Elephant Tourism – Fun for the Family. Now Ask the Elephants if it’s Fun…

It’s not very often I write serious stuff on here, but every now and again I feel driven to do so, and I hope you readers will feel the same and spread this message around. The article below is about the Surin Roundup – an event that happens in the Surin province of Thailand, to commemorate both the importance of the Thai elephant and the local peoples’ important relationship with them. Involving 200 elephants or more, it’s large, loud, spectacular, and HELL for the elephants. Have a look at the pictures in the article, and in the links below it – the huge, sharp hooks used on the elephants’ sensitive skin, the barbed wire, the wounds marked out by a purple substance..

If you are thinking of going to Thailand, or elsewhere, and are wanting an elephant experience, please do some research and educate yourself before you do so. There are many situations involving elephants that also involve great unhappiness for them. Being made to walk on hard surfaces, being chained separately so they cannot touch each other, being hit and gouged with sharp instruments, being made to work very long hours in the hot sun, babies being made to beg rather than being at their mother’s side and suckling from her – it may be a happy and fun experience for you, but sadly it’s quite the opposite for the elephants.

One of the elephants at the Surin roundup.

One of the elephants at the Surin roundup.

A close-up of his feet. This is what they look like after he's been made to walk on hard surfaces a lot.

A close-up of his feet. This is what they look like after he’s been made to walk on hard surfaces a lot.

Healthy elephant feet. This is what his feet Should look like. Imagine his pain...

Healthy elephant feet. This is what his feet Should look like. Imagine his pain…

Continue reading

World Elephant Day, August 12. Some Happiness for You…

Yesterday was World Elephant Day. Elephant Nature Park and Foundation put up some of the most beautiful photos I’ve seen of elephants and elephant love, featuring some of the inhabitants of ENP. Please go to the link below and enjoy some elephant happiness:

HERE THEY ARE

Faa Mai and Dok Mai having a blast ditch-diving at Elephant Nature Park.

Faa Mai and Dok Mai having a blast ditch-diving at Elephant Nature Park.

 

Elephant Lullaby for Faa Mai – Who Snores Through It!!

Whenever she can, Lek Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park, sings a lullaby to Faa Mai, who was born at the park and thinks that Lek is her human mummy. From what I gather, the flapping of the rag resembles the flapping of a mother elephant’s ears or tail.

Check it out HERE

Faa Mai being told off for stealing food.

Faa Mai being told off for stealing food.

 

Forest? What Forest?! Whoops – Somebody Took It While We Weren’t Looking…

Yeah well, I tried eating people, but it just didn't agree with my digestive system...

Yeah well, I tried eating people, but it just didn’t agree with my digestive system…

Most of us humans have at least a small fascination with elephants. And most of us know that forest-dwelling elephants need forests. I bet what a lot of people don’t know is that forests need elephants.

Due to their Inefficient Digestive Systems (IDS) *TM, elephants only digest around 40-something percent of what they eat. The rest gets dumped out the opposite ends of their bodies, if you get my gist. Having personally dealt with this end product, so to speak, I can attest to the fact that the matter that they have put into their chewing ends comes out darned near as fresh as when it went in. In other words, seeds from the plants they have eaten remain pretty much intact and are deposited wherever the elephants go, in nice tidy fertilized packages, ready to grow again. Continue reading

Happy New Year and Some Elephant Gossip

Gather ye around and I'll tell ye the latest...

Gather ye around and I’ll tell ye the latest…

Hi all. I haven’t posted for a little while as we’ve been pretty busy around here with the silly season and all that it brings. I want to wish you all a Happy New Year, or Joyous Pagan Festivities, or whatever peels yer bananas.

To those in America and England, I’m sorry to hear that you’re rather cold at the moment, so I won’t rave on about what a perfect summer we’re having, as I sit outside on a beautifully starry night enjoying the wee solar lights and the humidity – that would just be cruel and I won’t do that to you. Nor will I mention the plums and avocados raining down upon us on a daily basis or Rustle the Hedgehog snuffling about feasting on them or indeed the Zinnia and Cosmos flowering madly outside my bedroom window. Far be it from me to tease you in such a hard-hearted manner. Continue reading

Photo Essay – A Week of Volunteering at Elephant Nature Park. (Contains Many Photos and Much Waffling.)

A baby banana-hoover learns how to do it.

A baby banana-hoover learns how to do it.

September 2013 and I was at it again. I traveled back to Thailand and instead of wallowing at beach resorts and quaffing drinks with little umbrellas in them, returned to Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary North of Chiang Mai, and volunteered my sweat and gave myself some blisters to remember. This time I went for two weeks instead of one, and also hauled my partner along so he could see what I had been rabbiting on about for the last year or so. Here’s a photo essay on being an ENP volunteer.

Firstly, this is where we slept. We were surrounded by Australians, so we dug in, marked our territory and guarded it fiercely. It was a great spot – it had a huge veranda outside, complete with guard dogs and several cats, and our room had a bed with mosquito nets, an open-walled ensuite, a tiny frog and a gecko. Unfortunately, it was situated up some stairs. Fourteen steep stairs to be exact. I know this. I counted them at the end of each long, hot day. Fooouuurrrteeennn of them…

NZ territory - right smack in the middle of Australian territory.

NZ territory – right smack in the middle of Australian territory.

Continue reading

A Journey with 4 Legs – Short Film

Hi all. Hope your day is going really well. 🙂

Here’s a really nice short film on Elephant Nature Park and the other projects Lek Chailert has put into place in South East Asia. Take a look – it’s very inspiring.

A Journey with 4 Legs (Save Elephant Foundation)

One of the beautiful eles at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

One of the beautiful eles at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Camera Rambles: And Now For Some Elephants – Faa Mai Leads the Ditch Appreciation Project

While I was at Elephant Nature Park, Jodi and I happened across Faa Mai and a few of her friends indulging in some ditch-diving. Faa Mai was enjoying herself so much she got in and out about three times. Little Dok Mai was very happy to copy what her big herd-sister was doing. Here’s some of the footage I got…

vlcsnap-2013-11-15-22h48m23s140 Continue reading

This One’s for Traveling Crone

Fling yourself in the general direction of an American tattoo artist in a bamboo hut down a dirt track at an elephant sanctuary in a jungle near Chiang Mai and this is what comes up. There’s a blogger out there in the world who had a similar experience in the same place and ended up with a similar tattoo. You can read about that here. We’ve never met in person, but it would seem we have a wee bit in common… Lol. Cheers Crone, and cheers Jodi for a wonderful first-tattoo experience.

My first ever tattoo - had to be an elephant, right? Natch!

My first ever tattoo – had to be an elephant, right? Natch!

Free Shadows!!

It is our right – the right of all beings – to cast our own shadow where we wish, a shadow that has no cuffs, no chains, no cage sides. A shadow that is business only between us and the sun that shines. This is the right of every creature, every being on earth, from the tiny ants to the largest beings on earth. Who is man to change that shadow? Rather, let us put our energy into ensuring that, as soon as possible, every shadow is free. If we insist on seeing ourselves as guardians of the earth, then let this be our aim.

Do what you can, from your little corner of the universe, to remove the things that shouldn’t be in anyone or anything’s shadow – no cuffs, no chains, no cages. Yell out for those who have no voice. Stand up and help whoever and whatever you can to have Free Shadows!

Early morning walk, Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai

Early morning walk, Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai