Traveling halfway across the world to work with elephants is a dream I never had until I became curious about elephants and research about them. I got more out of this experience that I ever could have imagined. Opening your eyes to the world and problems within it can be one of the most painful things you ever do, but it is more than worth it. I witnessed first-hand some of the troubles Asian Elephants face today, and at the same time I witnessed the behavior and bliss of a select few who got their lives back and were reintroduced into their natural forests. I lived in a Koren Hill Tribe village known as Huay Pakoot with a population around 400 people and 60 homes. The villagers came to Thailand to avoid conflict that was abundant in Burma about 512 years ago. Except for very few Christian families everyone in the village is Animist, Buddhist, or Animist Buddhists. The native language is Pakinyaw and elephants play a huge role in their culture. Elephants are passed down within generations of families and only change families in certain circumstances. Each elephant falls under the same protection act as all other livestock. Each elephant also has a Mahout which is a person who works with and tends to their elephant. There are 6 elephants on GVI contract and 3 with the community conservation that are currently in the forest and not in camps. That is 9 out of the 70 elephants in the village. For the Mahouts whose elephants live in the forest, they live in the village and receive income from a GVI contract. The other elephants and their Mahouts are spread all around northern Thailand in elephant camps and some even on the street. The Mahouts with elephants in the camps get paid from the camps for “renting” their elephants out and they do not live in their native village; they live wherever they can get paid with their elephant. But for Mahouts in the village life is a little different.
GVI has a 10 year stay in the village to help the community conservation group stand on their own and be able to support the elephants and themselves. Being with GV,I I was a part of many things which include teaching English in the school which goes up to 6th grade, helping out in nursery, participating in litter pickups all around, bio diversity studies, and perhaps the most exciting work of all was with the elephants. There are three herds of elephants consisting of 9 individuals. There are typically 3-4 hikes a week where the elephants are observed off their chains. Proximity data is collected and recorded every 5 minutes as well as any touch data; and twice a week health checks are done on each elephant. Newest to the data collection is vocalization. The data collection time spans over 2 hours which can vary from the observation time, often after data collection we would opt to stay and continue watching them. Each of the elephants are truly amazing and watching them in the forest where they should be; eating a healthy natural diet, doing as they please, and witnessing the bonds they each have with their Mahout, was all truly amazing. I am lucky to have found this volunteer opportunity.
Upon my arrival I expanded my vocalization project from health checks only to each of the elephant hikes. The data collected is really interesting and does show some behavioral patterns. I hope in the future to be able to take the ecology and mind of the elephants into context to interpret the cause and meaning of each vocalization. (Note that only audible vocalizations were recorded) Because there are three separate herds I personally could never have collected all the data alone. I really learned to work with others and partially rely on them. Thanks to staff members and other volunteers we were able to collect vocalization data for each elephant hike. Analyzing all the data has been really fun as well. I am learning a lot and have been inspired to do so much more, not just in terms of research but in terms of helping around the world.
My homestay family along with the elephants was a huge part of my experience. I stayed with a woman named Areerat and she was genuinely amazing. She had two daughters, one age 12 living and going to school in a neighboring village, and one named Waneeda age 10 living at home. They do not speak English, so it was great when the three of us and sometimes others all sat down and worked on learning each other’s languages. My family taught me so much and through them I developed such respect and appreciation for them and their culture. Every day of the week they were working in the field, even Waneeda would be working in the field on days when there was no class. The homes in the village were really neat and beautiful. The simplicity of life as well as each aspect of their lives is inspiring. There were no chairs anywhere except at the school, if you wanted to sit you sat, even meals were eaten on the ground. Laundry was washed by hand and hung to dry, most all food was grown in the village, and meat was mainly pork, rarely chicken, and never beef or buffalo. Fresh fruit was also very rare.
All of the villagers are nice, and always try to communicate. They all seem to be so happy and there is no doubt that they all work hard. The children of the village are always out and about! They go to school, help their families, pick flowers for Buddha, and are always playing games. One Saturday we arranged a “kids” day and had a variety of games planed. I have never seen kids so joyful and excited. I have not worked with kids at home so this was really new for me and very rewarding. We taught English in the school twice a week to two classes. We also had nursery for the older kids once or twice a week and for those who wanted to come. We would play games and also teach English. They are tested on English on some of their Country testing. One of the best times is when we go to the nursery for the very young children and give their caretakers a break. These kids are so fun and spontaneous, but also can be very shy. Often when roaming the village I would see a small bunch of kids high up in trees getting mangos or just hanging out. The kids were so great!
As far as animals go, I learned that the euthanasia of animals in Thailand is very illegal. There were a few elephants in the country used in illegal logging on the Burma border that stepped on land mines and were hurt extremely bad…some are doing well now and actually have prosthetic limbs; but even when on their death bed no animal can be euthanized. This is because of the Buddhist beliefs of the people. The belief is that if they kill something or someone they will not be able to be reincarnated.
All of this is just a briefing of the things that I learned while volunteering on this conservation project. Everything that I have learned I hope to be able to share, for the elephants’ sake. I did not go into detail about all the issues they face, but I plan to educate people on the issues involving Asian Elephants. I am happy to share my experience but more than anything with my presentations I would like in some way to help the elephants. I believe I can do this because some of the situations they are in are strictly driven by tourists from all around the world. So by being in the States, I plan to be a voice for Asian Elephants, they deserve all the voices they can get.
