Reports on Save and Rescue an Asian Elephant Today

Project Report | Apr 9, 2018
Working side by side with the Huay Pakoot Community

By Anna Bjerring | Base Manager

Dear Supporters,

This quarter has seen GVI Chiang Mai take a big step in the direction of working alongside the Huay Pakoot community to accomplish long term goals. The introduction of the villagers and previous Mahouts Dee and Don as scholars for GVI has been a monumental improvement for the hub. They have accelerated many processes which had been a tough task in the past and educated staff and volunteers on how life is as a mahout. Creating improved communication between the village and GVI organising hikes and assimilating ideas to benefit the community as best we can. Their presence around base has been the catalyst to a increased efficiency and togetherness, and hiking with our trust elephants with their elephant and cultural knowledge has given a new light on aspects not considered in the past.

Friday mornings have now adopted a new shape in the form of a project alongside the community to complete larger scale tasks with greater manpower. These projects have included helping to construct small dams on a river in the local conservation forest. These provide a pool of drinking water and a substantial mud pit for the elephants to frolic and wallow on especially hot weather days. Moreover the second of our projects saw the group help to clear fire line borders on the perimeters of planned burn sites to protect the elephants’ habitat from forest fires.

The funds provided generously by The Trust have seen the volunteers follow the Mahouts into the forest to gather ingredients for traditional elephant foods. This activity has taught us fascinating lessons about the Karen culture and reinforced their knowledge on the creation of traditional elephant medicine. Furthermore on hikes requiring health check data collected by up-close-and-personal contact with the elephants, our co-ordinator Myles alongside assistant base manager Max have been empowering the Mahouts with the study methodology. By teaching them our science we hope to strengthen and empower our partner continually so that one day it can stand on its own two feet.

March has seen a GVI Trust fundraiser interviewing the Mahouts that have worked alongside our proud Matriarch Khum Suk to educate donators on the intimate world between keeper and the elephant. At the time of writing the fundraiser stands at £280 raised with an impending obstacle course pitting the volunteers and village children striving to build a miniature house to illustrate and educate on the lives once lived by the elephants of Huay Pakoot.

The collected result of the donations we receive and the efforts conducted from them enables us to work towards an increased state of welfare for our three trust elephants Lulu, Khum Suk, and Sah Jah and keep them all in their natural environment in the forest while empowering the mahouts and embracing the Karen culture.

Thank you for continuing to help us on our mission to keep these beautiful animals safe in their forrest, we appreciate everything you do and continue to do for Lulu, Khum Suk and Sah Jah.

With Gratitude,

GVI Chiang Mai

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Jan 12, 2018
The last Quarterly Update for 2017

By Phoebe van Doorn and Anne Goodman | Internship Coordinator and Base Manager

Dear Supporters,

Here at GVI Chiang Mai we are continuing to collect behavioural data on our 8 magnificent and beautiful elephants. We have also started collecting elephant welfare data over the past 6 months by performing regular health checks and scoring our elephants’ body fat content. These welfare checks allow us to gain a robust understanding of our elephants’ physical, mental and emotional health. Eventually, we hope to compare our data to that of elephants in working tourist camps in order to provide evidence that living and foraging freely in the forest is ultimately beneficial to elephant welfare.

On the biodiversity side, we have increased the number of times per month that we set up camera traps out in the forest. We have been setting them in different locations each time in hopes of discovering what different vegetation types attract different species. Recently, we successfully captured footage of a large Assamese Macaques (Monkeys) troop in the Conservation Forest location. This is the first Macaque sighting by GVI staff and volunteers in the area, although villagers often mention that they have seen them in the forest throughout the year. We are also working with a partner to identify a potentially rare subspecies of pit-viper discovered in the same location. All in all, exciting things are happening with bio in Huay Pakoot!

The month-long summer holiday recently started for our local village school. In response, our staff and long-term interns have created an exciting and hands-on Summer School program that encourages community children to learn English while regular school is not in session. The program started this week with a scavenger hunt throughout the village, featuring photos taken by our interns. We hope to have a lot of fun with the kids over the next month.

Our most recent fundraising event was a great deal of fun. Volunteers, interns and staff spent 24 hours living like elephants in a tourist camp. We faced many challenges, like performing tricks for entertainment; running obstacle-courses while eating bananas and dry biscuits; and being bathed in mud and washed down whilst tied together on short ropes. Everyone then spent the night camped out on our outdoor base playing games, watching movies and bonding over the day’s festivities. Ultimately, we had designed our tasks and activities to mirror the way elephants in camps are treated so we could better understand what elephants go through on a daily basis. Granted we did make the activities enjoyable, we all agreed that being forced to do these things on a daily basis with no other options would lead to a miserable existence. It gave us a much greater appreciation for the freedom we have, and an extra motivation to do what we can for our elephants and others. All in all, despite the mud and the tight schedule, everyone had a really good time and even asked if we could do it again!

The last few months have also seen an increase in community interactions. For example, this year we celebrated GVI’s 10 year anniversary in Thailand by cooking for all the villagers at base hut. For World Elephant Day, we helped our mahouts cut additional grass from the fields in order to feed our elephants. Then, we marked the end of the planting season with a village-wide Geeju (blessing) ceremony. We are all very glad to have spent so much time with the village this year, and hope to do so even more in the future.

If you'd like to help us keep our magnificent elephants in their natural habitat, please do not hesitate to support our cause. Every donation goes a long way for the elephants, their mahouts, their families and the program as a whole. Thank you for your continued support, from all of us at GVI Chiang Mai and Huay Pakoot.

With Gratitude,

GVI Chiang Mai

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Oct 13, 2017
Fundraising Fun for Thailand

By Phoebe van Doorn and Anne Goodman | Internship Coordinator and Base Manager

Here at GVI Chiang Mai we are continuing to collect behavioural data on our 8 magnificent and beautiful elephants. We have also started collecting elephant welfare data over the past 6 months by performing regular health checks and scoring our elephants’ body fat content. These welfare checks allow us to gain a robust understanding of our elephants’ physical, mental and emotional health. Eventually, we hope to compare our data to that of elephants in working tourist camps in order to provide evidence that living and foraging freely in the forest is ultimately beneficial to elephant welfare.

On the biodiversity side, we have increased the number of times per month that we set up camera traps out in the forest. We have been setting them in different locations each time in hopes of discovering what different vegetation types attract different species. Recently, we successfully captured footage of a large Assamese Macaques (Monkeys) troop in the Conservation Forest location. This is the first Macaque sighting by GVI staff and volunteers in the area, although villagers often mention that they have seen them in the forest throughout the year. We are also working with a partner to identify a potentially rare subspecies of pit-viper discovered in the same location. All in all, exciting things are happening with bio in Huay Pakoot!

The month-long summer holiday recently started for our local village school. In response, our staff and long-term interns have created an exciting and hands-on Summer School program that encourages community children to learn English while regular school is not in session. The program started this week with a scavenger hunt throughout the village, featuring photos taken by our interns. We hope to have a lot of fun with the kids over the next month.

Our most recent fundraising event was a great deal of fun! Volunteers, Interns and Staff members spent 24 hours living like Elephants in a tourist camp. We faced many challenges, like performing tricks for entertainment, running obstacle-courses while eating bananas and dry biscuits and being bathed in mud and washed down whilst tied together on short ropes. Everyone then spent the night camped out on our outdoor base playing games, watching movies and bonding over the day’s festivities. Ultimately, we had designed our tasks and activities to mirror the way elephants in camps are treated so we could better understand what elephants go through on a daily basis. Granted we did make the activities enjoyable, we all agreed that being forced to do these things on a daily basis with no other options would lead to a miserable existence. It gave us a much greater appreciation for the freedom we have, and an extra motivation to do what we can for our elephants and others. All in all, despite the mud and the tight schedule, everyone had a really good time and even asked if we could do it again!

The last few months have also seen an increase in community interactions. For example, this year we celebrated GVI’s 10 year anniversary in Thailand by cooking for all the villagers at base hut. For World Elephant Day, we helped our Mahouts cut additional grass from the fields in order to feed our elephants. Then, we marked the end of the planting season with a village-wide Geeju (blessing) ceremony. We are all very glad to have spent so much time with the village this year, and hope to do so even more in the future.

If you'd like to help us keep our magnificent elephants in their natural habitat, please do not hesitate to support our cause. Every donation goes a long way for the elephants, their mahouts, their families and the program as a whole. Thank you for your continued support, from all of us at GVI Chiang Mai and Huay Pakoot.

Internship Coordinator, Phoebe van Doorn and Base Manager, Anne Goodman

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