The many faces of elephant welfare in Thailand

Ok, are you sitting for this? I think you should sit down for this because I have news. Big news.

Elephants. Get. Acne.

As teenagers.

On their butt.

That is all.

I’m really not sure if I can handle that level of cuteness in my life right now, but I will persevere. Apparently, it’s slightly different from human acne. But like humans, it occurs due to hormonal changes when an elephant hits puberty. Again with the comparative physiology!

Here are some pictures of elephant butts for your enjoyment:

1000 opinions

Yesterday was the last day of my volunteer week at the Southern Thailand Elephant Foundation (STEF). It’s been a wonderful week, but also very eye-opening. Buckle up, I’m about to get a little introspective here. I’m learning that both within Thailand and around the world, people have very different opinions on how elephants should be cared for and what is considered appropriate elephant welfare in Thailand.

I’m just taking it all in. I purposely set no expectations for this trip because I just wanted to experience things as they came. My goal is to see every side of the story and learn as much as I can about elephants and elephant culture. Then I can form my own opinions on how to best approach the welfare and conservation of these amazing animals. At some point, I’d like to figure out how to incorporate elephants into my everyday life. That may happen on this trip, it may happen when I get home and continue to process everything, or it may happen on a future trip into another world of elephants.

“Domesticated” elephants

In Southeast Asia the issue is that most elephants are “domesticated.” This has been the way for thousands of years. These elephants cannot just be released into the wild – they will not survive. Being raised by humans, they don’t have the skills to thrive on their own. On top of that, wild elephants would not accept them. There have been efforts to re-wild elephants in the past, but it has resulted in poor outcomes.

Imagine telling Puggles the pug to go into the woods and survive on his own. Poor little dude would have a full-on meltdown within five minutes wondering where his special-ordered satin pillow was. I mean, it’s not that extreme with elephants, but you get the idea. So humans created the problem, and now we must provide a solution. Each elephant requires a huge amount of time and resources to be properly cared for. Southeast Asia is not overflowing with money. So what is the solution?

Elephant celebrities

On Thursday night, two elephants arrived at the hospital. They came from a neighboring province in Thailand. The caravan was held up by Thai government officials at the border until the transporters paid some extra money (read between the lines) to let them through. Next week, the elephants are starring in a French TV program to be filmed on-site. Paul Barton, who is globally known for playing the piano to captive elephants, will play classical music for them. They came a few days early so they could acclimate to their new surroundings before their 15 minutes of fame!

The elephant physical exam

We were ecstatic when the elephants arrived. Not only were we happy to just have them at the hospital, but it also gave us the opportunity to practice our physical exams. The elephants were very sweet and laid-back!

Fun fact: once an elephant reaches ~1,000 pounds, you can no longer hear their heartbeat with a stethoscope. The best place to measure a pulse is from their auricular artery, which is behind the ear. It’s similar to how we check our pulse by pressing on our neck or wrist.

Quiz time!

In the pictures below:

A: Can you guess what this is?

B: This is the entrance to the STEF elephant hospital. What do you think the bumps in the road are for?

Take a guess! I’ll include the answers in my next post.