencies that abstained were the Canada Parks Agency and Canadian Museum of Nature.
An African elephant is killed every 15 minutes and a rhino is poached every 8 hours, sometimes enduring days of pain before death. There are fewer than 400,000 elephants and 18,000 rhinos left in the wild in Africa. At this rate, it is estimated that both species face extinction in the wild in as soon as 10 years.
While the IUCN motion is not legally binding, it is hoped that it will encourage a commitment to both an international and domestic ban of ivory trade at the upcoming conference in Johannesburg. John Scanlon, secretary-general of CITES has said the conference “is without doubt one of the most critical meetings of CITES in its 43-year history.”
Canada is a signatory to CITES but is yet to publicly state the level of protection it intends to afford elephants, when it votes at the conference. Given the significance of this year’s conference, the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos is poised to be the world’s largest demonstration to save animals. Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Sudbury, London, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax will all take part.
Elephanatics, an elephant conservation non-profit group in Vancouver, is hosting the city’s third year of participation in the Global March with a Mardi Gras for Elephants and Rhinos. The family-friendly celebration of these iconic animals facing a tenuous future, is free to attend at Creekside Park beside Science World on Saturday, September 24 from 12pm – 2pm.
Activities will be free or by-donation and will cater to all ages. Attendees can also learn how easy it is to help save the few elephants and rhinos that remain. Live music, Mardi Gras necklaces, elephant mask-making, wildlife face painting, henna tattoos, a pro-animal graffiti wall, and an elephant costume competition (for humans and dogs!) will be available. A professional photographer will give guests a photo of themselves beside a 2-metre high elephant or rhino image. Elephanatics also promise the biggest “trunk sale” of pachyderm-themed jewelry, homewares and clothing. All donations benefit the Elephant Crisis Fund – an anti-poaching initiative from Save the Elephants and the Wildlife Conservation Network.
“Can you imagine your children not ever being able to see a live elephant in the wild? The Mardi Gras is a unique opportunity to tell Canada’s CITES delegates to stand with the rest of the world and stop the poaching. Canadians don’t want a world without elephants, but we have to speak up at this event or it might be too late. Elephants don’t forget – so let’s not forget elephants,” explained Fran Duthie, Co-Founder, Education Director and Volunteer at Elephanatics.
Patricia Sims, an award-winning documentary filmmaker (When Elephants Were Young) will explain how an ivory sale price in China of CAD$1,500 per kilogram attracts international terrorist groups like the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Sims co-founded World Elephant Day (August 12). Now in its fifth year, the initiative partners with 100 elephant conservation organizations worldwide.
Film and television actor, Paul Blackthorne (“Quentin Lance” in Vancouver-filmed Arrow), will also be a guest speaker. “It is more important than ever to support awareness raising efforts which pressure governments to implement and enforce wildlife crime laws. We simply can’t be the generation responsible for the extinction of elephants and rhino,” says Blackthorne.
Also joining the speaker’s panel is NDP MLA Mike Farnworth who has tabled a private member’s bill (M-234) banning the sale of ivory and rhino horn. This bill closes a loophole that permits trade in ivory and rhino horn in British Columbia.
To tell CITES delegates to provide elephants with the highest level of protection, a petition can be signed at http://www.elephanatics.org/blog. To take part in history’s largest and most powerful global wildlife event, join the Mardi Gras for Elephants and Rhinos and demand an end to poaching on Saturday September 24 beside Science World.
About Elephanatics
Elephanatics is a non-profit organization founded in May 2013 in Vancouver. It is run exclusively by volunteers who aim to help the long-term survival of African and Asian elephants through conservation, education and action. Elephanatics first introduced Vancouver to the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos in October 2014 and has hosted the annual free event ever since. www.elephanatics.org
About Global March for Elephants and Rhinos
Global March for Elephants and Rhinos is a registered, non-profit organization in the United States. It is a grassroots, worldwide movement demanding an end to ivory and rhino horn trade. The first march was in 2013. www.march4elephantsandrhinos.org
For more information or to book media interviews –
Contact: Tessa Vanderkop
Director of Community Engagement
Elephanatics
604-789-8886
Event pages: www.facebook.com/events/593860187434451 and www.facebook.com/March4Elephants
Twitter: @ElephanaticsBC and @EleRhinoMarch
Instagram: ElephanaticsBC VanCity_GlobalMarchElephants and GMFER201
Please sign petition below to send to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) The Conference of Parties is taking place this September 24th in Johannesburg and we need many voices to end the ivory trade. We demand:
Reject Swaziland’s proposal to sell its stockpile of rhino horn and open up trade in horn, and (given the opportunity), list ALL species of rhino on Appendix 1
Online Petition to Cities Members for a domestic and International ivory ban
Richard Ruggiero/USFWS (CC BY 2.0)
Populations of African forest elephants increase in size slowly, putting the animals at greater risk of extinction than their savannah counterparts.
Contrary to common wisdom, most researchers now accept that African elephants are actually two distinct species. On the savannah lives the huge Loxodonta africana, whereas the smaller, secretive Loxodonta cyclotis is found in the forests of central Africa.
Poaching is devastating both populations, but poaching of forest elephants should be of particular concern. Research by George Wittemyer and his colleagues indicates that most females of this species do not become pregnant for the first time until they are 23, and they produce only 1 calf every 5 to 6 years (A. K. Turkalo et al. J. Appl. Ecol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12764; 2016). By contrast, the savannah elephant begins breeding at 12 years of age, and typically produces young at 3- to 4-year intervals. Thus, forest-elephant populations increase in size slowly, and are at greater risk of extinction.
Wittemyer’s work should spur increased focus on poaching prevention, and the study is also likely to reignite debate about the failure of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to recognize two different African elephant species on its extinction-risk ‘red list’. The IUCN has shied away from splitting the animals into two groups, primarily over fears about what this would mean for the status of hybrids between savannah and forest animals (see go.nature.com/2bo5nx3).
But the net effect of lumping the two together is to significantly underestimate the vulnerability of the African forest elephant. At its conservation congress this week, the IUCN needs to catch up with the science and recognize the real threat of this species’ extinction.
Spending an entire day at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary near Chiang Rai was the highlight of my Thailand adventure. Our group was transported by truck from our hotel. After about an hour and a half in the back we parked on a muddy track deep in the jungle near the Myanmar border
We hiked down a mucky trail, across a bamboo bridge and past a waterfall. Once we arrived at the site, we put on colourful jackets so that our elephant friends would be comfortable with our presence.
We loaded up with bananas and sugar cane. Four elephants happily greeted us, including a pregnant mom and a baby. Feeling a baby elephant move around in utero was a once in a lifetime experience.
The mahouts explained the signs of a contented elephant. Wagging tails and flapping ears demonstrated their comfort level.
We left these four elephants, we joined a group of three more up a hill, including the infamous “Naughty Boy.” I wondered how naughty could a two year elephant be? Well, he was naughty. After we fed them, “Naughty Boy” suddenly yanked down a tree that came crashing in my direction. I managed to escape the majority of the tree fall.
After our lunch, we began to prepare the elephants’ vitamin treats. These treats required us to grate tree bark and mash bananas and wild rice into hand-sized balls. All the while, the seven elephants stood in a line awaiting their treats.
Next came the mud bath. We donned our bathing suits and took off our shoes and walked into a mud pond. We were told to thrown mud at the elephants and then rub it into their skin. Of course, lots of the mud ended up on us. Once the elephants were covered in mud we advanced to a river where we were provided with buckets. We threw water at the elephants until they were clean. Such fun being in the river with the elephants as they enjoyed their cleansing bath.
Feeling totally satisfied, we hiked back up to the trucks. Good bye beautiful animals.
World Elephant Day – August 12th, 2016
A detailed breakdown of Good and Bad News for Elephants over the past year written by: Anne Dillon, with Patricia Sims
It’s the fifth annual World Elephant Day. What’s happening in the elephant world, and has anything really changed for them?
In 2012, the World Elephant Day campaign was created as a rallying point for elephant conservation organizations and individuals worldwide to come together to help spread the word—through unique grassroots events and initiatives—about the dire situation that elephants presently face all over the world.
Those threats may pertain to the ongoing and seemingly unstoppable slaughter of elephants for their ivory, the abject circumstances that captive elephants constantly endure at the hands of the entertainment industry, or the sad life of a street elephant begging on the streets of Asia, to list only a few of the grim scenarios that may define their lives.
Since inception in 2012, World Elephant Day and its outreach continues to grow exponentially, and annually we provide an update on what has transpired for our elephant friends. What follows are some of the highlights as to what has changed for elephants over the last year.
THE GOOD NEWS: CLOSING MARKETS
The United States has implemented a near total ban on the domestic ivory trade.
In terms of legislation passed in the United States on a state-by-state basis, currently there are ivory bans in place in:
Legislation is currently on the books in many other states.
• China has banned imports and by the end of 2016 will release a timeline to close its legal trade. In China, the price of ivory dropped by half after the government pledge to ban ivory.
• Hong Kong has announced it will close its market. This three-phase move will conclude in a total ban in 2021.
• France has announced a domestic ivory ban.
• Angola has announced a domestic ivory ban, and has closed one of the largest ivory markets in the southern part of Africa.
‘• BUT despite this success in Angola, forty elephants were killed in July, 2016.
TO BURN, OR NOT TO BURN, THAT IS THE QUESTION
Ivory Burns and Crushes
Thailand, August 26, 2015 2,100 kg of ivory destroyed
Sri Lanka, January 26, 2016 1,500 kg of ivory destroyed
Malawi, March 14, 2016 2,600 kg of ivory destroyed
Italy, March 31, 2016 400 kg of ivory destroyed
Malaysia, April 14, 2016 9,550 kg of ivory destroyed
Cameroon, April 19, 2016 2,000 kg of ivory destroyed
Kenya, April 30, 2016 105,000 kg of ivory destroyed
This represents approximately 9,150 elephants
To give the recent burns and crushes context, since Kenya first destroyed its ivory in 1989 in the historical gesture that preceded the global ivory ban, almost thirty other similar events, in countries all over the world, have taken place.
There are many proponents of destroying ivory the world over, and many detractors of the practice.
Some believe the practice itself may be flawed, and thus argue against it: given the level of general corruption embedded in the global ivory trade, it may be difficult to actually prove that the ivory that’s said to be destroyed actually was.
Another argument against it is the perception that if there is less ivory available, an uptick in demand and pricing of it on the black market may ensue and poaching may escalate. 3 Others, however, maintain that the effects of ivory destruction on poaching are difficult to determine.
Proponents of the practice maintain that if the ivory is not destroyed, it may find its way onto the black market, increasing trade. On top of this, maintaining stockpiled ivory can be a costly venture for cash-strapped countries and may be difficult to guard successfully.
Other supporters maintain that burning or crushing ivory rightfully stigmatizes the issue of ivory trade and possession, and therefore has a perceptual effect that can only serve to help save the elephants from extinction. In line with rationale, New Jersey will be holding an ivory crush on World Elephant Day, 2016, supported by representatives of Germany, Gabon, and Kenya. This is the first public crush to invite members of the pubic to bring ivory to be destroyed.
On the other side of the issue, South Africa has recently taken a very firm stance to not destroy their ivory stockpiles and have refused to abide by international regulations and disclose the amount of ivory it holds. Instead, this nation wants to renew the ivory trade and be allowed to sell their stockpiled ivory next year. They are not alone on this.
Other African nations are calling for the resumption of the legal trade, the proceeds of which they say will provide sorely needed funding for social programs in their developing nations, to include wildlife conservation initiatives. They also argue that the increase of ivory onto the market through the mechanism of legal trade would cause the price of it to drop and thereby reduce poaching, although other experts question the naivety of this assertion.
These pro-trade African countries are facing pushback from the African Elephant Coalition, an organization comprised of twenty-nine African countries that collectively argue for all domestic ivory markets to be shut down; for the exporting of live elephants to no longer be allowed; for the reinstatement of all African elephants to Appendix I status; efforts to be undertaken to destroy existing ivory stockpiles; and all conversations about legal ivory trade resumption should be terminated.
RETURNING ELEPHANTS TO THEIR NATIVE HABITATS
To our way of thinking, more attention needs to be drawn to the practice of returning elephants to the wild, once they have been habituated for this.
In Thailand, the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation (ERF) continues to demonstrate that rehabilitating captive elephants to the wild can be a successful conservation model in certain circumstances. Since 2002 they have employed this model, utilizing three protected forest habitats of Thailand.
These habitats total over 500,000 acres (roughly 200,000 hectares), onto which 110 formerly captive elephants have been successfully reintroduced. To date, thirteen baby elephants have been born in the wild to these formerly captive elephants who have mated naturally and given birth there.
Wildlife Alliance continues to do outstanding work in this area as well. This World Elephant Day, it’s celebrating its decade-long success in maintaining Zero Poaching of Asian elephants in the Cardamom Rainforest in Cambodia, a former hotbed of elephant and tiger poaching. This area comprises over 5,000,000 acres (2,000,000 hectares) of rainforest and includes a critical feature: the South West Elephant Corridor, as well as the newly created Southern Cardamom National Park, which is made up of approximately 1 million acres (roughly 400,000 hectares).
Wildlife Alliance has achieved this by working with the government of Cambodia to ensure the employment of law enforcement and patrolling of the area. This landscape supports one of Cambodia’s two remaining elephant populations, which underscores how critical this work is.
THE BAD NEWS: THE ROAD AHEAD
Before we continue to detail how some things are improving for elephants, we must call your attention to one particular issue that pertains to the long-term outlook for these elephants. This is an issue that will be a hot-button topic at the CITES Conference in South Africa, which is held September 24 to October 5, 2016.
As many people know, most of Africa’s elephants are listed as Appendix I by CITES, with the exception being the elephants of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, which are Appendix II. An Appendix I listing affords elephants the highest possible protection under international law. When all elephants in Africa were listed under Appendix I in 1990, the ensuing ivory ban caused a decrease in the price of ivory, and the numbers of elephants killed dropped dramatically
The African Elephant Coalition, whose members are made up of twenty-nine African countries, is putting forth at CITES this year a package of proposals designed, in part, to change the listing of Africa’s Appendix II elephants back to Appendix I.
This would be a vital step in helping to ensure the survival of the African elephant. However, for this to be accomplished, a two-thirds majority vote of all 182 Parties participating in the CITES conference is necessary.
The countries that comprise the EU voting block at CITES have tremendous clout but to date, under the influence of the European Commission, have not been supportive of the proposal. While the support of the EU voting block cannot be guaranteed, it is crucial.
Want to read more about this situation? Check out a few articles at these news sources:
In any event, it’s important that CITES representatives from every nation who are attending the CITES Conference this year hear from you on this issue. Please email your CITES reps to let them know that the elephants of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe should be relisted as Appendix I. You may find your rep(s) here.
It is also worth emailing the representatives who attended the 2013 conference in Bangkok. You may find their names here.
We also wanted to bring attention to the situation in Canada, given that we don’t hear very frequently about Canada as it pertains to the ivory trade. Briefly stated, Canada is a signatory to CITES, and as such abides by its rules through the implementation of a law known as the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act, which came into force in 1996. Essentially, the law details a list of those species that are regulated, including which species trade is prohibited in. Penalties for trading in illegal species are defined, including penalties for the illegal importation and exportation of prohibited species. Generally, Appendix I species are not open for trade except if the animals that the product is derived from were captive animals or the product is derived from an animal that pre-dated when the CITES Convention came into effect (1975) or that animal was not classified at the time the animal was taken from the wild, then trade may be considered legal pending the correct documentation and proof of age of the specimen. Both of these latter proofs enable a fair amount of gray area that may be exploited by those seeking to launder illegal ivory as legal, as has been the case in a few instances recently in major Canadian markets (Toronto and Vancouver). For more information, please see: http://www.ec.gc.ca/ CITES/default.asp?lang=En&n=990E5322-1#_01_17 7
CRIMES AGAINST ELEPHANTS DON’T STOP THERE
In March 2016, Swaziland, claiming drought conditions in their country, sedated and flew eighteen elephants—three males and fifteen females, ranging in age from six to twenty-five—to the United States. These elephants will be split among three zoos—the Dallas zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, and Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska— where they will be put on exhibit and used for breeding purposes. Animal rights groups have been protesting this action taken by Swaziland.
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF ELEPHANT POACHING
STIFFER FINES FOR POACHERS IN THE FUTURE?
In Kenya, repeat ivory trafficking offender Feisal Mohammed was sentenced to twenty years in jail after he was found guilty of having 44 million shillings ($434,000) worth of ivory in his possession.
WHAT ABOUT THE TOURIST TRADE?
We are starting to see some focus on the use and abuse of elephants in the fields of entertainment and tourism, with some organizations coming together to develop more ethical elephant tourism practices in countries like Thailand where it’s big business. There is much more work to be done in this area regarding the care and welfare practices for elephants used in tourism but at least the conversation has begun.
Here are some other milestones:
THE RELIGION FACTOR
THE HUMAN TOLL
There are 355 national parks in Africa, which employ a total of approximately 22,000 rangers and volunteers. In 2015, twenty-seven rangers were killed, according to the International Game Rangers Federation, which has monitored ranger mortality since the year 2000.
In March of 2016, two rangers were killed in DRC’s Virunga National Park by rebels, pushing the death toll of rangers killed in this park to over 150 in the last ten years.
Elephant Pressures and Solutions in India
There are only approximately 45,000 Asian elephants remaining in the wild and the majority of them are in India. There are important elephant conservation initiatives going on there, as well as in neighboring Sri Lanka, but in these countries, as in elsewhere in Asia, human elephant conflict is a severe and ongoing problem. In India, this has resulted in the creation of the Indian Elephant Corridors Appeal, an initiative of the Wildlife Trust of India and the World Land Trust, which are working together to establish viable elephant corridors in India to enable elephants to follow their traditional migratory routes with a minimum of human-elephant conflict.
Hopeful Developments
NEWSFLASH! Can Elephants Cure Cancer? The fact that they have a cancer-suppressing gene in abundance may mean the answer is yes!
. . . And Tech to the Rescue!
The public has been recruited to help bring perpetrators of wildlife crime to justice. Conservationists have developed a Smartphone app that can take photos of products that are suspect.
Camera-traps have been installed in forests to track elephants in efforts to reduce human/elephant interaction.
There is elephant news every day and issues continually evolve, so we may not have mentioned all of the developments here—good or bad. Hopefully, we have shed light on the main points. And we hope to continue moving forward in a more positive direction as World Elephant Day continues to bring the world together to help elephants, putting public focus on these issues and what we can do to save these highly sentient creatures, their habitat, and all the other creatures that live in those habitats, too.
For elephants are keystone species, and as such are stewards of their environment, as we humans are also—or are supposed to be. At this stage, we’re not doing a very good job in this role. But there is hope. By working to save elephants, we are doing one of the most significant things we can do as stewards of our common home.
Without elephants, the world will lose a large dollop of its sparkle and wonder, not to mention the extraordinary biodiversity they are magnificent caretakers of. If we lose our elephant friends, the world’s rich biodiversity is imperiled, and with that, the future of the human family will be ever so much bleaker and imperiled, too.
August 2016
Elephanatics’ Director of Communications, Christina Toms, and Chief Scientific Research Advisor, Dr. Jake Wall, have moved to Kenya temporarily.
While in Thailand, I was lucky enough to spend two days at Elephant Nature Park (ENP): An elephant sanctuary dedicated to saving these creatures from elephant trekking camps (where tourists ride their backs) and the illegal logging industry.
On the first day, I was picked up from my hotel by the ENP bus. During the long ride into the jungle, they played a documentary titled “Spirit of Asian Elephant”. This documentary discusses the unfortunate situation many captive elephants are stuck in throughout Thailand and several other South East Asian countries. If you are unfamiliar with unethical tourism, I urge you to refer to the “Elephants in Tourism” portion of the “Elephants in Captivity” section of our website.
On the first day, we began by feeding the elephants fruits behind a fence. This allowed the visitors to become comfortable in the presence of these large animals. They smell the fruit with their trunks, then gently wrap the tip of their trunk around it and throw it in their mouth. Next, we walked through the many fields on premise toward the Mae Taeng river. The elephants are free to play in the river as they please, which serves as a great site for bathing. My tour group grabbed buckets and splashed around with one elephant.
At ENP, the elephants freely roam the large premises by day while being supervised by their mahouts. The mahouts do not use bullhooks to discipline their elephants – rather they use positive reinforcement to guide them. By night, the elephants are put in large enclosures. Since there is no fencing around the premises, this avoids the elephants exploring into trekking camps that sadly neighbor the heaven on earth that is ENP.
The elephants at ENP have been rescued from trekking camps or from the illegal logging industry. Most of them arrive disabled and in bad psychological condition from previous abuse. The fantastic veterinarian on site, Dr. Tom, provides veterinary care to these animals to keep them comfortable.
On day two, I was able to shadow this veterinarian along with other veterinary students from North America. We began by scrubbing several foot abscesses with hexane solution, followed by squirting iodine on them with syringes, and finally spraying with an antibiotic spray.
Chiang Mai University is conducting a research study on elephants in captivity in the region. This study involved analyzing serum for stress hormones. I was lucky enough to draw blood from a vein in an elephant’s ear to submit her sample for the study!
The Asian elephant is in a dire situation, with just as many elephants being kept in captivity for tourism than exist in the wild. The vast majority of these elephants spend most of their day being chained up in a cement enclosure with a 150lb saddle on their back, waiting for their next ride. As an animal lover that understands basic elephant behavior, it was emotionally trying to witness so many of them suffering with no end in sight. Thankfully, tourists are slowly becoming more educated about the consequences of their decisions – hence the popularity increase of sanctuaries like ENP.
I’d like to hear your comments on whether or not you agree with elephants being used in tourism like this. Would you consider ENP as holding its elephants in captivity? Do you think breeding elephants at this park would help with their conservation? How do you think the elephant mistreatment in this region can be solved?
Andrea Duthie
Veterinary student and CPO of Elephanatics
