Save and Rescue an Asian Elephant Today

Dear Supporter,

GVI’s Asian Elephant reintroduction program here In Chiang Mai Thailand welcomed a new addition this month. Very early on the 17th of February they welcomed a successfully born new male calf to their project. With now 3 generations of elephants living together on the project, having previously been separated to work in the tourist industry this a very big success for the project. Also with the prospect of recording important behavioral data on the infant and family group together, the project is a buzz.

With the main aim of the project to bring as many captive elephants back to a natural environment as possible, having a new infant born on the project is a huge achievement for GVI. Without the project working in conjunction with the local community of Huay Pakoot, this baby male Asian elephant would have more than likely began life in a tourist camp. This would be both unnatural for the infant and also much more stressful for his mother.

So far the young male has had a great start to life with 24 hour care from his mother, as well as the watchful eye of his mahout who spends every night since his birth sleeping in the forest with the elephant family. After 48 hours to build up his strength, the infant along with his family moved from the birth site to an ideal area of the forest with great food and water supplies. This is essential to moms production of milk which the young male will be completely dependent on for the first year of his life. As an extra precaution, a vet was also called to come out and give both mother and son a thorough health check. With GVI staff and Mahouts present as much information was gathered as possible to ensure the highest level of care will be given to the new addition as possible. The health check was very successful for both mom and son.

 With such limited scientific and behavioral data collected on Asian elephants, the opportunity to study this new infant and his progression is hugely exciting. Studying his behaviors, as well as that of the adults in his family group individually and as a herd as a whole may unearth as yet unknown knowledge to science. 

It’s safe to say that the near future is a very exciting prospect for both current GVI personnel and future volunteers to witness this young male grow and develop.

Thank you for your continued support.

All the best

GVI Chiang Mai