First impressions once again...

We have 5 elephants here at the centre: June and Bua Ngun, the old ladies (approx. 75 and 70 years old), 

Pai Lin (approx. 65 years old), Somboon (approx. 35 years old ) and the young and unmanageable Khan Kluey (approx. 2-3 years old).

Here in Thailand, elephants belong to their mahouts. Added to that, owning a 'pet' elephant is legal and begging in the streets with it is legal as well. Therefore, there is no reason for a mahout to want to part with his elephant unless he is offered a very good price or the elephant is too old to work. (See Elephant Manifesto in previous posting). So, to summarize, Edwin, the man who started WFFT, has purchased these elephants. In the case of Somboon, she was in a very bad car crash which happens frequently with begging elephants as they are taken through busy streets in big cities. Khan Kluey was unmanageable as I said, and couldn't be broken.

The other evening I was walking through the village during the festival and there were three street begging elephants with their mahouts. When I approached it to caress its trunk, the mahout asked me if I wanted to feed it (I would of course pay for the 'priviledge' of doing so..) I said of course not. While caressing the elephants' trunk, the elephant grasped my arm and immediately the mahout raised a stick with a big hook at the end to frighten the elephant. I yelled at the mahout. I think he must have been a bit dense anyway as I was wearing my WFFT T-Shirt where Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand is written in Thai. Ohhh, what a world we live in.....

Anyway, back at the 'ranch' and happier moments, yesterday was my first day working with June and Bua Ngun. What did I learn?

            a. Elephants eat ALL THE TIME! We spent most of the day cutting fruit for June, which we        also had to peel because she no longer has teeth and has a very poor digestive system. And I must say that although June had a very tough life until she came here last year, she now lives a very cushy life with an endless supply of food, medical care on site, caring people, not unlike being in a resort really:-). The other food we prepared were bowls of pellet balls made of pellets (sort of like dog food but for elephants), calcium powder and bananas, all of that mashed up and hand fed straight into their trunks or mouths. That was fun and not at all dangerous as they are so used to humans. And then I went on to...

            b. Cutting banana leaves with a machette....have I ever used a machette in my life?? Nope,  but never too late to learn I guess :-)

 June

 In the truck taking banana tree refuse to compost. I am SO grateful for my rubber boots!!

 Pai Lin feasting on a tree:-)

 Pai Lin bathing

           And from the biggest to the smallest and just because I couldn't resist including this pic, this is one of our SLOWWWWW Loris, a nocturnal animal, but luckily for me, wide awake one morning when I went to clean his enclosure. They are just the cutest!! Back to elephants.....

             c. Elephants don't poo as much as I thought and it is not unpleasant to pick up their poo, it is        quite dry actually, kind of like mud....so not nearly as unpleasant as the bears'. And useful too as it is used here for compost for the trees.

            d. I assisted Lucy, our resident veterinary nurse, in cleaning the elephants' wounds and scars, now, that was exciting for me, and gave me an inkling of what I might like my future job to be, ha, ha.

      Today, I am with Pai Lin although this morning, I started by watering trees which is quite pleasant early in the morning before it gets hot. We were supposed to do harvest, but Eck, our senior mahout, decided we had enough fruit for now, so the next harvest is 2 days from now. Instead, we took Pailin on a really nice long walk which ended with her going for a bath.

      Then we did some clearing of the refuse of banana trees and brought a couple of truck loads to a compost area in the forest. Pretty disgusting work to be honest....And then, unexpectedly, it rained! Now, that may seem like a normal occurrence to all of you who are going through winter weather at the moment, but here, it felt decidedly odd. What happens after rain, which only lasts under one hour, is that it gets even hotter, so we're back to our normal sweltering heat again.

      And that's about it for now. The pace on elephant duty is so much more calm and slow than on wildlife duty that it almost feels as if I'm on day off. Yesterday morning, I was almost begging to go back to wildlife duties, but now, I'm actually starting to enjoy the slow pace and I think it's a nice way to end my stay here.

      Cheers for now ;-)